As part of the CONTESTED CITIES, ATHENS project (Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and University of Leeds), artistic researcher Nicolas Salazar Sutil designed a series of psychogeographies in the city of Athens to explore the pent up voice of the people of this timeless city.
Participants were invited to follow a planned walk around a city street, and to follow a text given to them. The text was strung together using words and messages found in graffitis on the streets (written in English). The texts were imagined as threads that helped give meaning to subjective narratives, stories, voices, emotional states and collective imaginaries that spoke of social injustice, animal welfare, solidarity, child prostitution and fascism.
The walks were performed around central Athens in areas not frequented by tourists, but which are known for squats, occupations and police evictions, brothels, drug-selling, a strong migrant and refugee presence, and more commonly, everyday Athenian life.
Participants were asked to overwrite the text in English with graffiti written in Greek, and were thus invited to construct their own personal journeys and narratives, and to create new layers of text in a kind of palimpsest.
The walks prompted participants to experience a world of walls that speak-- a world of voices and rhythms that evoke the fast-changing and fluctuating intersubjectivity that defines Athens.
Eight bilingual texts were created over the course of this workshop:
Ghost of a Suicide Bomber / Πουτάνες τούρκοι!
The Swan of Antifascism / Ξ+Κ: Κάποτε αντάρτες πάντοτε αντάρτες
The System is Down /
Ira's Letter / Δύο γάτοι καθημερινοί
Roger This / Λόγια του ανέμου
The Suppliant /
The Name of Solidarity / 25 Μάη, Απεργία:
Zoography / Οδύσσεια
The texts were walked and conceived by Gülşah Aykaç, Eleftheria Alexandri, Anna Charilogi, Yannis Evmolpides, Dimitra Giantsiou, Vera Gizelidou, Eva Kekou, Panayiota Konstantinakou, Nektaria Labidoni, Ilro Lefa, Irini Liaskou, Anastasis Meletis, Penny Milia, Maria Moursela, Eleni Mouzakiti, Dimitra Nikolopoulou, Vasiliki Nomidou, Claudia Rodriguez, Anna Sapounaki, Maria Ioanna Soulioti, Lydia Tsakalaki, and Ioanna Tsakalou.