ACTOPOLIS
by Goethe-Institut
[traveling exhibition]
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ΑCTOPOLIS - THE ART OF ACTION is a project by Goethe-Institut and Urbane Künste Ruhr.
It is a call to action and to co-author the city - across disciplines, national boundaries and cultural differences. Artists, urbanists and activists from Athens, Belgrade, Bucharest, Ankara/Mardin, Oberhausen, Sarajevo and Zagreb joined forces in a three-year transnational production lab to focus awareness on current urban issues, initiate new dialogues and transform places into playgrounds of what is possible. The projects that took place are presented in a touring exhibition that stops in eleven cities, providing space for project presentations, discussions and local additions. In Thessaloniki, Actopolis is presented alongside works by artists Efthimis Theou & Elektra Aggelopoulou, Eric Ellingsen, Swaantje Güntzel & Jan Philip Scheibe, Andrea Iten, Practise(in)Cognition and Lynn Peemoeller. The works comment on the way we experience the city as flâneurs, our interaction with the natural resources as city dwellers and the tension between domestic rituals and public engagement. The exhibition also includes a series of workshops designed by Greece Communitere, addressed to refugees and locals. The workshops aim at creating a safe space for refugees and at cultivating a sense of community that includes both locals and refugees, through creativity, arts and crafts. Finally, on the exhibition opening night, the audience will be guided by dot2dot along the “Path to Modernization”, aka the road leading from the Port to the Old Slaughterhouse building where the exhibition takes place. Looking to the area’s past brings to mind images of industrial production, labour movement and urban modernization, while at the same hints towards the possibilities of “modernization” in Thessaloniki, today. Photos: George Kogias
Photos: Lydia Chatziiakovou
PROGRAMParticipation in the dot2dot walk and in the Greece Communitere workshops is free.
Booking is required, since availability is limited. The path to modernization - The city and its western seafront, with dot2dot
Friday 24 November, 18:00-19:30. More info and booking: [email protected], 2311.24.23.82 & 6946.00.25.53 (name, phone number & email) Maximum number of participants: 25 persons Facebook: @dot2dot.thess Workshops by Greece Communitere "Open the Ideas Box”, 27/11, 11:00-13:00 & 17:00-19:00 Addressed to schools, teachers and children - 7 years old and over. No. of participants: 20. Discover Ideas Box - a mobile multimedia toolkit, developed by Libraries without Boarders, in collaboration with Philippe Starck and UNHCR. 3D Printing for kids, 28/11, 11:00-13:00 Addressed to schools and children - 7 years old and over. No. of participants: 20. Discover 3D printing. 3D Printing, 29/11, 17:00-20:00 Addressed to teenagers - 16 years old and over - and adults. No. of participants: 10. Discover 3D printing, basic features, object design and production. CNC Cutting, 29/11-5/12, 16:00-20:30 Addressed to adults. No. of participants: 8. Introduction to CNC cutting, basic features, object design and production. Made of Glass and Paper, 29/11, 18:00-20:00 Addressed to teenagers - 16 years old and over - and adults. No. of participants: 20. Decoupage. Crafts with used materials (upcycling - glass vases, wooden boxes, tins etc.) LED Embrodiery, 30/11, 17:00-20:00 Addressed to teenagers - 16 years old and over - and adults. No. of participants: 10.Learn how to include LEDs into an embroidered picture or into a garment. Create Infinity, 30/11, 17:00-20:00 Addressed to teenagers - 16 years old and over - and adults. No. of participants: 10.Create your infinity scarf. Sewing & Cutting, 5/12, 17:00-20:00 Addressed to teenagers - 16 years old and over - and adults. No. of participants: 8. Make your own apron. Furniture Building Ι, ΙΙ, ΙΙΙ, 4-5-6/12, 17:00-20:00 Addressed to adults. No. of participants: 6. Basic caprentry skills, furniture design, manufacture of own projects. More info and bookings: [email protected] and via message to @GreeceCommunitere on Facebook. More about ActopolisTraditional democratic institutions are in a state of crisis, while civic urban society has swung into action, at the latest since Occupy, Gezi Park and Syntagma Square. Calls for the good life beyond the politics of austerity, for a multi-layered public life that is worthy of the name, for communities which do not define themselves via isolation are becoming louder and more insistent. In this situation ACTOPOLIS. The Art of Action is establishing a transnational test field for urban alternatives.
Many urban societies are currently in a state of uncertainty. The Goethe-Institut on an international level and Urbane Künste Ruhr on a regional level answer to the condition of fragmentation by establishing decentralised networks. ACTOPOLIS brings together artists, urbanists and activists from South-Eastern metropolises and the Ruhr region in a joint production laboratory, because questions relating to the future of urban life can no longer be dealt with on a merely local level. ACTOPOLIS is a call to action and to co-author the city – across disciplines, national boundaries and cultural differences. The leading idea behind ACTOPOLIS, and the specific objective of the project, is not a single huge event, but rather the passing on of experience and the joint development of artistic, urban and activist tools. Under the artistic direction of Angelika Fitz and Katja Aßmann and together with co-curators from seven cities, the ACTOPOLIS Laboratory aims to hone our view of current urban questions as well as testing strategies for action. Intervention and critical reflection are both characteristics of ACTOPOLIS. The unusual feature is that the individual project ideas are being exchanged even at the development stage (2015), before they are implemented in local interventions in Athens, Belgrade, Bucharest, Ankara/Mardin, Oberhausen, Sarajevo and Zagreb (2016). During the third year (2017) the local events will be assembled and examined in a trans-regional touring exhibition, a conference and a publication. The transnational work processes and the routes towards local implementation can be followed and commented on in the blog on the website. Actopolis Exhibition in Athens
The ACTOPOLIS projects were developed jointly during 2015 in a transnational and interdisciplinary working process (Lab), before they were implemented throughout 2016 in Athens, Belgrade, Bucharest, Ankara/Mardin, Oberhausen, Sarajevo and Zagreb. Their common ground was established early on by these eight ACTOPOLIS precepts:
First stop of the Actopolis touring exhibition was Oberhausen. In March 2017 a two-day symposium marked the beginning of another step in a continuous process of dialogue, exchange, discussion and learning. The exhibition presents project examples from Ankara/Mardin, Athens, Bucharest, Belgrade, Oberhausen, Sarajevo and Zagreb. Materials from the more than 45 individual projects show a rich repertoire of options for action to shape and change the cities in which we live in. Actopolis calls for action and inspiration. The exhibition (design NODE, Berlin - Oslo and SSW architects, Berlin) is an action space. The material presented on 50 panels is supplemented by media stations that show film and video productions of the project. The "public space" of the exhibition - action areas between the semicircular rooms - offers the possibility for local supplements, framework events and workshops. Actopolis Exhibition in Oberhausen
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Old Slaughterhouse of Thessaloniki November 24th - December 6th, 2017 ACTOPOLIS THESSALONIKI Organised by Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki Coordination Aris Kalogiros (Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki) Curator Lydia Chatziiakovou Artists / Projects Efthimis Theou / Elektra Aggelopoulou, Eric Ellingsen, Swaantje Güntzel / Jan Philip Scheibe, Greece Communitere, Andrea Iten, PractiseinCognition, Lynn Peemoeller, dot2dot Production assistants Giannis Fourkiotis, Maria Lazaridou Graphic design adaptation Viktor Goudaras Installation / Equipment Diapason In collaboration with Municipality of Thessaloniki Greece Communitere INFO Opening 24 November, 19:00 Opening hours Weekdays: 17:00-21:00 Weekends: 10:00-18:00 Address Old Slaughterhouse 35, 26th October street Access Bus 31, 40 (Bus stop "Palia Sfageia" ACTOPOLIS CREDITS Concept: Angelika Fitz Artistic directors: Katja Aßmann, Angelika Fitz, Martin Fritz Curator Ankara/Mardin: Pelin Tan Curators Athens: Elpida Karaba/Glykeria Stathopoulou Curator Belgrade: Boba Mirjana Stojadinović Curators Bucharest: Stefan Gheniciulescu/Raluca Voinea Curator Oberhausen: Geheimagentur Curator Sarajevo: Danijela Dugandžić Curator Zagreb: Ana Dana Beroš Curator Thessaloniki: Lydia Chatziiakovou Project director: Juliane Stegner (Goethe-Institut Athens) Project coordination: Natalia Sartori (Goethe-Institut Athens) Project management Urbane Künste Ruhr: Carola Kemme, Daniel Klemm, Christina Danick Co-Production: Goethe-Institut Ankara (Thomas Lier, Raimund Wördemann); Goethe-Institut Belgrade (Matthias Müller-Wieferig, Frank Baumann); Goethe-Institut Bucharest (Beate Köhler, Evelin Hust); Goethe-Institut Bosnia and Herzegovina (Charlotte Hermelink); Goethe-Institut Croatia (Katrin Ostwald-Richter, Matthias Müller-Wieferig), Theater Oberhausen (Peter Carp) Web Project Management: Internet Department, Goethe-Institut Headquarters Munich, Germany Graphic Design & Web Design: NODE Berlin Oslo, Berlin, Germany (Based on the Europoly web concept and design by Laura Oldenbourg and Micz Flor, Berlin, Germany) Web Navigation Concept & Web Implementation: eskima and allesweisz, Cologne, Germany Editor Web and Social Media: Tristan Biere, Berlin, Germany Translations into English: Jane Michael Translations into German: Dr. Achim Wurm Graphic Design (Actopolis Exhibition): NODE Berlin Oslo Exhibition Architecture (Actopolis Exhibition): Stadelmann Schmutz Wössner Architekten, Berlin Translation and Editing (Exhibition Texts): Tradukas GbR Technical Planning (Actopolis Exhibition): Kultur Ruhr GmbH / Urbane Künste Ruhr 
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