Concert and presentation of the AfroGreeks by its protagonists during an event celebrating 15 years of Contemporary Art at the Cycladic Museum
17/02/2022 Varvakios market, Athens, Greece
On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the presence of the Museum of Cycladic Art in Contemporary Art, a live event was organized for the celebration and the collective community project the AfroGreeks was presented by its protagonists, who created the project with the group Døcumatism.
The anthropologist and performer Grace Nwoke presented the project together with musician Alexandros Loggovitis, who wrote a song especially for the event, and then musician Aggelos Aggelou and his band Adalou, performed in a public space. The central market of Athens (Varvakios) was where the event took place. Adalou had prepared a special program for the event, as a prelude to the live events of the AfroGreeks project.
The following is the text of the presentation given by the protagonists of the project Alex and Grace:
We are Grace and Alex and we are Afro-Greeks. We started from the neighborhood of Kypseli, which for many of us, is our true homeland, and we work with Døcumatism and Menelaos Karamaghiolis who – through a series of art events – tried to make this neighborhood change, and stop being considered a ghetto.I am afraid that it was considered a ghetto because of us. Racism based on colour, prejudice and racial segregation have made it very difficult for us to define our identity, our homeland and to feel Greek- even though most of us were born here- without being hindered by our origin and colour and, above all, we want to find our way without constant obstacles. Most of us are artists that cannot easily find a place nor the time to express ourselves and show our work.
During the last few years, through the AfroGreeks project, we’ve been trying to find ways to deal with all this and become visible. We believe that knowledge and art must not be afraid of the invisible parts of the city, like the ones we live in, and we like that you invited us to introduce ourselves. We hope that you will come and see us when we will be “exposed” as protagonists of a video installation and as artists in live events, where we will sing, dance, discuss, argue, watch films, redefine reality and ourselves.
Our aim is to exhibit the AfroGreeks project as a video installation that will consist of many videos: our videos, our lives, our interests, our concerns and our dreams. The project already has 150 protagonists and is still in progress. Next to the installation, there will be a workshop comprising all the research that has been carried out for the project and where the project will continue to be filmed and edited in front of the audience. And we hope that the audience will take part in it. Therefore, once the exhibition ends, there will be a big archive with our interviews and actions that will belong to our communities and will be the first attempt of recording our history, the history of the Afro-Greek Diaspora in Greece during the 20th and 21st centuries. A history that is an integral part of the national history of Greece. Because we live here, we belong here.
Then, the project will pass on to the communities and educational institutions for any researcher or anyone who would like to learn who we are and what we do.
A “task force” is an important part of the project as well. It deals with various problems that have to do with bureaucracy and procedures and that we face every day.
That’s who we are, the Afro-Greeks, and we will stay here, we will have dinner/lunch with you and we are willing to answer any questions you may have about our project.
We would like to thank the Museum of Cycladic Art that invited us today to present our work.
Alex wrote a song specifically for this event and he will try to sing it to us now. Please, go easy on him/us. It is the premiere.The names mentioned during the song are the names of the heroes of the project. And because the Museum organized this event in a public space, we chose Aggelos out of the 155 heroes of our project το perform for us. Aggelos is an Afro-Greek from the town of Atalanti. From a very young age, he learnt classical music and played Greek traditional music in the villages of the area along with his three brothers. Today, he and his band Adalou, Sakis, Georgia and Giorgos, have chosen to show their work in unexpected public places, like farmer’s markets. For this event, he has prepared a special music show in order to present an essential side of the AfroGreeks project.
