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The first public action of the AfroGreeks takes place as part of the IdeasCity program of New Museum and NEON foundation
19-24/09/2016 Kypseli, Athens, Greece
The first public action of the project was part of the IdeasCity program, a collaboration between the New Museum in New York and the NEON foundation in Athens. The residency program, led by Joseph Grima, Director, IdeasCity, was open to emerging practitioners working at the intersection of urbanism, community activism, art, design, and technology.
The New Museum used Athens as a second destination after the program’s Conference in Detroit. International Fellows were invited to participate in a week-long residency followed by a free public conference on September 24, 2016. After an open call to which over a thousand applicants from 55 countries responded, 40 practitioners from all over the world, working at the intersection of arts, design, activism, architecture and technology met in Athens, stayed at the Athens Conservatory and spent a week searching for solutions for the capital of a country in crisis. Døcumatism and Menelaos Karamaghiolis guided them through Kypseli as a representative example containing all key topical social issues with European and international scope. The reception and integration of people who are forced to leave their countries of origin became a focal point for this first public action. It was at this residency that the AfroGreeks made its first public appearance and began to be filmed in an organized way, capturing themes chosen by the communities themselves.
Among the activities in Kypseli, participants visited the church of St. Therese where Døcumatism organized a meeting with Father Alban Aguezeala, a Catholic priest of African origin. With the participation of members of the African community they presented the need to incorporate elements of African culture into the divine services, the pushback of the conservative circles of clergy in the church and the problems of the African diaspora.
