the AfroGreeks screening and street concert by Afro-Greek artists Grace Nwoke and Aggelos Aggelou and Adalou at the Iris cinema in Athens for Serpentine Gallery
24/04/2023 Iris cinema, Athens, Greece
Døcumatism has chosen to present footage from the collective community project the AfroGreeks at the historical cinema theatre Iris in the centre of Athens, supporting the struggle of the University of Athens students who are trying to keep cinema alive through festivals and film workshops. Grace Nwoke, a member of Døcumatism, briefly presented the AfroGreeks project to Hans Ulrich Obrist and the guests of the Serpentine gallery, who came to experience up close the “Invisible” Athens.
Below is the intro to the presentation:
Hans Ulrich Obrist set out this journey last August, when we first met at the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus. He wanted to see the “Invisible” Athens. It all started on a laptop, that turned into a festival of films and videos of Døcumatism team and Menelaos Karamaghiolis all over London, last March, hosted by Serpentine Cinema, curated by Kostas Stasinopoulos.
Thanks to them, a “bridge” was built between our Athens, the active artistic universe we live in nowadays and a universal network: you. Thanks for coming. Now, the Serpentine returned to Athens to witness what is happening here. When politics is not enough and the crisis is still present, art takes action:
Our team, Døcumatism, invited you here today, in a magical theater where the students of the University of Athens have been organizing for four decades screenings and cinema workshops open to the public.
Right now, there are only five cinema theaters in downtown Athens, and they are threatened with closure due to commercial interests. So is Irida. This very cinema. Our team, along with the Irida Students Film Club, invited Greek filmmakers to participate in a festival that takes place every weekend, while offering their films to be screened free of charge. All screenings are packed. This was a push for the Athenians to act in order to save the few cinema theaters their city has.
We encourage you to sign the petition and save this theatre.
So, we feel that moving images, the films and art can not only help a city that is changing, but also initiate public discussions and actions about crucial social issues.
Grace Nwoke, a member of Døcumatism, will briefly present the collective community project, the AfroGreeks, that we have been working on since 2009.
Through moving images, you will see in brief our neighborhood, Kypseli, that was considered a ghetto and now is changing through projects and other similar initiatives. We would love to invite you to visit Kypseli, next time you come to Athens, so we can show you in real life that cities can become active because of art.
Then we’ll walk a few meters in order to get an idea of this experience with a special live event organized on Fidiou Street: the street where the first conservatory of Athens was and now stands abandoned. Maria Callas and Dimitris Mitropoulos studied there. Every night a street party takes place there. The people dance in the middle of the street and the cars wait patiently without honking.
