Athens Municipality Arts Center Parko Eleftherias
Andreas Angelidakis, DEMOS, installation, 2016, dimensions variable, photo: Stathis Mamalakis
34 Exercises of Freedom
September 14–24, 2016 at Parko Eleftherias
Athens Municipality Arts Center
You are invited to be part of the Parliament of Bodies documenta 14 public program, hosted in the Athens Municipality Arts Center at Parko Eleftherias in September 2016. What will happen here during ten days of programming is neither a conference nor an exhibition.
We have avoided conventional museological names that establish distinctions between talk and performance, theory and action, criticism and art. Instead, we invited forty-five participants to “exercise freedom” within the building, which, not long ago, served as the headquarters of the military police during the dictatorship years. We understand freedom, with Foucault, as neither an individual property nor a natural right, but rather as a practice. We drift in history. There is a space. There are some bodies. There are some voices. But what does it mean to be together, here, now? What can be done? Who and what are made visible? Whose voices can be heard and which remain silent? How can the public sphere be reorganized?
In the Parliament of Bodies, you will find neither individual chairs within the building nor a fixed architecture. We avoid positioning the audience as aesthetic visitors or neoliberal consumers. We also reject the democratic fiction of the semicircular amphitheater. We claim—with Oskar Hansen—the political potential of the “open form.” Andreas Angelidakis’s soft architecture consisting of sixty-eight blocks of ruins (the ruins of a democratic parliament?) can be assembled and re-arranged in endless ways, creating multiple and transient architectures for the Parliament of Bodies. You are invited to actively construct this political theater every day, interrogating location, hierarchy, visibility, scale…
The 34 Exercises of Freedom aim to write a queer anticolonial symphony of Europe from the 1960s, scripting dialogue and giving visibility to dissident, heterogeneous, and minor narratives. We start by bringing together the radical left tradition with the anti-colonial fight for sovereignty of indigenous movements within Europe. The voice of Antonio Negri—one of the founders of the Potere Operaio (Workers’ Power) group in 1969 and member of Autonomia Operaia in Italy—meets the voice of Niillas Somby—the political rights activist fighting for Sámi sovereignty in the north of Norway. Both were accused of different forms of terrorism during the 1970s.
Sidestepping the established opposition of dictatorship and democracy, we try to understand the failures of transitioning to democracy within neoliberal regimes, not only in the case of Greece but also in Spain, Argentina, or Chile: how freedom was misunderstood as the free market. Whereas the 1980s are often portrayed as a time of decline for social emancipation movements, one that heralded the arrival of a new democratic consensus within capitalism—replacing ideological opposition with economic growth—anticolonial, feminist, queer, and anti-AIDS fights started to point out the cracks within western hegemonic discourse. Might it be possible to think the Greek notion of eleftheria (freedom) against the capitalist notion of freedom? Progressively during this ten-day dialogue we aim to introduce contemporary languages of resistance, from the Kurdish revolution in Rojava to the queer, transgender, sex-workers’, and migrant voices in Turkey, Greece, Mexico, or Brazil, from contemporary indigenous fights for restitution to new political and artistic practices dedicated to invent new forms of affect, knowledge, and political subjectivity, such as ecosex, queer-indigenism, and radical performativity. Together they draw a different political and poetic map of Europe than the one designed by the European Union.
Participants:
Adespotes Skiles, AMOQA (Athens Museum of Queer Arts), Andreas Angelidakis, Anna Apostolelli, Contemporary Social History Archives (ASKI), Hawzhin Azeez, Angela Brouskou, Rüzgâr Buşki, Clémentine Deliss, Linnea Dick, Maria F. Dolores, Theatro Domatiou, Bonita Ely, Panayotis Evangelidis, Daniel García Andújar, Macarena Gómez-Barris, Stathis Gourgouris, Irena Haiduk, Jack Halberstam, Candice Hopkins, Regina José Galindo, Chief Robert Joseph, Nelli Kampouri, Vangelis Karamanolakis, Kostis Karpozilos, Kostis Kornetis, Sevval Kılıç, Katerina Labrinou, Quinn Latimer, Prasini Lesvia, Ana Longoni, MiniMaximum ImproVision, Naeem Mohaiemen, Antonio Negri, Gizem Oruç, Neni Panourgía, Anna Papaeti, Jørgen Flindt Pedersen, Paul B. Preciado, Judith Revel, Tasos Sakellaropoulos, Georgia Sagri, Niillas Somby, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, Erik Stephensen, Adam Szymczyk, Diana Taylor, Prodromos Tsinikoris, Margarita Tsomou, Eirini Vakalopoulou, Ioanna Vogli, Tina Voreadi, Pantelis Voulgaris, and Sergio Zevallos
***
DEMOS is a space that materially and formally references two extremes of a spectrum that have been constitutive for the construction of Athens. On the one end of the spectrum are the ancient stone steps on the hill Pnyx, a modular typology and meeting place that can be said to have initiated the formation of democracy. On the other end you might find the modernist reinforced concrete frame, an architectural module used to democratize the way Athens was built. The steps on the Pnyx, along with most ancient Greek architecture, were borrowed by the world to form a global typology of spaces of authority such as parliaments, libraries, and courthouses. The reinforced concrete frame, which Greece borrowed from a modernized Europe, represents the anarchic, unauthorized construction that grew to define the Athens we witness today.
While the building inhabited by documenta 14 housed the military police headquarters during the reign of the junta, the building behind it was used as a detention and torture facility. Currently it houses the Museum of Anti-dictatorial and Democratic Resistance, which is operated by the Association of Imprisoned and Exiled Resistance Fighters (1967–1974). The building allocated to documenta 14 has been used in recent years as an art venue and public gallery run by the Municipality of Athens. The building is treated as a historical artifact: as the site where democracy reached its lowest point in contemporary Greek history. As the DEMOS modules, inhabited by the Parliament of Bodies, negotiate the parameters of the Public Programs, the building launches into an investigative renovation of its own history. The practical demands of the program, such as the sourcing of natural light and technical repairs to the building, become part of an archaeological process, as the layers of exhibition architecture are peeled away to uncover past identities of the space.
DEMOS creates a space as a programmable device with which to negotiate the relation between stage and audience, between performer and participant, between democracy and freedom. Each variation will be a demo for the Parliament of Bodies. Each demo will be “demolished” to make way for the next DEMOS. As the Public Program of d14 unfolds over time, the modules gradually form a language, each variation of the space a new definition of demos (Δήμος).
—Andreas Angelidakis
***
34 Exercises of Freedom
Program, September 14–24, 2016
Wednesday September 14 (7–11 pm)
Introduction by
Adam Szymczyk, artistic director, documenta 14
Paul B. Preciado, curator of Public Programs, documenta 14
Andreas Angelidakis, architect/artist
DEMOCRACY IS NOT FREEDOM. FREEDOM IS A PRACTICE
Exercises:
#1. Linnea Dick, writer, painter, and ceremonialist of Kawakwaka’wakw, Nisga’a and Tsimshian heritage
#2. Antonio Negri, political theorist and philosopher
#3. Niillas Somby, Sámi political rights activist, journalist, videographer, and photographer
#4. Educación cívica / Civic Education
Sergio Zevallos, artist
Thursday September 15 (7–11 pm)
DEMOCRATIC TRANSITIONS… INTO NEOLIBERALISM
Exercises:
#5. Freedom as Market Value. Freedom as Practice of Resistance
Judith Revel, philosophy professor, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense and member of the scientific committee of the Centre Michel Foucault
#6. Memory under Construction: Towards a Public Memory of Torture in Greece
Kostis Kornetis, UC3M CONEX-Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of History, Carlos III University, Madrid
#7. Your Neighbor’s Son: The Making of a Torturer, Jørgen Flindt Pedersen and Erik Stephensen, Denmark, 1981, 52 min
Film screening
#8. This is not the Place. Four Visits to Villa Grimaldi: A Chilean Center for Torture and Detention
Diana Taylor, professor of Performance Studies and Spanish at New York University
#9. Between Terror and Revelry. Collective Strategies of Resistance during Dictatorships in Argentina and Brazil
Ana Longoni, writer, curator, and professor of Art History, Universidad de Buenos Aires
#10. DJ set
Lies Van Born, DJ
Friday September 16 (5:45–11 pm)
Εxercises:
#11. Torture and Freedom Tour of Athens
(5:45–8:45 pm)
Collective walk through the city of Athens, in collaboration with ASKI archives, exploring the historical traces of oppression, violence, and the quest for freedom during the military dictatorship of 1967–74.
Tour in Greek
Starting point: 5:45 pm at Polytechnion by the Tositsa Street entrance
Ending point: Parko Eleftherias
Τhe Greek tour is conducted by Vangelis Karamanolakis (historian, University of Athens) and Tasos Sakellaropoulos (historian, head of the Historical Archives, Benaki Museum, Athens)
Tour in English
Starting point: 6:15 pm at Polytechnion by the Tositsa Street entrance
Ending point: Parko Eleftherias
The English tour is conducted by Kostis Karpozilos (historian, director of the Contemporary Social History Archives–ASKI, Athens) and Katerina Labrinou (historian, Panteion University, Athens)
In collaboration with the Archives of Contemporary Social History (ASKI).
Meanwhile at the Athens Municipality Art Center, Parko Eleftherias:
#12. The Chronicle of the Dictatorship (1967–74), Pantelis Voulgaris, Greece, 37 min
Film screening
Εpitaph for Democracy
(9:30–11 pm)
#13. Epitafios II
Angela Brouskou – Theatro Domatiou, theater group and MiniMaximum ImproVision, improvisational group of musicians
Saturday September 17 (7 pm)–Sunday, September 18 (10 pm)
ARCHITECTURES OF TERROR, VOICES OF RESISTANCE
Exercises:
#14. Ojo de gusano: Don’t Look Down
Regina José Galindo, artist
#15. Chronotopes / Dystopic Geometries / Terrifying Geographies
Neni Panourgia, anthropologist, visiting associate professor of Anthropology at the New School for Social Research, New York
#16. Lingua Tertii Imperii
Daniel García Andújar, artist
#17. Red Star, Crescent Moon / after Sohail Daulatzai
Naeem Mohaiemen, artist
#18. Soundscapes of Detention: Music and Torture under the Junta (1967–74)
Anna Papaeti, independent researcher and musicologist
#19. Attempt. Come.
Georgia Sagri, artist
Note: Visitors can bring along sleeping bags, comfortable clothes, food, and water and may stay in the space for the twenty-four-hour duration of the piece. Smoking is not permitted. A public discussion with Georgia Sagri will follow the completion of the performance on Sunday night.
Tuesday September 20 (7–11 pm)
SILENCE AND MASKS
South as a State of Mind #7 [documenta 14 #2]
Exercises:
#20. Transgressive Listening
Stathis Gourgouris, professor at the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, New York
#21. Outlawed Social Life
Candice Hopkins, citizen of Carcross/Tagish First Nation, is an independent curator, writer, and curatorial advisor for documenta 14 based in Albuquerque, New Mexico
#22. I Owe You Everything
Clémentine Deliss, writer and curator, currently curating the Dilijan Art Initiative in Armenia. First act of giving in the series I Owe You Everything, in the presence of Chief Robert Joseph, hereditary chief of the Gwawaenuk First Nation, ambassador for Reconciliation Canada, and a member of the Assembly of First Nations Elders Council
I Owe You Everything is a project that chooses and follows a series of contemporary thinkers, poets, and activists who are invited to construct a public “act of giving,” a critical and poetic ritual, in which they give “everything” to the Parliament of Bodies of documenta 14. The acts of giving explore different cultural and political economies such as debt, gift, potlatch, revenge, retribution, promise…
Wednesday September 21 (5–7 pm)
STATE VIOLENCE / DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Exercise:
#23. Interior Effects as an Outcome of War
Workshop with Bonita Ely, artist
You are invited to join artist Bonita Ely in a workshop to discuss the ongoing, inter-generational effects of undiagnosed, untreated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suffered by family members of returned soldiers. During the workshop, Ely shares her family’s experiences following her father’s return home after the Second World War. The artist has made these often tragic effects of undiagnosed PTSD the focus of her artistic work. Open to up to 20 participants, register at: program@documenta.de.
Thursday September 22 (7–10 pm)
THE VIRAL 1980S: DEMOCRACY, NEOLIBERALISM, AIDS
Exercise:
#24. They Glow in the Dark, Panayotis Evangelidis, Greece, 2013, 69 min,
Film screening and discussion with director Panayotis Evangelidis
Friday September 23 (7–11 pm)
POST-PORN ACTIVISM AND ECOSEXUAL FREEDOM
Exercises:
#25. An Evening with Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens and Wet Dreams Water Ritual
Annie Sprinkle, activist, artist, and educator and Beth Stephens, ecosexual performance artist, filmmaker, activist, educator, founding director of the E.A.R.T.H. Lab and professor of Art, University of California, Santa Cruz. Together they authored the Ecosex Manifesto.
Note: Please bring some water from your home or town/city for the water ritual. Wear the colors of water; aqua, blue, and black. Be costumed, naked, painted, adorned, or as you like.
#26. The Waltz of the Dirty Streets
Adespotes Skiles, self-organized music and theater collective
Saturday September 24 (7–11 pm)
“APATRIDE” TRANSFEMINIST QUEER NIGHT
Exercises:
Organized in collaboration with AMOQA (Athens Museum of Queer Arts).
#27. Decolonizing Memory: Vita Futurities in the Americas
Macarena Gómez-Barris, chair of the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute, New York
#28. Rojava’s Feminist Revolution
Hawzhin Azeez, political theorist and activist, Kurd from south Kurdistan (northern Iraq)
#29. Trans*: Bodies and Power in the Age of Transgenderism
Jack Halberstam, visiting professor of English and Comparative Literature and Gender Studies at Columbia University, New York
#30. #Direnayol (#Resistayol), documentary by Rüzgâr Buşki, Turkey, 2016, 60 min
Film premiere
#31.Voices of Trans and Queer Politics in the Mediterranean with:
Rüzgâr Buşki, multimedia artist and producer, member of Kanka Productions
Gizem Oruç, musician, producer, and multimedia artist, member of Kanka Productions
Şevval Kılıç, sex worker, queer and trans activist working in Istanbul
Nelli Kampouri, gender scholar, Centre for Gender Studies, Panteion University Athens
Margarita Tsomou, publisher of Missy Magazine, author, dramaturge, and curator based in Berlin
Maria Mitsopoulou aka Maria F. Dolores, visual artist and performer, AMOQA (Athens Museum of Queer Arts)
Anna Apostolelli, activist, currently a member of Beaver, a women’s co-op café in Athens, AMOQA (Athens Museum of Queer Arts)
Tina Voreadi, visual artist and educator, AMOQA (Athens Museum of Queer Arts)
#32. Queer Indie Gig, HTH Green to Blue Shock Treatment
Prasini Lesvia, musician
#33. DJ set
Gizem Oruç, musician
#34. The Epic of Eleftheria
Irena Haiduk, artist and Eirini Vakalopoulou, writer and poet
General dramaturgy for the Exercises of Freedom: Prodromos Tsinikoris, artistic co-director of Experimental Stage -1 of the National Theatre, Athens.