[spectre] Occupation of Embros Theatre in Athens

[Geert Lovink]

From: kinisimavili at gmail.com

Today 11 of November 2011 Mavili Collective occupied the historical
disused theatre building of Embros in Athens, deserted and left empty
for years by the Greek Ministry of Culture. We aim to re-activate and
re-occupy this space temporarily with our own means and propose an
alternative model of collective management and (new) post-contemporary
forms of creative work. For the next 11 days Mavilli will reconstitute
Embros as a public space for exchange, research, debate, meeting and
re-thinking.

We act in response to the total lack of a basic cultural policy on the
level of education, production and support of artistic work as a
national product. We act in response to the general stagnation of
thinking and action in our society through collective meeting,
thinking and direct action by reactivating a disused historical
building in the centre of Athens.

 From the 11/11/2011 until 22/11/2011 an open, intense daily program
will run throughout the space with an emphasis on access and action.
Emerging dance and theatre makers will share tactics and methodologies
for development, panels will be organised by scholars as public
debates on urgent issues, we will archive live the currently
undocumented and unknown "Greek new work" inviting artists themselves
to present “live” parts of their archival material. Artists,
theoreticians, practitioners and the public will “meet” and try out
models beyond the limits of their practice and the markets’
structural demands of “the artistic product”.

This re-activation is not a proposition of a “better” model of
production and management but is a proposition of re-thinking,
responding and re-making. This model emerges from the current lacks
and shortfalls of our system and attempts to interrogate the global
changing landscape at this moment in time. We challenge our own limits
and understanding and we propose and operate this space as a
constantly re-evaluated model by both ourselves and the public - an
open system that might offer the potential to re-think relations
between people and possible roles for art in society.

In the sight of the current situation we refuse to wait for “better
days”, we refuse to accept the current crisis as terminal and we
refuse to sit back. We actively propose new structures, which we hope,
can become sites of negotiation, debate, re-formulation.

The Mavili Collective

Mavili Collective was formed during summer 2010 as an autonomous
collective structure for emergent practitioners and came together in
order to re-think and re-imagine the current Greek cultural landscape
and propose structures, platforms collaborations, projects that
produce new alternatives.

Mavili Collective is committed to producing nomadic, autonomous
collective cultural zones that appear and disappear beyond the logics
of the market.

For information:www.mavilicollective.wordpress.com

Mavili Collective: Gigi Argyropoulou, Anestis Azas, Argyro Chioti,
Giorgos Kolios, Kostas Koutsolelos, Georgia Mavragani, Vassilis Noulas

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