book launch and group exhibition
#1 urban sessions
#2 creativity, love and play
#3 sound interventions
#4 poetics and politics
#5 HYBRIDS
book launch and group exhibition
love & politics
public program Athens, East London, Berlin … | 2018-2020 | Initiated and organized by Evgenia Giannopoulou in collaboration with Hannes Schumacher, Katerina Rotoli and Freigeist Verlag
love & politics is a nomadic public program which takes the form of a sequel of sessions.
In September 2018, the Berlin-based publishing house Freigeist Verlag released a collective book on the topic ‘love & politics’ titled homonymously. (http://freigeist-verlag.net/en/buecher/love-politics/).
Immersed both in artistic exploration as well as in philosophical and scientific research, the project welcomes approaches from all disciplines so as to get the most diverse view on the topic. Taken as its point of departure the question of how love and politics could coexist and what kind of forms and spaces could be created out of this encounter, the project will address the potential of this unlikely liaison.
The public program will travel from Athens to London and Berlin, etc., exploring further the topic of love and politics through performances, screenings, lectures, sound and public interventions.
Athens as the first destination:
Opening of the public program in Athens: group exhibition with works by Mikhail Karikis, Miriam Poletti, Nauman Abid, Anna Deligianni, Ioana Niculescu-Aron and Denise Padron Benitez
The opening was accompanied by the electoacoustic poetry of UBE and beats & elecronica by polska blonde
Anna Deligianni, One Percent, 2018- ink on paper. Courtesy of the artist 
Nauman Abid, Visions are scary. A refugee boat dying in an imaginary situation, C type print, 2017. Courtesy of the artist 
Mikhail Karikis, Ain’t Got No Fear, video still , 2016. Courtesy of the artist 
Mikhail Karikis, Ain’t Got No Fear, video still, 2016. Courtesy of the artist 
Mikhail Karikis, Ain’t Got No Fear, video still, 2016. Courtesy of the artist 
Mikhail Karikis, Children of Unquiet, video still, 2013-2014. Courtesy of the artist 
Collective book project love & politics exhibited on the wall 
Miriam Poletti, Lonely Girl Phenomenology, video still, 2017. Courtesy of the artist 
Anna Deligianni, Floating city, ink on paper, 2017. Courtesy of the artist 
Nauman Abid, For a better future together, C type print, 2014. Courtesy of the artist
#1 urban sessions
performative interventions on urban architecture in collaboration with the architect Agis Tompros
‘What is urban planning through an allegorical correlation with
the disassemblance of an object? How an object could be deconstructed into several smaller components and how these hidden elements form a complete system of a functional organism.
The representation of an object/radio as a complex spatial disassembly. Form in relation to positive and negative space
and how the above could be related to the development stages of a city. Do the latest developments in urban planning contain all the crucial components to form a sustainable, harmonized city???’
– Agis Tompros – http://freigeist-verlag.net/en/agis-tompros/
‘Utopian Mega City: Under Construction’,
photo and sound-installation by Hannes Schumacher
and Evgenia Giannopoulou
music performance Twin Flames
– Maroulita de Kol (keys, voice and electronics)
and Penelope Gkika (violin and electronics)
Zwei12 –
Jurgen Breedijk (electronic/techno, Berlin):
https://soundcloud.com/zwei12
#2 creativity, love and play
Creativity, love and play as the second exploration of the collective project love & politics is a series of workshops based on body, sound, voice, movement, theatrical practices and dance.
The core energetic workshop realized by Thalia Dimitropoulou gave us the push to explore the rhythms of our body and the collective experience through the group.
Armonea sound sessions realized by m-Aria Samara
‘“armonea” in Greek language means Harmony
Armonea session harmonizes body and mind through the sound and vibration of singing bowls and gong.’
#3 sound interventions
The sound interventions, as the third exploration of the collective project love & politics in Athens, expand the topic further to the rhizomatic movements of electronic synapses, superposition of soundwaves, subconscious micropolitics and autopoietic feedback.
discussions on Gilles Deleuze with Dana Papachristou and Hannes Schumacher 
a rhizomatic sound installation co-created by the Vandaloop Collective 
a rhizomatic sound installation co-created by the Vandaloop Collective 
sound intervention with Dimitra Kousteridou 
four experimental electronic sets with
noisefuel , Notiàs and ANTIEGO
Noisefuel experimental (live) 
photo credits: Edoardo Ulisse
Intermission on India with Medha Singh from Delhi via Skype
Concerned with the alarming tensions between India and Pakistan we openly discussed the current issues and watch the new documentary film Lynch Nation:
#4 poetics and politics
Poetics and politics as the fourth exploration of the collective project love & politics in Athens was realized in two days of talks, poetic interventions and performances by the participants of the collective book and special guests!
Make Love Not Art by Ondřej Macl and Anna Luňáková
Photo credits & documentation: Jonas Beile
http://freigeist-verlag.net/en/ioana-niculescu-aron/
Last Lacan: Politics and Poetics of Association: skype-talk by the professor of performance studies and aesthetics Soumyabrata Choudhury | http://freigeist-verlag.net/en/soumyabrata-choudhury/
Poetics and Politics Part II as part of the lovely Sunday at Ultimate Con-Fusion festival in December 2019, focuses on the culturally diverse district of Exarcheia in the centre of Athens as well as the current issues of the city :
///Love as an Illusion – a Nietzschean approach on love by Nicolas Kolonias
///Hybrid as a Space – food gathering & open discussion on grassroots artspaces as autonomous urban oases blurring boundaries
#5 HYBRIDS
HYBRIDS as the final exploration of the collective project love & politics in Athens consisted of a collective performance and a public intervention at Exarcheia square which took place at Alchemical Mysteria festival as well as a gathering and an open discussion on Hybrid as a Space (see above) at Ultimate Con-Fusion, the closing event of the project Trash Temple.
Exarcheia is a semi-autonomous neighbourhood of Athens where people of the most diverse cultural and social backgrounds try to coexist. After the eviction of Exarcheia’s squats that were providing homes for refugees, Exarcheia square remains a symbol for the ongoing resistance against the growing homogenisation.