From October 31st to November 5th, OpenGround project will take place in Athens. The project is born out of collaboration between lettera27 and State of Concept.
OpenGround is a workshop for young artists and curators realized as part of Tandem Europe 2014-17 program, is born out of the idea to create a replicable educational model for the professional development of artists and curators. For 5 days, a team of professionals will guide 21 participants from Cirpo, Greece, Italy, Swizerland, England and Netherlands through a creative and innovative process made up of various appointments. Among these, two full days will be dedicated to AtWork Lab. Today we talk a lot about art and creativity, often dismissing the existence of the productive circuit
which the artists have to face. While the creative process is where the work of art is being conceived, the processes of production and distribution are indispensable in order to give it value and visibility. OpenGround therefore is committed to analyse, together with its participants, all the practices and competences required to autonomously and efficiently realize a work of art and promote it. It aims to provide a toolbox that is necessary in order for the creativity to live and thrive and for the artist to be independent and not be closed in a solitary form of expression that often risks to become counterproductive.
AtWork Lab is in fact key in this space as it uses the creative process to trigger individual reflection, which produces multiple meanings through a collective experience.
Thanks to its versatility and flexibility and the ability to adapt to various contents and contexts, AtWork will provide an empirical moment, where the participants will interact with each other through the creative process. Led by an artistic collective from Athens 3 137, AtWork Lab Athens will tackle the theme of “Heatwave” as both concrete and metaphysical experience. Greece is a country known for its extremely high temperatures and scorching summers. But what happens when the heatwave is present? Is heatwave a worldwide situation? What are the consequences of the heat that is out of control? The heat in a city like Athens, becomes therefore a metaphor through which to explore Greece in many different ways. The workshop will focus on discussing, sharing and further elaborating our individual and common ideas while using the material boundaries of the notebook as an everyday instrument of keeping thoughts and ideas. Heatwave will be discussed not only as threat or dystopia, but also as a passing moment, a coming breeze, a statement of an obligatory pause, a blurred situation for searching the next step. The participants will share their thoughts about our time and create a dialogue about the systems that we live in and the terms of categorization and classification in order to rethink our future, while also reacting to our present.
The notebooks produced during the workshop will be exhibited on the 5th of November at the Pantheon building in Athens.
Claude Bunny Massassa is a contemporary artist from Gabon. She created Bunny Studio in 2016, a start-up dedicated to photography production, which became DWABI Studio in 2021. As an artist, she has represented Gabon in many international exhibitions in Senegal, Uganda, France, the United States, and Italy. In her art, she denounces social stigmas around issues of identity and mental health, and explores themes of traditions and myths.
Executive Director Kimberly Aceves- Iñiguez has been passionately committed for over 20 years to social justice organizing and advocacy efforts that bring voice and power to youth, LGBTQ people, people of color, and working-class communities in the Bay Area. Before coming on as the Executive Director for RYSE, Kimberly served as the Executive Director for Youth Together, the founding organization of the RYSE Center.
Kanwarpal Dhaliwal is one of the co-founders of RYSE and currently acts as the Associate Director. She supports and guides the implementation and integration of healing-centered practices, grounded in racial justice and liberation, and also develops, promotes, and advocates for policies, investments, practices, and research that enliven healing, justice, and liberation. Kanwarpal believes that the purpose of her work and life is to contribute to movements, communities, and legacies of liberation that honor the ancestors who fought for her existence and survival, and to forge a world that is just and gentle for future generations.
Sagal Ali is the founder and executive director of SAF. After a few years in her career in heritage protection in the cultural sector, she decided to develop the initiative to directly support young creatives in Somalia by launching her own foundation. She hopes to bridge the social gaps and inequalities women face in Somalia, both in society and in the arts scene.
Co-founders Catherine Dunga and Marleen Palmaers created Kitambo to bridge the gap between the African diaspora in Colombia and the narratives from the continent. From Kinshasa and Antwerp respectively, they work to connect African artists from the continent and their peers from the Colombian diaspora.
Martha Kazungu is a curator, art Historian and Founder of Njabala Foundation, an organization that curates periodic exhibitions and organizes a public program of activities to create a safe space for female artists to thrive and blossom.
Alicia Hansen is a photographer and teacher from New York. She founded NYC SALT in 2008 and, beyond teaching valuable creative skills to her students, has developed a long-term support system to uplift them through school and into their early artistic careers.
