Resistant performances in Athens have gathered momentum over the last year, transforming the fixed landscape of a city into a platform for negotiation and dialogue. They are connected with existing social conditions: austerity measures, mass immigration and ‘crisis’. Such narratives of globalisation and empire building are transforming central areas and traditional notions of Athenian identity, giving birth to a new street-level language that has twisted, innovated, and filled in the gaps of a culture’s hegemonic discourse. This installment of ‘resistance as urban dialogues’ is an investigation of the potential new imaginations and alternative representations in the city of Athens.
The ‘Ministry of Untold Stories’, is an organisation which develops participatory projects in arts and social change: producing performances, exhibitions and publications and developing research. ‘The Ministry’ engages with an eclectic range of projects: from street art, to inclusive arts workshops about migration and the city, through to projects in prisons; and seeks new partnerships for creative initiatives.
Myrto Tsilimpounidi is a social researcher and photographer. Her work engages in urban sociology, migration studies, visual cultures and social movement theory. Current research projects explore landscapes of belonging, street politics, irregular migration and marginalisation. Myrto is currenty co-editing ‘Remapping Crisis: A Guide to Athens’, a new book on crisis and its urban manifestations.
