A new platform for collective learning, discussion and experimentation
RESIDENCY PROGRAMME 2023 x CARE ECOLOGIES
14 – 23 October 2023
Organised by the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation
The CARE ECOLOGIES project, with a central focus on the politics and ecologies of care, emphasizes the need for a collective re-examination of the rules and processes of cultural making and research, while simultaneously promoting close collaboration among artists, curators, researchers, and other cultural stakeholders and professionals. The goal of this multifaceted programme is to create novel opportunities for the mobility and coexistence of cultural professionals and to continue promoting contemporary art on a domestic and international level, all the while strengthening the relationship between artistic practices and contemporary society, through open calls for residency programs, exhibitions, workshops, publications, and a multitude of other activities.
Care as a topic was not an arbitrary decision. It has permeated many of the Foundation’s activities over the past two years (the theme of the first residency in October 2022 was ‘Care: Economies of Eudaimonia’ and the Foundation’s annual Art Prize is also connected to this theme), as well as many of the activities, exhibitions, and other initiatives led by the project’s partners. No longer merely a personal concern, it is clear that care now pertains to the community, the environment, and the welfare state, which is currently being threatened by incessant neoliberal profiteering. Multiple artists and cultural professionals have been connected to these issues as early as the 1960s, with practical concerns such as environmental care, intergenerational care, socially engaged art, the erosion of the welfare state and threatened democratic institutions, the preservation and care of our collective infrastructures and common goods, and, of course, the lack of care, being recurring themes. With these topics as our starting point, the second residency program, titled ‘Care Ecologies,’ posed questions such as: What could care possibly look like in the midst of a multidimensional crises? What would our economy and society look like if care were at the centre? Could care become the strongest means of connection with family and community? Can care be measured? Can it evolve into a means of well-being? Is it a means of self-care or care for others? Does it nourish us? Does it heal us? Ultimately, can we create a society that truly cares?
The eight fellows who were invited to participate in the residency (from more than 120 applications in total) – namely Ioanna Gerakidi, Alexandros Collett, Maria Konti, Eleni Linaki, Elena Novakovits, Thodoris Prodromidis, Fotini Salvaridi, and Lida Tsene – coming from diverse backgrounds and fields including visual psychotherapy and psychoanalytic theory, curation, writing, architecture, research, and the visual and performing arts, coexisted over the span of ten days, slowly building a spirit of community within an experiential and alternative cohabitation framework. They formed friendships, cared for one another, exchanged views, and raised questions. The discussions were also shaped by the workshops led by six invited guest speakers from Greece and abroad – Angelos Varvarousis, Odysseas Sgouros, Xenophon Chalatsis, Andreas Chatzidakis, Isabel Gutierrez Sanchez, and Mollie Painter – each bringing a variety of different perspectives to the table.
Andreas Chatzidakis, professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, and co-author of the ‘Care Manifesto’ along with the Care Collective, presented the manifesto and led a discussion on expanded concepts of care, including consumerism and the commodification of care in contemporary markets, with references to the importance of self-care.
Angelos Varvarousis, in a discussion/search for practical methods and ways of producing art and knowledge that counter the narrative of growth as being inherently tied to economic expansion, which in reality concerns only the few and not society as a whole, proposed essential models of degrowth, localization, and sustainability. He steered the conversation towards the impending desertification of tourist areas, while also touching on topics of extroversion, the concept of place, the commons, post-development, and detouristification.
Mollie Painter, referencing the philosophy and values of Aristotle, conducted visualization exercises (me-we-world) addressing issues of ethnography, culture, social impact, and systemic change.
Architect Odysseas Sgouros led a one-day on-site research trip in the areas of Agios Nikolaos, Elounda, Kritsa, Neapolis, and Kroustas, with visits to monasteries, artists’ studios, local ethnographic museums, and Byzantine churches. The research was framed by discussions on environmental issues, landscape, place and ecology, exclusion, architecture, religion, sustainability, and community.
Isabel Gutierrez Sanchez, through reading groups and experiential-collaborative workshops and exercises like body poems, raised issues of trust, vulnerability, and gratitude within networks of care.
Finally, Xenophon Chalatsis, through the presentation of the ongoing programme “4LessBurnout – Social Practitioners’ Stress Relief,” spoke about the importance of self-care and the consequences of its absence, as well as about the notion of wellbeing in the contemporary social context, personal development, and social support.
By integrating the residency programme under the umbrella of a European initiative, in collaboration with entities, institutions, and art and research centers such as WHW, Idensitat, State of Concept Athens, and the Centre of New Media and Feminist Public Practices / CNMFPP, the activities we have concluded in the past few months and those we plan to implement in the upcoming year until summer 2025, aim to further develop the aforementioned themes and relevant literature.
Fellows: Ioanna Gerakidi, Alexandre Collet, Maria Konti, Eleni Linaki, Elena Novakovits, Thodoris Prodromidis, Fotini Salvaridi, Leda Tsene
Workshop Leaders: Xenophon Chalatsis, Andreas Chatzidakis, Isabel Gutierrez Sanchez, Mollie Painter, Odysseas Sgouros, Angelos Varvarousis
Research Residency Programme, organised by the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation as part of Care Ecologies, a Creative Europe cooperation project with Idensitat, What, How & for Whom / WHW, State of Concept Athens and the Centre for New Media and Feminist Public Practices. Co-funded by Creative Europe.
