Anastasia Diavasti & Sumugan Sivanesan: fugitive feminist empathics

We began our research when we were both in Athens in March of 2023 for “IT returns”. This was a period of general strikes and student occupations of universities, art schools, and theatres around the country in response to a train tragedy, the downgrading of graduating qualifications of performing arts institutions, and other dissatisfactions in the build-up to the general elections. We also passed over the Greek National Day on March 25th.

One of our points of reference was the book “The Hologram” (2021) by Cassie Thornton, an introduction to the peer-to-peer “social infrastructure” for care that she has been devising for some years among a network of artists, activists, friends, and colleagues. Cassie’s ideas were influenced by a visit she made to a social clinic in Thessaloniki and Natasa was for a while involved with a collective who sought to translate the book into Greek. By coincidence, Cassie “got stuck” in Athens for an extra day after her flight was cancelled during a general strike in March, and we were able to meet her one evening in Exarchia. We discussed how “The Hologram” had developed since the book’s publication in the middle of the global COVID pandemic, and we were struck by how she confidently announced that it had enabled those involved to develop “strong intuition”.

Taking cues from Cassie, we decided we would also work intuitively looking into varied interests including teargas, telepathy, solidarity, collective resistance, and discussing different community groups Natasa is involved with in Athens. We visited the student occupations at Rex Theater and the Olympia Municipal Music Theater “Maria Callas” in Athens and made field recordings. Sumugan became particularly fixated on a long dance-research piece, “Crater”, that occurred over several days on the sidewalk in front of the theater entrance. Eventually we recorded an interview with one of the organizers, Jitsa Kon, about the evolution of the piece.

Early in April we made a research trip to Thessaloniki. There we met and recorded interviews with the worker’s co-operative VioMe, who took over a section of a bankrupt construction materials factory to produce organic soap and cleaning products. We also met with organizers of a Thessaloniki social clinic in a migrant social center, but were unable to record an interview due to their commitments and collective processes. However, in another chance encounter, Sumugan met Julie Bintje, a writer, translator, and radio-maker, who swiftly became a friend and collaborator.

Prior to leaving Athens, we agreed we would attempt a live radio broadcast connecting spaces in AiR with spaces in the Jan van Eyck Academie (JvE) where Sumugan is currently based. We would broadcast simultaneously on { openradio }, a platform for independent and experimental radio that we both work with, and on STEGI.RADIO at Onassis Stegi.

When Sumugan returned to Maastricht, we continued to work remotely, touching base regularly to discuss our progress towards an open studio presentation – editing our interviews and field recordings. Sumugan got caught up in discussions about the “evil eye”/nazar with fellow JvE participants: Mariam Elnozahy, Zahra Malkani, and Derica Shields. Natasa was still meeting with Julie Bintje, who was now staying in Athens, discussing a common interest in the theme of telepathy. Through Cassie Thorton, Natasa also met Maro Pantazidou, whose research focuses on time and care as issues of social justice. Maro is involved in the translation of “The Hologram” in Greek, and is also a practitioner of it.

We decided then to bring all these elements to our radio broadcast; to let them sit together so that we could tease out connections and resonances live. Alongside our field recordings and interviews, Julie joined Natasa at AiR, while Mariam, Zahra, and Derica joined Sumugan at JvE.

All our encounters became somehow significant and, during our “fugitive feminist empathics” broadcast, we were able to draw connections between alternative approaches to labor, community, care, telepathy, language, intuition, teargas, and even communism. The meetings with Jitsa, Julie, Maro, Mariam, Zahra, Derica, and Cassie were especially fruitful and, as a result, we are developing a research-radio-publication-exhibition project we are interested to propose to Onassis.

* Our live radio performance, “fugitive feminist empathics”, during Open Day #6 on STEGI.RADIO: Listen here