Onassis Education at the Festival of Pass the Mic! Project
The international research center of contemporary performing practices Centrale Fies hosts the outcomes of the first phase of residencies for artists and teenagers, which took place in Athens, Venice, and Lisbon, as part of the European project PTM_Pass the Mic!, in a three-day festival full of exhibitions, performances, and workshops.
Photo: Leonidas Panagopoulos
From 16 until 18 September, 2021, the old hydropower plant at Dro, Italy, in which Centrale Fies is located, welcomes artists based in Greece, Italy, and Portugal, to present their works inspired by the educational workshops with teenagers in each country.
The Onassis Foundation Educational Programs commissioned the coordination of the residencies to four independent artists, thus forming two artist duos.
Ermira Goro, choreographer and dancer, and Theo Prodromidis, visual artist and director, through their ongoing dialogue and interaction with the teenagers, created and present the performance “supernatural” at the Sala Turbina of Centrale Fies, on September 16. Jessica Onyiyechi Anosike, student and afro-fitness instructor, dances in this hourly performance and conveys the power, natural or supernatural, of the teenagers who took part in the online meetings of the project with “Melissa” Network of Migrant Women in Greece, embodying their desires, fears, hopes, and will to escape.
The second artist duo consists of Fotini Gouseti, visual artist and PhD candidate in Anthropology at the Department of History, Archaeology, and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly, and Alexandros Magd Asaad, performer and visual artist. Driven by their interaction with a mixed group of teenagers during the first phase of the residencies, they present a photographic installation called "The address of the sidewalks... ", inspired by the lyrics of a poem from Nizar Qabbani, that is integrated in the artwork. The installation reflects on the creative-educational process they followed, while they also exhibit a series of stencils that reverberate the teenagers’ voices, with which they are going to create a mural in Athens’ public space. These works will be exhibited all three days of the festival, from 17:00 till 21:00.
On September 18, Fotini Gouseti and artists who take part in the program in Italy and Portugal, run a workshop based on their experience from the first phase of the project, and pass the mic to the participants for an open conversation around methodological and artistic issues that emerged during the educational process.
The overall objective of PTM_Pass the Mic! is to increase access to higher education in communities exposed to structural inequalities and renewed forms of racism connected to migratory phenomena, through the creation of a South European network that bridges peripheral schools/organizations for migration and refugees, contemporary art professionals, and universities.
Apart from the Onassis Foundation, IUAV – University of Venice (Italy), Ebano Collective (Portugal), and Centrale Fies (Italy) participate in the project.
Art Curation, Project Coordination
Myrto Lavda
Research, Methodology Supervision (for the first phase of the project in Athens)
Dr. Nadina Christopoulou, anthropologist, director and co-founder of “Melissa” Network
Artists
Alexandros Magd Asaad, performer and visual artist
Ermira Goro, choreographer and dancer
Fotini Gouseti, visual artist and PhD candidate in Anthropology at the Department of History, Archaeology, and Social Anthropology, University of Thessaly
Theo Prodromidis, visual artist and director
Project Consultant
Nikodimos Maina Kinyua
Network
IUAV – University of Venice (Italy), Onassis Education (Greece), Ebano Collective (Portugal), Centrale Fies (Italy)
