Onassis
What’s On

Art, Freedom, Censorship

Colloquium at the Onassis Stegi

Dates

Prices

Free

Location

Onassis Stegi

Time & Date

Day
Time
Venue
Day
Tuesday
Time
17:00
Venue
Main Stage

Information

Tickets

Free entrance, on a first come first served basis. Click here to reserve your seat or get your entrance ticket at the Onassis Stegi's box office 1 hour before the event.

Language

Simultaneous translation into Greek and English is provided.

The Onassis Stegi and the General Secretariat for Transparency and Human Rights co-organize a public discussion on the freedom of expression in the arts.

Once again around the world and in Europe, we are bearing witness to a ‘hardening’ of attitudes concerning the freedom of expression in the arts. Sometimes this is manifested with regard to what is considered ‘obscene’ or ‘blasphemous’. Occasionally it is triggered by the political content of performances, films, or other artworks. Has political correctness reached a point where it has become self-censorship? Is it perilous to incorporate extreme ideas or statements in films, plays, and art installations? Do some people over-identify the artwork with the ideas or the images it incorporates, failing perhaps to grasp the distance between the work of art and whichever statement it incorporates? Who sets the limits to freedom of expression, and how?

These issues have recently re-emerged in Greece as well as other countries. For this reason, we invite you to participate in a public talk on ‘Art, Freedom, Censorship’ at the Main Stage of the Onassis Stegi. There, we hope to engage with all these issues at a national level, as well as from an international perspective.

The talk is co-organised by the Onassis Stegi and the General Secretariat for Transparency and Human Rights.

Credits

  • Curated by

    Christos Carras, Afroditi Panagiotakou, Costis Papaioannou

Program

17:00-18:00 | "Speaking of Freedom"
Chair:
Costis Papaioannou: General Secretary for Transparency and Human Rights

Speakers:
Vicky Baker: Deputy editor of the magazine Index on Censorship
Nicos C. Alivizatos: Professor of Constitutional Law at the School of Law, University of Athens
John Ralston Saul: President of PEN International (2009-2015)

18:00-19:00 | "Untouchable Sanctity"
Chair:
Xenia Kounalaki: Chief Editor of International News and Journalist for Kathimerini

Speakers:
Kris Verdonck: Artist working in the transit zone between visual arts and theatre, installation and performance, and between dance and architecture. His work Stills was presented in the context of the 2nd Fast Forward Festival of the Onassis Cultural Centre, 2015.
Stavros Zouboulakis: Writer, President of the Supervisory Council of the Greek National Library
Chris Grammatidis: Lawyer

19:00-19:30 Intermission

19:30-20:30 | "Dangerous Ideas"
Chair:
Elias Kanellis: Journalist, Publisher of the magazine The Books’ Journal

Speakers:
Lemine Ould M. Salem: Co-Director of the documentary Salafistes
Daniel Wetzel: Co-founder of the theatre group Rimini Protokoll (will contribute to the discussion with a video recorded statement)
Pigi Dimitrakopoulou: Director
Dimitris Christopoulos: Associate Professor of Political Science at Panteion University, and Vice President of the International Federation of Human Rights

20:30-21:30 | "The Madding Crowd"
Chair:
Costis Papaioannou: General Secretary for Transparency and Human Rights

Speakers:
Christos Chomenidis: Writer
Caroline Fourest: Feminist Writer, Documentary Director, Journalist, Radio Presenter at France Culture, Editor of the magazine ProChoix
Kostas Kostakos (Old Boy): Blogger

Read more

Nicos C. Alivizatos

Nicos C. Alivizatos is professor of Law at the University of Athens; he practices law since 1978. He is pleading regularly before the Greek Council of State, the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. After studying law in Athens (LL.B. 1972), he obtained his PhD from the University of Paris 2 in 1977; the late “doyen” Georges Vedel was his “directeur de thèse”, which was published in Paris in 1979 (“Les institutions politiques de la Grèce à travers les crises”, Paris, L.G.D.J., “Bibliothèque constitutionnelle”, tome 60).

He has been teaching constitutional and public law since 1980. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford (1988- 89), Princeton (1997) and Oxford (2005) Universities. His books include “The Constitutional Status of the Armed Forces”, vols 1 &2, (in Greek, Athens, Ant. Sakkoulas, 1987 & 1992 respectively), “Beyond Article 16” (in Greek, Athens, Metaichmio, 2007), “The Constitution and its Enemies”, 1800-2010 (in Greek, Athens, Polis, 2011) and “What Kind of Democracy After the Crisis” (in Greek, Athens, Polis, 2013).

John Ralston Saul

John Ralston Saul is an award winning Canadian philosopher, essayist and novelist. His fourteen books have been translated into 27 languages in 36 countries. Saul is President Emeritus of PEN International and co-Chair of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. Some of his most important works include the philosophical trilogy, “Voltaire´s Bastards”, “The Unconscious Civilization” and “The Doubter’s Companion” with its conclusion, “On Equilibrium”. In “The Collapse of Globalism” predicted the 2007-2008 economic crisis year before its inception. His most recent novel is “Dark Diversions” and most recent essay “The Comeback”, which has changed the conversation on Indigenous issues in Canada. His many awards include the Pablo Neruda Medal and the Manhae Grand Prize for literature.

Xenia Kounalaki

She was born in Hamburg in 1971. She has been a journalist in the daily newspaper “Kathimerini” since 1994 and a weekly columnist and head of the foreign desk since 2007. She contributes reports to „Spiegel“ and „Spiegel Online“. She has worked at the Greek Public Radio and Television as foreign news editor and presented her own TV program. She has co-authored the book “Via” (Violence) (Polis editions, 2012) on political violence. In 2012, she was awarded the international press freedom prize „Premio Internationale Per La Liberta Di Stampa“ in Florence.

Kris Verdonck

Kris Verdonck (b. 1974) studied visual arts, architecture and theatre and this training is evident in his work. His creations are positioned in the transit zone between visual arts and theatre, between installation and performance, between dance and architecture. As a theatre maker and visual artist, he can look back over a wide variety of projects.

He directed theatre productions and produced various installations: a.o. 5 (2003), Catching Whales Is Easy (2004), II (2005). The first Stills, consisting of gigantic projections, were commissioned by La Notte Bianca in Rome. In 2007 he created the theatrical installation I/II/III/IIII, while in 2008 End premièred at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels.

Verdonck often presents combinations of different installations/performances as Variations. Variation IV was shown during the Festival d’Avignon in 2008. In 2010 Kris Verdonck finished the ‘circuit performance’ Actor #1 which shows three variations on the theme from chaos to order. K, a Society, a circuit of installations inspired by the work of Franz Kafka premiered at Theater der Welt 2010 Germany.

In 2011 Verdonck presented two research projects: Talk sets out to explore language, while Exit, created with Alix Eynaudi, aims to tackle theatre as a medium. In the same year, his first solo exhibition was held at House for contemporary art Z33 together with a new work: Exote. In 2012 Verdonck created M, a reflection: a theatre production with texts by Heiner Müller and actor Johan Leysen and his digital double on stage. H, an incident, a musical theatre performance for big stage, based on the life and work of Daniil Harms, premiered in May 2013 during the Kunstenfestivaldesarts.

In October 2014 Untitled, a new solo creation for the Spanish dancer and performer, Marc Iglesias, went into premiere at the Kaaitheater. In 2015 Isos, a 3D video-installation that is based on the world and characters from the apocalyptic science-fiction novels of J.G. Ballard will be completed.

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