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CREABALK #2 Screenings (12/12/2019)

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Urban Architecture and Urban Poetics (Sem. Hall 10, 15.00-1700):

“Concrete Utopia- Documentary“
Directed By:  Anna Ilin and Josefine Bingemer
Country Of Origin: Germany
Production: Germany
Production Year: 2015
Runtime: 18.16

SYNOPSIS
What defines a city’s identity? In 1963 Skopje was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake, many of its historical buildings were lost forever. Yet, with the help of the international and Yugoslavian community the city succeeded to re-emerge as a kind of modern utopia – modelled after the plan of the Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. Today the great architectural efforts of the 60s and 70s receive little appreciation, though once magnificent giants of concrete, by now many of them are crumbling and suffer from neglect. The situation in Skopje is specifically extreme, as in 2010 the government issued a plan to redesign the city in a kind of neo-renaissance style. In our film we are taking a long and patient look at the architecture of the post-earthquake era and ask people what it means to them.

“Wasingtonia – Animation“
Directed By: Konstantina Kotzamani
Production: Greece
Production Year: 2014
Runtime: 24
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/washingtoniashortfilm/84207264

SYNOPSIS
Washingtonia starts when the giraffes heart can no longer be heard.
Washingtonia is an alternative name for Athens, a place where people, like animals, fall into summertime sadness because of the heat. Washingtonia is the only palm tree that its heart is not devoured by the red beetle. Because it’s heart is small and dry and no one likes small and dry heart.

“To tell a ghost- Documentary“
Directed By: Chris Piotrowicz, Stefan Ehrhardt
Country Of Origin: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Production: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Production Year: 2019
Runtime: 11:55
Trailer:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaesaiBybvM

SYNOPSIS
‘To Tell A Ghost’ is a short documentary film directed by Chris Piotrowicz and Stefan Ehrhardt and produced, written and scored by Mirza Ramic. The film tells the story of Mirza Ramic, the Bosnian-born, American-based musician and one half of the electronic music duo Arms and Sleepers. ‘To Tell A Ghost’ captures Mirza’s attempt to process personal loss and childhood memories while finding healing through music.

“Belgrade is Blue like an Orange- Experimental“
Directed By: Antonin Blanc
Country Of Origin: Serbia
Production: Serbia
Production Year: 2018
Runtime: 10:00
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/294759334

SYNOPSIS
A man is driving through Belgrade. There are reminiscences of the soviet past that he despises, and luckily the city will inspire a neo-liberal manifesto.

Urban Experiences, Crises and Experiments (Amphitheatre 12, 1800-2030):

“Vietnam- Documentary“
Directed By:Jovana Kovanovic
Country Of Origin:Serbia
Production: Serbia
Runtime:26 min

SYNOPSIS
A unique group of youngsters, born in the infamous 90’s in Serbia, have grown up united by certain rules on the streets of isolated Belgrade ghetto, symbolically called Vietnam. At the doorstep of adulthood their friendship is facing temptation, under the weight of new life challenges, needs and social circumstances.

“Spectrum“
Directed By: Dimitris Gkotsis, Greece
Production: Greece
Production Year: 2014
Runtime:  12min
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIUkYB434Sg

SYNOPSIS
Spectrum is used to classify something in terms of its position on a scale between two extreme points. Documenting a slice in the life of five different people living in the heart of the city of Athens and the power relations between them. Priorities entwined, leading to misunderstandings and finally the absolute brutality.

“On Bike-Documantary”
Directed By: Gorjan Atanasov
Production: North Macedonia
Production Year: 2015
Runtime: 16

SYNOPSIS
A short documentary about the power and use of the bycicle, the problems of the bicyclists and their fight for space and rights to ride freely in Skopje through Critical Mass and non-violent action.

“Cross“
Directed By: Konstantinos Stathis
Production: Greece
Production Year: 2018
Runtime: 23
Trailer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9481694/?ref_=nm_knf_i3

SYNOPSIS
A film is being made, the characters of the film have escaped in the countryside. The director wanders in the city at night. The crew is filming, trying to consist the film from everything that appears to be useful or function-able, but is that so? A woman is wandering in the city at night. The characters start to act for themselves. The crew and the director are getting into the film. Crossing in and out – all these people – ,from that film that’s being made by and with them, among other things.

“4 Days“
Directed by: Michalis Giagkounidis
Production: Greece
Production Year: 2017
Runtime: 79’
Trailer

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5749812/?ref_=nm_knf_i1

SYNOPSIS
Thessaloniki Greece 2015. A girl in search of excitement tries to combat her wearisome life taking pictures of strangers. A customer at the coffee place she works at asks her to escort him to the hospital. A boy is in love with her. He stalks her. Their lives intersect. 4 days of their interaction scattered in time. Their attempt to change their lives.

TRANSCA, Translating Socio-Cultural Anthropology into Education

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TRANSCA is a European initiative/Erasmus+ project that champions the integration of social anthropology into education to address pressing societal concerns, such as diversity, immigration, and socio-economic disparities. The project’s primary goals encompass bridging teacher education with socio-cultural anthropology, instilling key anthropological insights into teacher education, and innovatively addressing the complexities of classroom diversity. Essential to TRANSCA is introducing reflexive anthropological methods, enhancing educators’ understanding of their students’ lived experiences. Collaborating with prominent institutions across Greece, Denmark, Austria, and Croatia, TRANSCA emphasizes partnerships with Teacher Colleges and related associations. Key deliverables include a “Whitebook” of best practices, a concept manual, and a suite of teaching resources, all hosted on a sustainable digital platform. Ultimately, TRANSCA aspires to augment social inclusion in European education, propelling social cohesion across the continent.
See the project’s webpage and final deliverables: https://transca.net/en/index

Performing Ashura in Piraeus: Towards a Shiite poetics of ‘cultural intimacy’ with Greek embodied practices of religiosity

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The research examines the ritual of Ashura, as it is performed by the Pakistani Shia community in Piraeus. Ashura is the day of mourning for the martyrdom of Imam Husayn: the Prophet’s grandson and 3rd Imam who led a revolt against the Omayyad caliph Yazid A, and was finally beheaded in the battle of Karbala in 680 AD. This battle provides the central narrative around which Shia Muslims construct their political identity as migrants and their religious identification as a minority vis-à-vis Sunni Muslims in Greece. Ashura is commemorated every year through rituals of lamentation and public processions that include, in some cases, self-flagellation.

A decontextualized focus on the act of self-flagellation, over-accentuated by the mass media, reinforces local stereotypes of the Shia community practices as ‘incompatible’ with Greek cultural values. Social representations of the Shiite as ‘barbaric Others’ are frequently evoked in public debate in order to support Islamophobic and racialised narratives of anti-cosmopolitanism. However, confronted with xenophobia and social estrangement, the Shiite systematically attempt to articulate counter-narratives of ‘cultural intimacy’ (Herzfeld 2005) that stress the similarities between their ritual lament and various embodied performances of faith from the Greek cultural context, such as the Tinos pilgrimage (Dubisch 1996) or the Anastenaria (Danforth 1989).

The proposed research has a threefold purpose. First, it documents the community’s political struggle to promote discursively and practically a multicultural vision of citizenship based on embodied and affective components of subjectivity. Second, it unravels the rich meta-symbolic character the Ashura assumes in a migratory context, becoming an idiom or expressing and negotiating feelings of loss associated with migration trajectories. Third, departing from the case of the Ashura, but also opening-up the research focus through other examples of performances of lament, it examines how the claim to cultural intimacy is re-articulated in contemporary artistic practices, focusing on the performing arts.

More informations: https://www.rchumanities.gr/en/omada-chatziprokopiou-tsibiridou/

Meeting – mutual exchange of ideas

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On November 29th  , the Lab will host a presentation for the Center for Balkan Cooperation LOJA (Tetovo, North Macedonia)   and  the NGO “KURVE Wustrow – Centre for Training and Networking in Nonviolent Action” (Wustrow, Germany) regarding  their – project “Anchoring Multi-ethnic Youth Work in University Curricula for Future Teacher” within the frame of Civil Peace Service (Ziviler Friedensdienst). The meeting has as an objective the mutual exchange of ideas on issues of interculturalism and education. 

Performing Ashura in Piraeus: Towards a Shiite poetics of ‘cultural intimacy’ with Greek embodied practices of religiosity”, Symposium

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Chatziprokopiou Marios, Tsibiridou Fotini  https://www.rchumanities.gr/en/omada-chatziprokopiou-tsibiridou/

Symposium
“The performance of lament as production of ‘cultural intimacy’: from the ritual of Ashura to contemporary artistic practices”.

Athens School of Fine Arts, Giorgio DeChirico Auditorium
Saturday, November 23rd 2019

The research project “Performing Ashura in Piraeus: Towards a Shiite poetics of ‘cultural intimacy’ with Greek embodied practices of religiosity” was funded by RCH for the year 2019. Co-organization with Cultures Borders Gender Laboratory  https://cbg-lab.uom.gr/en/