FELLOWS

Sotiris Tsiganos

2018/19 Athens

Sotiris Tsiganos (1992, GR) is a visual artist and cultural practitioner, born and based in Athens. He works on research-based community projects focusing on the critical reading of contemporary social history, through performative and participatory strategies. He holds a degree in Fine and Applied Arts (University of Western Macedonia) and directs his strong fieldwork experience and instinct to develop social engagement by cultural means. He has produced several projects with the support of or within the framework of prestigious cultural institutions (in Greece and abroad). Sotiris is currently working on an ongoing project (2016- ), with a main goal being the detection of social tales excluded or distorted by official history that can yet make a contribution to a critical conscience.

Sotiris investigates new ways to reinvent and open institutional infrastructures to a diverse society, strongly believing that contemporary art can help us understand factors that shape our lives today. Always seeking new ways of seeing and learning, he is keen on creating a platform for communities that are excluded from official history. Sotiris aims to collaborate with these people, to bring out stories that escape our perception and search for the aftermath of fading social events that need our understanding.

Project Title

Missing Chapter

My project operates as a high-tech-history-from-below platform for communities that are excluded from official history.

The proposed cultural initiative, aims intends to “hack” the context setting of local cultural /historical museums by giving access and institutional verification authority to people in order to testify who will then have the chance to narrate their history. It aims intends to illuminate peoples’ stories and memories, through the use of new technological media;

As a pilot version of the proposed project, is we suggested the unknown case of Kallio village in Greece. Kallio, is a village that was expropriated in 1969 and was covered in 1981 by the waters of the artificial lake created by the Mornos dam for use as a reservoir for the city of Athens; this lake has been the main source of water for the Greek capital ever since. This resulted in the village community being dissolved and relocated elsewhere. Alongside with the traditional village, the ancient city of Kallipolis (mid-4th century B.C), was also got drowned. Many of the residents of Kallio, worked at on the excavation as well as at and the construction of the dam.

Their participation could be very important both in two ways: from on the one hand their enactment will be a relief for them and from give them some relief, and on the other hand, they can contribute to the growing cultural tourism and benefit their region. The main goal is to reactivate people by embracing the expression of their stories and memories, using new recording and representational technological systems (AR, VR, Apps etc.)

Host Institution

.lkj) Sachsen-Anhalt e.V.

The .lkj) – Association for Cultural Child and Youth Education in the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt is an umbrella organisation in the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt for: