Common Re-flections

Presentation / Exhibition / happening (one night only)

Common Re-flections

As Foucault indicates “resistance is not solely a negation but a creative process. To create and recreate, to transform the situation, to participate actively in the process, that is to resist” 1984.

In their 2009 book, Commonwealth, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri propose the concept of the common as a factor that can infuse all spheres of everyday life. They bring in the natural elements of the planet, as well as defining factors that constitute human society- such as language, culture and daily habits. Living in a contemporary global and yet local world, where the idea of crisis has been gaining unprecedented momentum, reinterpreting our social reality and thinking beyond the unitary seems of uttermost importance. In reading Spinoza, Hardt and Negri indicate that it is within “an open field o f possibility on which we recognize what is common between one body and another, one idea and another, and the resulting common notions are the building blocks of reason and tools for the constant project of increasing our powers to think and to act”.

Artists, writers, philosophers and cultural producers can through their actions voice their resistance to socio-political occurrences, aid in the reshaping or reimagining of the public sphere and prompt reflection on our ethical responsibility towards the collective whole. After all it is through interchange, dialogue and interactive creative manifestations that reflection can be triggered, of how our actions shape the common and how our inactions maintain social injustices.

Maria Papacharalambous and Evi Tselika invite and present a group of visual artists, writers, philosophers and poets to explore the notion of what occurs when Art asks us to reflect onto our own habits and customs. Can we through visual production, written word and presentations explore how the manifestation of artistic practices can aid in shaping and producing the common, thus triggering shared knowledge, experience and new forms of community? How can we resist through the “common” and creatively re imagine Spinoza’s concept of the “multitude”?

Variant artists, philosophers and writers will take part in the exhibition and event. These include Matthias Frisch, Anita Toutikian, Alexis Petrou, Achilleas Kentonis, Theopisti Stylianou, Niki Katsiaouni, Elena Stylianou, Achim Wieland, Omada Ergasias, Peter Eramian, Stavros Lambrakis, Christina Theodotou, Athina Antoniadou, Efi Savvides, Michalis Papadopoulos, Veronique Sapin, Chrystalleni Loizidou and Eleni Ellene Tsangarides…

Communication:
Maria Papacharalambous <99-807798 [email protected]>
Evi Tselika <97-611269 [email protected]>