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The (origins of the) game (2024) Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
Happening, 2016. Participant's empirical research, including improvised full recorded interview with first generation Albanian immigrants to Greece, images, and thematic text. The research was conducted for the workshop, "Logics of Worlds", inspired by Alain Badiou's work and organised by architect Filippos Oraiopoulos, at Athens School of Fine Art (ASFA), Master of Visual Arts (Marios Spiliopoulos, Giorgios Xiropaides), December 2016. Adopting the political approach of Badiou's "L' Organisation Politique" to apply direct intervention for societal problems, including immigration and labour, I used play as a method to facilitate improvised discussions. People share and respond more freely when participating in structured, but playful interactions, such as those a game involves. Albanians speak three languages, Albanian, Italian and, a few of them, Greek, so I wasn't able to translate parts of the conversation. Avlona is an English now obsolete name for Vlore, an Albanian seaport and former ancient Greek colony Aulon. Albanians came as non-EU refugees in Greece initially in the 1990s, after the fall of communism in their home country. Religion was banned in communist countries. The democratisation of Albania began in 1994, when Albanians protested for political pluralism in their country. At the beginnig ofbthe transition period after communism, Vlore became a port through which smuggling, mainly from Italy, was carried out. Notably, the men I spoke to didn't want to be visualised. Hence, the exposition aims to juxtapose the experimental and the conceptual in the fine arts; and to make the 'invisible' visible. Badiou is also known for his philosophy of metaphysics of the four "truth procedures": Politics, Science, Love and Art. The workshop was slightly interrupted by a performance art student, who brought a live hen to slaughter in the studio. This can be taken as a metaphor for scapegoating (by symbolically re-assigning the gender of male) Albanian non-EU refugees. For this exposition, I include an essay by Pantelis Boukalas, in Kyriakos Katzourakis, O "Dromos Pros Ti Dysi" (The Way to the West), 2001, as well as Kyriakos Katzourakis' introduction in English. I don't have any personal or other familial connections with Albania - or North Macedonia or Kosovo, all the nationalities, including Albanian, used on the fake non-EU passports used illegally in the UK since 2013 and 2014: I had never even visited those countries before 2024. This was a project to research and document in an artistic manner the refugee and immigration crisis, as I experienced it in my native Greece and to voice my opinions on this topic from my perspective as a native Greek. I spoke to non-EU economic refugees. Non-EU economic refugees must not be confused with political asylum seekers, who encounter persecution for political reasons from the countries of origin or citizenship. Albania -North Macedonia and Kosovo, all the nationalities on the fake non-EU passports, including Albanian, used in the UK, successively since 2013 and 2014- is a non-EU country; Greece, my native (and my parents' and grandparents' native), has been in the EU since 1981. I have also been a UK national, by naturalisation, since 2011. Paradoxically - or not so paradoxically, since I have been also investigating this case - the political outcome, and since 2020, of this project was that fictitious "daughter" of mine had been on the Met police's databases, as 22 Italian/Albanian female. Supposedly, I must had been given birth to a daughter in Albania in 2002! (!! the "prostitute"; that's believable!! Or two "schizophrenic" sons, Panagiotis Nigiannis, both, Albanians!; born in 2003 and 2004! Golden Dawn's, the BNP's (the XRW component in the UK), and others' cultural "imagination" with regards to Albanians): factually speaking, in 2002, I was living in Athens, Greece, engaged to be married to my former husband, a Greek national, working at MOB (Mauve) Architects, as an architect designer, with an international cohort of colleagues. I got married in 2003. I lived in Athens until 2004, working also at RCTech architects. The records with the fake IDs have been corrected in September 2024. Including records of falsely alleged children of mine born 2002-2004, when I lived and worked in my native Greece. From 1998 until 2002, I was living in the UK, working as an architect; there are no children. I gained my first practical experience working as an architect in the UK, working in private architectural practice from 1999 until 2002. In 2007, I was living in London, since 2005, working as an EU/Greek university lecturer. In 2009, when the G20 summit demonstrations took place in London, with the known case of the death of Ian Tomlison by a police officer, I had been living in the UK since 2005, working as an EU lecturer at the University of East London; I was also known as Betty Nigianni by my students and colleagues. I never participated in any public demonstrations in the UK, but I have attended demonstrations in my native Greece and in 2019 in the Netherlands. There are no children in my medical records, during the whole time I have lived in the UK, which is a total of seventeen years, plus, twelve of those being a British citizen. Greek children take their father's surname and Greeks don't have many children; they're suffering from a shrinking population, although they are in the EU since 1981. My concerns about serious international organised criminal activity (not even honouring children's basic rights) were reported and confirmed by the Greek, Scandinavian and Albanian authorities. The British authorities have been lagging behind for a long time, intentionally, with their impossible unverified "stories", bashing the left and the liberals - or whatever is left of them - and whoever is decent - whatever has been left of that, too. The Greek police confirmed in 2024 all claims about children, also between 2002 and 2004, have been dismissed. The Greek Golden Dawn - with their "Big Idea" (Megali Idea) of conquering foreign countries, like North Macedonia, and their chronic attacks on immigrants and refugees in Greece - was convicted as a criminal organisation in October 2020. They invented the 'concept' of the 'Real Greek', dependent on any Greek's political orientation. Now they're losing their sixty seven (67) appeals - and early releases. The conversation took place during the period Golden Dawn was prosecuted in the Greek High Courts of Justice (Areios Pagos), 2015-2020. Many non-EU immigrants to Greece provided testimonies in the courts, despite the fact they were frightened. Manolis Glezos was the only Greek politician, who went to visit Magda Fyssa, Pavlos' mother, in the Greek courts. For Pavlos Fyssas, aka Killah P; assassinated at age 34. For Alain Badiou, a communist-Maoist political philosopher, and the OP. For the missing Albanian and of Albanian ethnicity immigrants. For Michalis Katsouris; assassinated at age 29. For the "Other Greek Left". Thanks to the Albanian embassy in London, the Tirane and Durres police, as well as the Durres prosecutor. Thanks to Edi Rama.and his Socialist Party, a coalition of left-wing parties, government. Thanks to the Norwegian Labour Party government. Thanks also to Skopje police and Prishtine police. Thanks to the Italian police at Bari. Last but not least: thanks to the Greek police chief, Marinos Stagakis, and the Greek police organised crime division, specifically Ioannis Papakostas, who spoke to me on the phone in the summer of 2022. Thanks to the US London embassy that came in late, in the summer of 2024. Thanks to the very few Met police officers, who eventually figured it out, as well as those British and others working behind the scenes for the last three years or so and more recently. It would not have been possible without them. It has been a long process with many obstacles along the way, seemingly insurmountable, but as proven not. For peace and for safeguarding democracy and everything that comes with it. Ongoing investigatory research, with legal and political activism, surrounded by artworks, 2016-2024. References: Fred C. Abrahams, "Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe", New York: New York University Press, 2015. Counterextremism Project, "Violent, Right-wing Extremism and Terrorism - Transnational Connectivity, Definitions, Incidents, Structures and Countermeasures", November 2020, available online. See all expositions under Art and Activism.
open exposition
The Loot (2024) Zoe Panagiota (aka Betty) Nigianni
Islington studio flat 4, at 14 Barnsbury Road, London, 2022, privately rented. Interior design as an art installation. Looted, 2024. My personal belongings were still at the property for two months, after I left on 27 March 2024 and was asked to collect them by 3 or 4 April 2024 from Woolwich. They moved in two or three under aged, who I have never met and were pretending to be my daughters. They must have been removing them one by one over the last few months and until October 2024. 14 Barnsbury Road was deemed illegal through the courts, on 22 April, shortly after I was forced to leave in March. The maintenance employed many Polish citizens, all dressed in black with black caps, like all XRW supporters dress. Twenty-one (20+1) digital photographs for twenty (20) missing Albanian and of Albanian ethnicity non-EU immigrants and one (1) missing Italian citizen. The twenty-one persons whose details got stolen were abducted by Golden Dawn, the NRM and possibly Forza Nuova; they are deceased. My personal details were also stolen. Was I going yo be the twenty-second? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loot_(magazine) Investigatory research with artworks. The artworld has been traditionally male dominated. This has changed a little bit in contemporary art, but not dramatically. Female artists have sometimes adopted male attitudes or personas to break into the art scene; notably, Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin from the YBA movement. I hold the view that art is not gendered, for instance that there is no art for women or so-called feminine art. Good art transcends such categories, tapping into more universal experiences. For Chris, who was suddenly transferred by his employer, from London, where his daughter lives, to somewhere outside of London; and for Lawrence, whose temporary post was prematurely terminated, though he was planning to return to his legal studies. To all those who don't just "play" the cultural and racial diversity clause. See exposition in connection with "The (Origins of) The Game".
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environment embodiment - towards poetic narratives (2024) Fernanda Branco
PhD Artistic Research project environment embodiment - towards poetic narratives (2020-2024) by Fernanda Branco at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. This artistic research explores experiential agency in encounters between body and environment. It draws from uncanny, embodied and poetic perspectives, unfolding as a constellation of sympoietic practices. Webdesign by Ellen Palmeira Illustrations by Aza
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JSS26 Editorial (2024) Vincent Meelberg
Every now and then JSS publishes a non-themed issue. What happens in general is that, over several months, people have submitted papers outside of a call for papers, or outside a thematic issue that is planned. After having collected enough of those papers, we start the usual (external) peer review and editing processes and publish an issue that has no focus on one theme which will be explored in depth, but one that presents the versatility and width of contemporary sound studies and/or sound art.
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Walking Hanoi - Reflections on improvisation, listening and being attached (2024) Franziska
"Walking Hanoi 2024 - Reflections on improvisation, listening and being attached" is an audio visual piece, which stems from my long standing connection to Vietnam, and specifically to an artistic research project that took place in late March 2024 in Hanoi. It took place as part of an international project - led by VIetnamese researchers, musicians and artists - on thinking through how best to digitise the diverse ethnic minority music in Vietnam. A sound walk, a gamified, ambulatory listening activity, with around 50 international artists/researchers forms the basis for this reflective piece on improvisation, situated listening, on embodied being, identity and the ways we attach ourselves to things, and how things attach themselves to us. In reflecting on improvisation and being, the piece, written, narrated and produced by Franziska Schroeder, draws upon the insights of artists and writers, including Simon Rose, Donna Haraway, Lucy Suchman, Judith Butler, Martin Heidegger to reflect on the situated-ness of the 2 hour street walk in Hanoi. It is a personal reflection, informed by how unspoken, often ineffable knowledge can shape one’s internal perspective. This internal perspective, or ‘insider point of listening’ becomes a central theme in this piece, framing the perception of an improvising self in relation to her tactile and sonic surroundings.
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GIRL ARMY – Narrative painting in space TYTTÖARMEIJA – Kerronnallinen maalaus tilassa Katja Tukiainen (2024) Katja Tukiainen
ABSTRACT Girl army – Narrative painting in space In my doctoral research in fine arts, I study narrative painting in space and examine the narratives of spatial painting series and other spatial assemblies of paintings. My paintings’ imagery deals with girlhood, womanhood, and the colour pink. A girl army – a wild and non-vi- olent group of girls – acts as a guide on my journey of exploration. My paintings’ girls take over various spaces. My artistic research includes a written section in which I report how my research proceeds, enabling me to find new ideas through verbal language. The written section deals with my artistic work process and non-ver- bal knowledge, and it describes how the search for words adds to my understanding of narrative, narrators, focal- isation, and immersivity. As artistic work and writing blend into a trajectory, I establish the words alongside non-verbal knowledge, and, in the end, I venture to ob- serve my works’ feminism. My research includes three public exhibitions of works that explore painting narratives, the colour pink, and placing in various spaces. The exhibitions took place dur- ing a period of ten years, as follows: My solo exhibition, Playground – My work is my pleasure, was on display at Galleria Korjaamo in autumn 2009, the painting instal- lation Paradis k (Kidnap) was part of the Eyeballing! ex- hibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in 2012, and my painting series Paradis r (Rascal) was on display in the Vallaton – Rascal group exhibition at the Vantaa Art Museum Artsi during 2017–2018. My research’s main stages are closely related to these three exhibitions included in my research. My research ques- tions follow, along with the works, a painting’s simultane- ous, linear, and temporally stretched narrative. I explore how paintings, in different spaces, turn into stories and immersive experiences, inviting viewers inside of them. I invite the reader into a story in which I wander, wearing a trainer on one foot and a high-heeled shoe on the other. I compare painting with a comfortable trainer and the painting’s analytical observation with a high-heeled shoe. As an artist-researcher, I feel like I am standing near my paintings in contrapposto. My research shows how the heel wears out and the words become familiar little by little. Theorists Mieke Bal and Kai Mikkonen, as well as various other researchers, art- ists, and their works, support my journey. Written lan- guage, too, can be wild and experimental, and it is the very element that turns my works into a form that can be verbally shared. Verbalising my research has revealed that a part of my works’ narrative becomes complete only when I leave my workspace and the works are exposed to views and inter- pretations. During my research, I realised the diversity of interpretations and the extent of factors that have influ- enced my work. The key results of my research include the understanding that an artist’s research process opens to be shared and followed through words. The definitions suggested by words do not invalidate a painting’s liberty to be completely indefinable, but they help to understand the various ways a painting’s narrative works. Katja Tukiainen 8 March 2022
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