Research Catalogue

Silence surrounds us, silence around us – on creativity in communication, which interacts with and addresses the theoretical and practical exploring of the artistic research for Green x (2022 –). Simultaneously, it might be possible to create an artistic method of intervention artistically, which aims at the theoretical level evolutionally. Is language the tool? If it is yes, what kind of tool is the language? Through the language, what can we produce and provide? Thereby, I address the topic of creativity in communication in reading silently, speech, and listening. On creativity in communication is a play to draw models. Thereby the leitmotif is "reading". Critical seeing in a model on reading subjectivity and objectivity at the online artistic representational level, Question for on creativity The research objective(s) is a future idea for physical space and its mobility within virtual space (potentiality) for a new type of idea for notation between tradition and modernity. In this aspect, towards international communication gaps between tradition and modernity, DADA solved the issue of communication and explored a new way of communication, that was not a philosophical metaphor, but rather that consisted of semiotics and semantics in the context of design, was creative. – New visual and auditory codes. Thereby I deal with “Tractatus logico-philosophicus”, that is a logic of nonsense by Wittgenstein in the theme of space, body and time. "Silence surrounds us, silence around us" is an artistic research series, after "N.N-Zwischenliegend", I have been started to explore in 2020, after the corona-pandemic.

Sculpted and painted wood, combined with treated rusty objects. Duct tape with boat paint models for metal sheet sculptures, 2020. Digital drawings, 2021, 2023. Dutch steel sailing boat part-restoration and renovation, Amsterdam (with Sean A. Hladkyj), 2019-20. Relief and improvised sculptures made with industrial paints, as well as found objects, were exposed to weather conditions, including heavy rain and wind, over a few months on a floating timber raft. Working with the changes the weather was causing to the ad hoc studio, I made changes until the painting was finished, photographed, then dumped. The relief was collected. I applied the colours from those available in a symbolic manner, abstracting the view of a ghetto in a large city. The objects stand for the landmarks. The pieces would comprise of the scenography for a theatre performance, informed by my conversations with a theatre lighting technician. The event would also include a donation event of the art objects. See external link for the theatre play, based on the tradition of the philosophical dialogue and employing the idea of performing philosophy to make it accessible to a wider audience. Political asylum has been traditionally offered to people who flee from their countries of origin and citizenship, because of violations of their dignity, which is a human right, for their political beliefs and related activities. Currently, seven human rights of mine, five basic, have been infringed in the United Kingdom, where I have been a citizen since 2011; the origin is my native Greece. Political asylum is only offered to people, who are non-citizens of the country where asylum is sought from. At the same time, political asylum has become harder to offer, due to the global nature of persecution of whoever is perceived as a dissident. Since 2013, Forza Nuova, the Italian affiliate of the Greek Golden Dawn, has participated in the organised international criminal case, of which I have been the target, originating from my native Greece, "accelerating" in the Netherlands and the UK in 2020, Covid-19. This happened with the theft of my personal details, specifically my Greek driver's license number, by Italians, in Amsterdam in the winter of 2020. My number was used for three fake Italian driver's licenses for criminal activity in the UK. Notably, Roberto Fiore, Forza Nuova's leader, inherited briefly Alessandra Mussolini's post in the EU parliament. Nevertheless, the Italian government settled in the summer of 2024 one remaining fake Italian passport for a fictitious Albanian citizen, probably in connection with Forza Nuova, after mediation with the Albanian government. Drawing on the philosophical notion of impossible objects, the works attempted an indirect postcolonial critique; a suggestion for alternative, autonomous and communitarian lifestyles; and a performative metaphor for global refugees. At the time, in autumn 2019, I had attended an environmental protest in Amsterdam that was generally peaceful. Investigatory research with artworks, some of it carried out in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where I was a philosophy student, from 2017 until late 2019, and remained until autumn 2020. I did not have student insurance, as it was obligatory, because I was covered by the NHS through EHIC (European Community coverage, when the UK was still in the EU), since the UK was still in the EU. I didn't have travel insurance either. Presentation of work in progress. See exposition in connection with "The (Origins of) The Game".

Joining the Forces - Methodologies of Sustainable Transcultural Artistic Research Johannes Kretz (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) Today, many traditional musical practices are threatened with imminent extinction for various reasons, such as the loss of (indigenous) languages, or the pressure coming from an imbalance of power vis-à-vis a more or less globalized music industry. Even contemporary academic composition can be counted among the endangered traditions, even if it is still somehow "artificially kept alive" to varying degrees in different countries. Therefore, the idea of joining the forces of creativity could be meaningful, to support the solidarity between (artistic) minorities in the widest sense, to gain importance in a world of strongly commercialized cultural life, and to redefine aesthetic and social categories. Since 2007 through various projects and initiatives new formats of transcultural artistic research have been developed at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna by Johannes Kretz, Wei-Ya Lin and Hande Sağlam. The collaboration between members of the indigenous community of the Tao on Lanyu island, Taiwan and composers, musicians and ethnomusicologists from Austria within the project “creative (mis)understandings” developed new transcultural approaches of inspiration (seen as mutually appreciated intentional and reciprocal artistic influence based on solidarity). “Confusing Inspiration” is a teaching format, confronting students of composition and improvising instrumentalists with places, communities and music practices outside of their comfort zone to widen the perspective of their artistic and intellectual concepts and to establish forms of understanding and collaboration. The underlying concepts of both projects aim to encourage communities to engage in unexpected alliances. Beyond that – with regard to sustainability – one has to ask, whether some impulses of this collaborations will continue and propagate in the respective communities. And: can these concepts of transcultural artistic research be extended to a making-with and becoming- with (in the sense of Donna Haraway), which can include – in a similarly mindful and respectful reciprocal way – not only humans from – very – different communities, but also non-humans? In times where climate change and environmental destruction are obvious threats to everybody on this planet, can (local) knowledge holders of indigenous and non-indigenous communities together with artists and researchers contribute sustainable approaches by questioning the demarcation between culture and nature?

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

Research Paper of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague 2024. BA Photography. This research paper began to investigate photographers and visual artists who use their practice as a coping mechanism to deal and understand family dynamics and events connected to it. Drawing inspiration from personal narratives and correspondence with my father, the research navigates through themes such as generational silence, family, and Italian patriarchal culture.Through a reflective process, I believe that artistic practice can become a way to delve into the traumas that affect the family environment. In this way, it is possible to approach places and people we do not know well, such as our parents. This process not only facilitates healing but has also given me the tools to further develop my practice by using knowledge gained from the practice of other photographers and exploring the combination of different methods of writing. The research paper was the starting point of my collaboration with my father as it gave me the possibility to open a conversation with him and discover the untold things that lay between us. In the process of writing, I’ve used the paper as a way to remember the stories of my childhood and take inspiration for my photography. The elements that I’ve touched appon the stories came back later in the process of making allowing me to have a clearest idea of my further steps into the project. To understand this, I looked in someone else’s houses, experiencing the tradition of mourning on the Greek island through the photography of Ioanna Sakellaraki and the tenderness of a mother in understanding her children with the project of Sian Davey. I moved to different places, to different generations, entering the house of Larry Sultan, full of kitschy design and colorful wallpaper that sets the scene for a story of discovery. The driveway of Deanne Dikerman has seen many days and many goodbyes and the loving words and confession of Chantal Akerman who could not give more for her mother. I discovered the work of Tami Aftab in the little post-its stuck in the corners of a house and now part of the outside world. And then between laughter and tears, I entered the complicated house of Richard Billingham, between one glass of wine and another. Each of these artists showed their intimate space, in which we discover stories that do not belong to us but that can guide us to understanding where we are, what we feel, and what we suffer. There is a lot of vulnerability in being behind the camera while a parent is in front. To ask questions and start seeing them as people and not just as parents. To reveal the stories of pain that lie in the past and are hidden by the passing of time. We hide in the home to escape from what frightens us and then we are called to talk about what is hidden. Photography is a way in which we can reshape what has happened, a way in which we can understand the succession of events and build a home that hides nothing. In doing this research I opened up a conversation and brought the house outside. I broke a silence that had lasted too many years and found a passionate father who wanted to discard the past. And so, in staying in silence while you are willing to say things but don’t know where to start there is some tenderness and there is some strength. In unfolding the memories and breaking the silence I know I have found empathy instead of trauma, creating a common ground where climbing trees is a moment of rest somewhere in the past.

This thesis is an attempt to unfold multifaceted discussions in multispecies entanglements, focusing on the fundamental act of feeding—a process that extends beyond mere sustenance to become a critical interaction within the web of life. It interlaces a rich array of perspectives, combining academic research, artistic inquiry, and personal reflections to illuminate the diverse implications of feeding.