Τhe touring exhibition “Stages of a Flight” that was hosted at the Municipal Market of Kypseli from the 31th of March since the 29th of April, has comen to an end at the city of Athens and the preparation for travelling to Vienna – the last station of its journey, has already began.
Τhe exhibition was surrounded by a series of actions and events under the title – umbrella “Changing Perceptions”, and turned on the discussion about stereotypes and dissimilarity.
The ensemble of El Sistema accompanied the opening night of the exhibition. Under the guidance of the conductor Faidra Giannelou, the Young Orchestra of El Sistema performed classical music tracks, and amazed more than 400 hundred people. Parallelly, the attendance audience was given the chance to participate at an experiential musical-kinetic game, and discover in that way, more about classical music.
Τhe beginning for the exhibition’s closing events in Athens, constituted a round table discussion with the subject “Changing the Narrative – The Role of Journalism” that took place among three journalists and the participating audience, on Friday the 27th of April. The participants from the journalist field were:
Nermin Ismail, journalist for the Austrian Media organisation ORF in Vienna, book author and also co-creator of the photography exhibition “Stages of a Flight”
Angel Ballesteros, Multimedia documentary maker that at the moment travels through Greece. Turkey, Balkans, Iraq, and Lebanon with TeleSUR a multi-state funded terrestrial and satellite television network.
Babis Christakopoulos, senior editor and presenter of a TV show with the name “Alternativa” and director at the webradio “Portokali Radio” that focuses on subjects such as Rights, Solidarity and Social Economics.
Co-ordinator of the discussion was Lida Tsene, a Communications Expert and also, PhD Dr. at the field of Public Relationships & Communications.
During the whole process of the dialogue, many questions arose about the role that a journalist has to keep towards crucial subject areas such as the refugee crisis, constituting base of the round table of this enlightening οpinions placement. Each participant, shared experiences that has gained by the years, insights that has been forming during the journeys, and the deep thoughts that contributed to the way of approaching the refugee subject nowadays that media choose to ignore, despite the importance that needs to be given.
The events were accomplished with a visual arts cooperation between CityLab and the Athens School of Fine Arts, along with 14 artists – university students (ASFA/– and 120 children aged from 6 to 12 years old from the area of Kypseli, created artworks with a triptych inspirational axis: Memory – Ιnequality – Style.
The exhibition closing was also related to music. This time, On Saturday the 28th of April, a Hip Hop concert took place bringing together four artists from Kypseli neighborhood,in order to celebrate with music, the exhibition’s closing in Athens, and all the activities and events that took place during “Stages of a Flight” The music producer Billa Qause (B.Q), Elephant Phinix, the group of two twin brothers TWINSANITY, and L.O.S, made a combination of their rhythms and passion and gave an unforgettable live concert for the audience.
This great procedure was accomplished from Impact Hub Athens in collaboration with Brunnenpassage (Austria), Studio ALTA (Czech Republic) and Dschungel Wien (Αustria) and was realised with the support of Creative Europe.
Living Realities – Changing Perceptions was a worth-mentioning step that succeed in bringing people together, in creating skepticism around theme areas such as the refugee’s realities that stand behind the “scenes” of media, and in laying the foundation of a continuing dialogue between people and art. Art – with the form of photography, dialogue, cinema, painting, music. Because art is the freedom of feelings, thoughts, and a common language among all the people.