Written by Dana Papachristou and Yorgos Samantas-

Yorgos Samantas’ research on the performativity of political protest in the urban setting of Athens. It is based on participatory observation and an extensive archive of field recordings of demonstrations and protests in the center of Athens, from 2011 until today.

https://backtalks.city/project/vox-populi-vox-dei/

The research is concerned with the corporeality and affect of demonstrations, and the political agency of walking and voicing in negotiation with urban planning, public memory and monumentality. On an analytical level, the particular manifestation of the research has a cartographic, linguistic and musicological character. The sociolinguistic and rhythmic analysis informs the specific composition, which at the same time deals with issues of ethics, institutional-artistic framing and presentation of the ethnographic material.

The work was presented in the framework of the artistic residency program “The City Talks Back” in Onassis Stegi, in collaboration with Theatrum Mundi, in 2020. The recordings for the project were made in “NMA” studio, sound engineered by Themelis Rizos.

Out of the same, ongoing research framework, emerged “Theater of Struggle” (audiowalk, part of “Einander (zu) hoeren: stadt-geschichten”, organized by Escoitar.org, curated by G. Vermeire, Goethe-Institut, 2013), “Street Derby” (Exhibition“ Fones ”/” Fonés ”@CAMP !, 2014), and in “Miracles in Athens” intervention of TWIXTlab, in V. Vlastaras’ “Condensation Cube” exhibition (ISET,  cur. by K. Stafylakis & Ch. Kanellopoulou).