An activity supported by Circostrada network
Eye’s Walk Digital festival is interested in fostering outdoor art and especially in contributing to the redistribution of ownership and power among the communities whose voice is diminished in the public space.
In 2023 Eye’s Walk Digital festival is preparing a Memoryscape-Soundscape walk based on oral histories and testimonies of the citizens of Syros who live and work alongside the coastal area of Ermoupolis, an area that includes “Neorio Shipyard” among other industrial public and private buildings.
Although the shipyard due to its 160 years of operation, is deeply rooted in the collective memory of Ermoupolis, its official history seems to exclude labor class memories while encouraging narratives derived from the Shipyard’s hierarchy, investors, government’s representatives. Nowadays we are witnessing a polarization and an intense confrontation among the hierarchy of the Shipyard and the citizens of Ermoupolis as a result of concerns expressed by the latter regarding the environmental footprint of the industry.
In 2020 Neorio has pursued judicially citizens-representatives of the local Observatory for the Environment, using the so called “Slapp method”.
Into this context we are persuaded that an advocacy campaign must be part of the creation of the Memoryscape walk alongside the port (which will include among other narratives,sound art, performances as well as oral histories from the shipyard’s past and current employees). The advocacy campaign will empower our participatory, artistic project, since, due to the “unfriendly” and suspicious behavior of the representatives of the Shipyard, citizens and students are afraid to share their memories, their oral histories and consequently they are prevented from exercising their political and artistic functioning freely; they cannot voice their ideas on social art, outdoor activities ,freedom, heritage and environment.
On the other hand our participatory artistic project in the outdoor area, will give to the society of Syros a sense of power, confidence and pride in order for them to take an active role in their community, to be the narrators of their own stories and to create art in the public space as well as public advocacy.
The advocacy campaign included:
Forbidden by MITO Collective operates around the limits of exclusion, manifesting the set of deprivations that most of us experience individually and collectively.
During one of Eye’s walk Digital festival’s walks, a labyrinthine tapestry of interconnections, entanglements and alliances will be unveiled , metamorphosing into an aphorism, a dynamic force that will reconfigure our perception.. A maxim that will open the way into a realm of unknown possibilities that will force us to reclaim our agency amidst the interplay of power structures, opening up a world in which we cannot help but take a stand.
Art in Public space is a live experience
