State of Concept
Athens

The Temporary Academy of Arts PAT & State of Concept Αthens invites you to Leftwing Prepping workshop as part of Waste/d Pavilion Episode 2 with Gene Ray, George Theodorakis and Constantina Litsa.

In an era of climate chaos as conditions degrade, ecologies collapse and social antagonisms intensify, what can be done? Since rescue will not come from above, how can simple citizens take care of themselves and each other? Rightwing preppers hoard assault rifles and freeze-dried food. Failing to anticipate and prepare is folly, but how would leftwing prepping, based on values of commoning, care and mutualism, be different? A workshop initiated by theorist Gene Ray and led by permaculture designer and trainer George Theodorakis and herbal medicine practitioner and educator Constantina Litsa aims to open these questions for discussion and move directly to some hands-on skill-sharing on the level of basic needs and metabolism.

In his essay Leftwing Prepping: After the Holocene, the Commons, accompanying the 2nd Episode of Waste/d Pavilion, Gene Ray is proposing commoning, “as a name for the planetary practice of more-than-human mutualism”. He writes: “Strategy, here, would focus on building alliances between common ecologies, working class and social movements and peoples’ parties, and on coordinating the actions of allied counterpowers.[…]  Needless to say, the capitalist class would fight ruthlessly to prevent this. Leftwing prepping is not in itself an adequate revolutionary strategy for collective self-rescue, obviously, the reskilling and conviviality it fosters are both useful and rich with enjoyment”.

 

Leftwing Prepping Workshop Program

 

Friday 17/6

Philopappou Hill

Meeting Point: Church of Saint Demetrios Loumbadiaris

 

18:00-18.30 

Introduction to Leftwing prepping by Gene Ray.

 

18.30-20:00 

Botanic walk at Philopappou Hill with Constantina Litsa.

We will walk, meet herbs and Konstantina will talk about their therapeutic qualities as well as about the collection and safe use of herbs as medicine, food or inspiration.

 

Saturday 18/6

State of Concept Athens

Tousa Botsari 19, 11741, Athens 

13:00 – 15:00  

Energy independence, presentation and workshop at State of Concept Athens with George Theodorakis. George lives in Athens and is off the electricity & gas grids. He doesn’t  use oil for heating. No bills to pay. He keeps warm with solar and rocket mass heaters, he uses his own photovoltaic generated electricity, he can cook and preserve food using solar and rocket ovens and solar dehydrators – without depending on anyone. No one can cut him off. He wants to pass on this know-how, because he finds it frustrating to see people suffering when they don’t have to. He believes that anyone can go off the grid – partly or completely, that is up to them. It’s relatively simple, and it’s not expensive. You just need time, basic materials, and the willingness to try it. He’ll present some of the devices you can easily DIY, with the community, or just buy, and then we’ll discuss what we can actually do in our homes and/or communities.

 

Constantina Litsa studied Botanic Therapy in The School of Health and Social Care – Edinburgh Napier University. She completed her postgraduate studies in Solution Focused Counseling in Public Healy and was trained in Solution Focused Counseling and Person-Centered Counseling. She worked as a Botanic Therapist in Britain, in the public and private sector, as well as in community programs designed for vulnerable groups, in order to improve their quality of life. She works as a Botanic Therapist and promotes the principles of Sustainable Cultivation (Permaculture). She leads independence seminars and practical workshops aimed at education for self-management of health and environmental awareness.

 

Gene Ray is Associate Professor of Critical Studies in the CCC Master Program at Geneva University of Art and Design. He believes capitalist modernity is ending with the Holocene climate, and that pathways to post-capitalist survivance based on commoning, reskilling and more-than-human mutuality are already emerging.

 

George Theodorakis is a climate activist, sustainability expert, permaculture trainer and sociocratic facilitator. He is a member of Permaculture.School, Mikilio and Recual.

 

The second episode of Waste/d Pavilion consists of the solo exhibition of Oliver Ressler, entitled “Assets Must be Stranded” curated by iLiana Fokianaki (until 24 September) accompanied by a public program curated by PAT: Bona-Fide 2, a dialogue between artist Elsa Brès and art historian and curator Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou, the Leftwing Prepping Workshop and the translation in Greek of Gene Ray’s essay Leftwing Prepping: After the Holocene, the Commons and Chiara Bottici’s Ecofeminism as queer ecology.

 

Waste/d Pavilion unfolds through a series of “episodes,” focusing on different thematics: labor, body, ecology, and language. Artists, researchers, and scientists from Greece and abroad have been invited to present different conceptualisations of the notion of Waste/d, through various ways of viewing, circulating, and developing methodologies for an anti-Waste/d front.

 

The programme  ‘Waste/d Pavilion’ is part of the chapter “Coalition of the Care-full”, an endeavour of the “European Pavilion 2”. Launched by the Amsterdam-based European Cultural Foundation and developed in partnership with the Camargo Foundation, the Kultura Nova Foundation, and Fondazione CRT, The European Pavilion is an initiative that supports and promotes artistic projects which imagine desirable and sustainable futures for Europe and which bring Europe closer to its communities and their realities. In the course of 2021, seven arts and cultural organisations have joined this exciting new initiative: ARNA (Sweden), Brunnenpassage (Austria), INIVA (London), OGR Torino (Italy), State of Concept (Greece), Studio Rizoma (Italy) and L’Internationale (Ljublana, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Poland).

 

The programme “Coalition of the Care-full” is part of the project:

 

Waste/d is an ongoing art and pedagogy research project on social and artistic potential in times of extended crisis, by the Temporary Academy of Arts, PAT (Elpida Karaba, Despina Zefkili, Yota Ioannidou, Vangelis Vlahos). Waste/d involves research and production of new theory and artistic projects, creating alliances among practitioners from different localities, as well as art and scientific fields and taking various forms (books, lectures, interviews, seminars, performances, live events).

 

The Temporary Academy of Arts was initiated by Elpida Karaba in 2014. PAT (the abbreviation of Temporary Academy of Arts / Προσωρινή Ακαδημία Τεχνών) is a mobile academy of arts and at the same time an art project of experimental education that adopts mechanisms from various systems of knowledge and art practices for the production and transmission of artistic programs and the construction of their historicity. PAT is a para-institution engaged with a range of activities involved in different levels of institution affiliations. It depends on an ‘expanded’ curating, incorporating exhibitions, events and publishing projects persistently addressing the relationship of art and its institutions, the labour involved and the public.

 

Supported by The European Pavilion   

 

                    

 

Οginised by The Temporary Academy of Arts PAT