Sofia Grigoriadou & Vivien Emmanouilidou:

“Athens is the new Berlin”/ “Berlin is the new Athens”

During the past few years, the phrase “Athens is the new Berlin” can be seen or heard almost everywhere in Athens. Lately, a graffiti on the walls of Athens states: "Berlin is the New Athens". How are such statements perceived by people living in Berlin or Athens? The aim of the project which takes the form of a workshop and a facebook group is to reflect on how and why the two cities are connected in public discourses and imagery. Let's establish new, perhaps arbitrary or idiosyncratic connections between Berlin and Athens by designing a new series of souvenirs that shake relations between the two cities.

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Sofia Grigoriadou is Phd candidate in Social Anthropology (Panteion University, Athens). She holds an MFA degree from the Athens School of Fine Arts (2015). She is a graduate of the A.S.F.A. (2013) and the Philosophical, Pedagogical and Psychological Department of the University of Athens (2006). She has participated in, co-curated and co-organised exhibitions, workshops, research and artistic projects in Athens, Edinburgh, Istanbul, Skopje, Berlin, and Beirut. She has assisted at the A´painting workshop, ASFA (2017). She collaborates with artists and anthropologists in the framework of TWIXTlab, an art project situated in between contemporary art, anthropology and the everyday. 

Vivian Emmanouilidou is a visual artist who lives in Athens. She holds a BA First Class Honours Degree in “Fine Arts and Technology” from Middlesex University, London (2012) and a MA in “Visual Arts” from Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens (2014). Through her works and academic research she explores the relations between contemporary art and politics, participatory and public art, as well as the connection between art and education. She has participated in and co-organized exhibitions, conferences and artistic projects and workshops in Athens, Patras, Thessaloniki and Berlin.