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Eleni Tzirtzilaki
The Urban Void is a team created in 1998
that works on the right to the city and on space.
Its members are architects and artists,
and 'actions' have taken place in various locations in Athens,
in Patras, in the Patroklos' island. Jimmy will speak more about these.
Jimmy Euthemiou
Our actions always referred to people's self-determination within space.
Such actions concern plain movements
that are under question within this city.
Even though they appear self-evident, in fact they aren't.
Walking, expressing oneself through music, playing,
laying down on a square,
speaking - the vocalization of speech -
dragging empty buckets inside the Kifissos riverbed
before it became part of the national highway network.
This latter action was verification
through sound of dryness, of aridity,
both literally and metaphorically.
Our actions always concern spaces under question,
voids not yet included in city-planning;
a planning that a lot of us have many reasons to object.
At this very moment,Urban Void focus is
on events currently taking place in Athens
initiated by the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos in the street,
that is, within the public space of this city
and concerns all the events that followed.
We consider that we ought to fight for the right to the city and for space,
to put it differently, for democracy.
This is closely related to the theme of the forthcoming conference;
how and whether democracy exists,
whether the right to the city and to space is respected
within the city of Athens and especially during this specific period of time
Therefore, the work we shall present,
a part of the work at least, will focus on issues
that we consider both critical and interesting
and we shall give a feeling of the demonstrations,
and of what is currently happening within the younger generation.
Thus our action
- we always do an action even when we are invited to give a talk -
this action will mainly evolve around those events.