Spaces of openness

Beyond the hype

“…Such strategic initiatives paint only one side of the picture, moments of hype and disillusion side-effects. We argue, instead, that research on how art and culture are lived and contested in cities during mundane times or times of deep crisis (see Sanul and van Heur 2018) could provide valuable insights about a more democratic and inclusive experience of our urban environments. This forms the foundation of our second recommendation, which is used to motivate scholars and policy makers to theorise the everyday and explore art and culture in cities as a continuous process of communication, connection and reconfiguration of meanings within but also outside the institutional arts frameworks.…”

“…Some of the organisers of the festival argued that thanks to the approach of AFF, but also other similar informal cultural initiatives and ordinary creative practices, there are now many self-managed groups of citizens that have dared-with different independent projects-to challenge the Athenian arts institutions and creative topo-strategies imposed from official cultural bodies. Many more small community organisations are now using open public spaces or abandoned places, turning them into lively creative 'spaces of openness' for artistic activity and dialogue (Sanul and van Heur 2018;Leontidou 2020). Dimitris, one of the AFF volunteers, points out how people now 'use the streets, their houses, their living rooms, cafés, shops, vehicles of public transportation to express themselves and communicate with fellows.…”