When? FRIDAY, 26 MAY 2023: 13:00 am – 18:30 pm, SATURDAY, 27 MAY 2023: 13:00 am – 19:00 pm & SUNDAY, 28 MAY 2023: 11:00 am – 18:30 pm (Local time).

Where? Athens Greece: The Vorres Museum & Gardens.

EMPACT is pleased to announce this seminar/workshop in the framework of the innovative project EMPACT – Empathy and Sustainability: The Art of Thinking like a Mountain, co-funded by the EU Creative Europe Programme (Grant Agreement No: 101055903 – EMPACT – CREA-CULT-2021-COOP-2). Empathy for human and non-human beings: clarifies and demonstrates how empathy as an abstract concept can be applied in the arts so that people are motivated to care for non-human others and the environment by using concrete examples.

The Seminar “Empathy for human and non-human beings” is organised by the Vorres Museum, an EMPACT consortium partner, and will be held in Greek or English language.

During the event, talks, seminars, workshops will take place in the framework of the innovative EMPACT – Creative Europe project.

1. Seminar by Apostolia Papadamaki, Choreographer
TITLE: “All of Nature One Stage”
3rd Day Workshop: 11:00 p.m. – 14:00 p.m.

A workshop that aims to use the human body and nature as the main and maybe the only tool to create a performance to awaken our empathy for Nature and the Cosmos, to enhance our feeling of belonging and to connect us with ceremony and ritual as a form to create our «ancient-future». A future connected with all living beings, so that we can envision a new cosmogony.

Under the umbrella of Human, Body & Nature, participants will explore themes of: metamorphosis, oneness, catharsis, ecstasy, ritual, mysticism, timelessness and ceremony.

The workshop will lead to the presentation of a short performance to the audience at the gardens of the Vorres Museum.

2. Workshop by Thrafia & Berthold Bell, Visual Artists
TITLE: «Mountains and Myths»
2nd Day Workshop: Time 17:30 p.m. – 19:00 p.m.

The participants will assemble in the basement, around a large table usually available for children’ s workshops. There will be an introduction by the two collaborating artists on the object of the Seminar, which is the idea of building a window in order to look at the Mountain.
Basic materials will be available and it will be asked to create a drawing on paper of the above concept.
These drawings will be expedited to the highest point of the Vorres Estate where chairs will be waiting for the participants to sit facing opposite the Mountain of Hymettus.
There, through a discussion with questions and answers, the idea of communicating with and looking into the matter of the Mountain will be elaborated to the point when every individual participant might complete his drawing with a short text.

3. Workshop by choreographers/educators: Maria Papadopoulou, Sonia Νtova, Vera Karavakou.
TITLE: Intergenerational Movement Workshop, “Βοdies as Garden”
3rd Day Workshop: 16:30 p.m. – 18:30 p.m.

A movement workshop “Bodies as Garden”, invites children 7-9 years old, teenagers and adults + 65 years old regardless of their experience in dance. There will also be some free spaces for participating in the workshop for artists participating in the 3-day event (regardless age). The workshop will be held in the gardens of Vorres Museum.

– What is nature? Are you part of nature?

– What happens when we spend time in a garden?

– How does our perception change?

– How do our breaths grow a tree?

– How do the roots of plants vibrate in our bodies?

– How do we relate to nature?

Through games, visual and sensory activities, physical and choreographic practices we will explore our relationship with nature. We will walk, observe, use organic materials from the garden, listen to our inner body, dance, play! Through collaborative and creative practices, we will explore this inter-generational symbiosis by creating interconnective and caring relationships.

• We explore how artists and cultural organizations can effectively connect their creative work, actions and strategies with resilience and sustainability.
• Demonstrate how the resilience instinct can be applied in the arts so that people can find ways to care for humans, non-humans and themselves.
• We established dialogue and debate among professionals to find different forms and ways of combining science, art, ecopoetry, ecomusicology and cinema.

If you are an artist, cultural professional, arts manager, researcher, educator, student, or cultural policy-maker, join us!

The Seminar and Workshops are free.

The seminar has a limited number spaces available: to reserve your place, please fill in the short registration form here (the number of participants is limited):

https://forms.gle/QingfqRbdK7KupoV7 (please open with Chrome web browser).

For additional information about the seminar, please contact:

Eleni Korakianiti, Vorres Museum, email: info@vorresmuseum.gr.

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Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them