The NEON Community Projects initiative was established in 2013.  Every year two projects are undertaken to implement contemporary art programs in Athenian neighbourhoods. With the joint participation of artists, residents and independent groups, these Community Projects form a living field of artistic activities that focus on issues specific to the local community.

For Kypseli – The Ring Radio Athènes is organizing a week of events at the open air municipal cinema Stella which been closed since 2008.

Screenings will include American composer and writer Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives (1984), a groundbreaking opera for television in 7 episodes; Employment Contract (1992), a short film by Documenta 14 curator Pierre Bal-Blanc; and GreenScreenRefrigeratorAction (2010) a film by artist Mark Leckey selected by Dexter Sinister (the compound name of Stuart Bailey and David Reinfurt).  Rather than sharing a common theme, the works included in the programme are linked through their use of the spoken word, music and spectacle.

In addition to these screenings, artists, musicians, curators and visitors are invited to use The Ring as both auditorium or more informal ‘theatre in the round’.  Stella will also be open to the younger members of the community for music workshops by Y2, and for gardening sessions led by agronomist Taxiarhis Andritsopoulos.

Each evening closes with a live performance by contemporary musicians exploring ideas around improvisation, the ephemeral, the material quality of sound, and the physicality of live music.  Performers will include The Hydra, The Singing Head, Paolo Thorsen Nagel, Michalis Moschoutis and Ilan Mannouach.

NEON hopes that Stella will become a recreational oasis and source of inspiration for the local community during the hot June days and nights, and that the Community Project will act as a catalyst for the permanent re-opening of this beautiful open air cinema.

Loukas Bartatilas’s 2015 in-depth study of this area serves as a foundation for future artistic projects and initiatives. syn.desmoi | Kypseli neighborhood as a raw material for new creations