Circular Cultures: Periphery at the Centre
A two-day phygital program dedicated to sustainable design and circular economy
Dates
Tickets
Venue
Time & Date
2 Galaxia str, (Workshops)
Information
Working language
In English with simultaneous interpretation in Greek, and Greek sign language
Workshops / Masterclass program
To participate, please submit an application of interest.
Deadline: March 16, 2023
Participation
Participation in the conference is free following online registration
Introduction
“Circular Cultures: Periphery at the Centre” in 2023 aims to ignite a new way of thinking around design, architecture, crafts, and technology focusing on a process of co-creation that defies separation between humans and non-humans and seeks to re-conceptualize the notion of centre and periphery in non-colonial and anti-extractive terms.
The 5th edition of the program will be a two-day hybrid conference in Athens, featuring UK, EU and other international speakers sharing case studies and hosting masterclasses and workshops. It will be focusing on the question of centre and periphery, and the intersections between urban, rural, local, and global systems providing a rhizomatic and non-linear perspective that makes the invisible visible and recovers forgotten aspects of practice and memory.
Over the course of two days, we will examine different typologies for sustainable place-making – the community, the island, the lake, the forest, the ritual, the residency, the city, the supermarket and more – and look at:
- the power of Interdisciplinary design and dialogue towards climate action and climate justice
- the role and migration of local materials and craft in social, economic, and environmental sustainability
- strengthening rural/urban connections to tackle local and global challenges
- showcasing the role of small sized cities to come up with place-based responses to local challenges through design and architecture and address the intangible nature of materiality in connection to the social fabric.
Conference & Workshops Description
“Circular Cultures: Periphery at the Centre” will take place in Athens, at the National Gallery (“Onassis Foundation” auditorium) and the Onassis Stegi, while it will also be live streamed. On day one, speakers from the UK, EU, and South Asia will share case studies and discuss opportunities and dislocations in rural-urban systems and how the role of local and global knowledge systems can feed into future thinking; day two will host a number of masterclasses/ workshops that aim to strengthen arts and culture networks for individuals, practices and organisations as well as host an EU delegation of design professionals.This year’s “Circular Cultures” seeks to highlight a new way of thinking around design, focusing on the significance of local materials and the promotion of small-scale best practices, with the aim of co-shaping an extensive global creative system with the human being at its core. Maintaining the periphery and the rural element as its point of reference, we will endeavour to re-examine and redefine the notion of the contemporary city and its social fabric, bringing to view initiatives and synergies that promote a sense of collective becoming
— Maria Papaioannou, Head of Arts, British Council Greece
What does cosmolocal design mean? How can we design by taking into consideration the generations to come, as well as the knowledge integrated within space and people that defines the literal and symbolical boundaries of a place? To what extent circular design constitutes an approach that already exists within traditional design and how it can be re-discovered within the digital reality of our times? Circular Cultures 2023, entitled “Periphery at the Centre,” poses the following question: how does space and its palimpsest-like knowledge inform the way we design and re-approach our creative practices? At a time when de-globalisation changes the way we perceive the design of objects, cities, and clothes, the call for a design model that places in its core the local sourcing of materials used in the creation of new objects has become critical.
The Onassis Stegi is holding Circular Cultures 2023 in collaboration with the British Council and within the framework of its wider actions centred around climate justice, as well as the re-approach of public space in its collective, universal, and not exclusively material, essence. With Circular Cultures 2023, the Onassis Stegi welcomes the dissolving of the dividing lines between centre and periphery as part of a more comprehensive effort to re-read Greek culture as cosmopolitanism; a cosmopolitanism that is nourished by and rooted in tradition, the simplicity of the design practices of the everyday, and the deep respect towards the genuinely local, which becomes truly global in this perspective.
— Prodromos Tsiavos, Head of Digital Development & Innovation of the Onassis Foundation