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Academy of Fine Arts in Prague

Anna Remešová (based in Prague) is editor in the Czech online art magazine Artalk. Studied art theory and history at the Academy of Arts, Design and Architecture in Prague. Anna is an occasional curator and organizer, mainly interested in institutional conditions of art in the context of the current politics and society. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague where she focuses on the history of the Náprstek Ethnographic Museum and its permanent display.

https://avu.cz

Secondment destination
CASCO, 22/5–2/6/2023 and 18/9–7/10/2023

MayDay Rooms, UK

Lukasz Risso is a member of the MayDay Rooms collective – an archive dedicated to the history of social struggles, resistance campaigns and experimental culture. The main work of MayDay Rooms consists in connecting historical materials with contemporary political struggles through collaborative education, informal research, digitisation and free distribution. In the framework of the SpaceX programme, he collaborated with URBANER – Culture Urbane Emilia-Romagna, AFOr- Archivio delle Fonti Orali, Collettivo Amigdala, Istituto Storico di Modena, AISO – Associazione Italiana di Storia Orale and Nationhood collective on a project around (sub) cultures and their connection with processes of neoliberal urbanisation.

https://maydayrooms.org/

Secondment destination
University of Modena, Reggio Emilia, 03/07/2023 to 14/07/2023

LABORATORY FOR THE URBAN COMMONS (LUC), Athens

Panayotis Lianos is an artist, architect and tattooist based in Athens. He is a graduate of the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens, has a Master of Fine Arts from the Athens School of Fine Arts and currently is a PhD candidate in Architecture at NTUA. His artistic research focuses on the methods of collective artistic production that can, potentially, create cracks within institutional frameworks. The mediums he employs span from installations to digital interdisciplinary fetishes, composing a vocabulary that fluctuates between bits and gestures, blood and data. Panayotis is a member of the Laboratory for the Urban Commons, the fluid artistic collaborations method brackets[], and the Ofrah Fergal Kasei practice. Via the aforementioned symbioses a series of co-authored works, interventions and publications have been produced; some are included in private and public collections, such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art, while others exist in self-managed and public spaces. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS in 2022.

www.neocosmos.gr

Secondment destination
Coventry University, Spring 2024

LABORATORY FOR THE URBAN COMMONS (LUC), Athens

Pegy Zali is an architect and an artist based in Athens. Her work is a study of the dynamics of unsettled and abnormal collective actions. Her practice develops through collaborations between artists, curators, researchers and “unskilled” friends. She has received a degree from the Architectural School, N.T.U.A, an MA in Architectural Research from the same university and an MA in curating in London. Currently she is a scholar of the State Scholarships Foundation for developing her PhD research. Pegy is co-founder of the architecture and artistic research collective Laboratory for the Urban Commons and the [] (brackets), which is a method of forming fluid collaborations in the cracks of contemporary artistic practice. She has been part of the art group KERNEL and the architectural collective Nomadic Architecture; she is a fellow of the ARTWORKS 2018 programme.

www.neocosmos.gr

Secondment destination
University of Northampton, Spring 2024

LABORATORY FOR THE URBAN COMMONS (LUC), Athens

Xenia Kalpaktsoglou is a curator and a founding member of the Athens-based collective Laboratory for the Urban Commons. Her curatorial practice is rooted in collaboration, the creation of (trans-)local projects and initiatives, and in the reconsideration of the protocols of exchange and production between cultural producers and institutions/organizations. She co-founded the Athens Biennale and co-directed it from 2005–2016.Between 2006-2008 she was the director of the DESTE Foundation. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Artistic Research department at the Zurich University of the Arts / Linz University of the Arts.

www.neocosmos.gr

Secondment destination
Coventry University, 20 June to 20 July 2023

Project Arts Centre, Ireland

Sara Greavu is a curator, writer and organiser; and Curator of Visual Arts at Project Arts Centre, Dublin. She has a particular interest in how art can recognise existing social structures, propose alternative histories and genealogies of knowledge, and prefigure different social relations. Previous curatorial and development roles include Centre for Contemporary Art Derry~Londonderry, VOID, and Outburst Arts, Belfast; in addition to working independently. Recent projects include Open the book at a different page, a research exhibition with artist Ciara Phillips and former members of the Derry Film and Video Workshop, which dealt with intertwined political and cultural initiatives in Derry in the 1980s; solo shows with Kian Benson Bailes and Avril Coroon, and a group exhibition, Metabolic Time, co-curated with Cairo Clarke Along with Project Arts Centre, she is the curator of Ireland at Venice with the artist Eimear Walshe for the 60th Venice Biennale, 2024.

https://projectartscentre.ie/

Secondment destination
TBC

NTUA School of Architecture, Greece

I am a PhD candidate of the NTUA School of Architecture. After graduating my studies in Architecture, I completed in 2020 my postgraduate studies in the interdepartmental programme “Architectural Design- Space- Culture ” of NTUA, in the direction “Cognition of Architecture”. Since 2021, I am working on my doctoral thesis in the Department III of Architecture of NTUA, entitled “Locality Exercises: Representations of the centre of Athens as a field of spatial justice claims”. My research interests focus on the experience and representation of everyday urban life, urban tourism and touristification, city movements, housing, habitaion practices and spatial justice. The relation with the Space-X project comes through the year-long collaboration with Stavros Stavrides and Penny Koutrolikou in the research project “JUST: Redefining spatial justice in Athens as a city in crisis: Confrontations for Urban Commons”.

Secondment destination
TBC

Coventry Biennial, UK

I am an artist and early career curator developing projects that relate to nature and our relationship to the environment. I graduated from the innovative Fine Art and Contemporary Cultures degree, validated by Gloucester University in 2019 and have since worked for Coventry Biennial in a range of capacities, most recently as Assistant Curator supporting the development and delivery of projects with Can Altay, Alice Channer and the social engaged project, Mothers Who Make a Garden with Mothers Who Make, Coventry hub.

I have a multidisciplinary fine art background, particularly sculpture and make work exploring relationships with people, body and nature.

Throughout the SPACEX project I will seek to build international relationships and knowledge in support of Coventry Biennial’s impactful work with artists and communities.

www.coventrybiennial.com

Secondment destination
Academy of Fine Arts, Prague, Czech Republic

Coventry University, UK

Elpida is Operations Manager for the Creative Cultures Research Centres at Coventry University (UK). She has long-standing experience in supporting research teams to deliver high-quality research in the Creative Arts. Elpida holds a PhD in Information Systems from the Athens University of Economics and Business (Greece). She held research positions both in academia (University of Essex) and industry (Open Data Institute). She was also the A.C. Laskaridis Post-Doctoral Fellow at the European Institute, LSE. As researcher, her work is focusing on digital innovation, data infrastructures and experiential computing. Her work has been published in the European Journal of Information Systems, New Media & Society and Political Studies and presented in major conferences in the area of Information Systems, Politics and Media Studies.

During her SPACEX secondment, Elpida will explore the role of recent digital art exhibitions in the development of a post-crisis narrative for Athens.

Secondment destination
Laboratory for Urban Commons, Athens, Greece, April 2023 and October 2023