The Department of Civil Imagination (DCI) Agency in Athens: Amministrazione Trasparente or When DCI met GABRIELA

On Tuesday, October 26 & Wednesday, October 27, 2021, we are very happy to invite you at 3 137 space for the presentation of the research as well as for the public launch of the research material that was produced within the scope of RESHAPE in relation to the art sector in Greece. On display in the space will be the RESHAPE: A Workbook to Reimagine the Art World, the final publication that brings together the research, as well as the printed materials that were the outcome of the program on a local and on a European level, part of which will be distributed for free. During the open days, visitors will have the opportunity to meet and talk with the Athens-based participants of the network through a live presentation that will take place at 7-8 p.m., on both days.

RESHAPE is a research and development program that brings together arts organizations and professionals from Europe and the Southern Mediterranean to reimagine and create new organizational models and alternative working methods. RESHAPE aims to respond to today’s challenges, aligning fairness, solidarity, and sustainability with the civil role of the arts. Exploring the expertise of those already experimenting with new models and ways of working, the RESHAPE Workbook gathers instruments for transition towards a fairer arts ecosystem.

The tangible results of this process are presented in the form of Prototypes, proposals that contribute to a positive change in the arts and its relation to society. One of these Prototypes is the Department of Civil Imagination (DCI), that 3 137 was a member of. DCI is the outcome of a series of conversations on the relationship of imagination, art and society. DCI is a fictional department that utilises the ‘civil imagination’ as a radical act to reshape realities in poetic, practical, and political ways, following the provocation by adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha that ‘all organizing is science fiction.’

In an effort to connect the research that took place during RESHAPE with the local art scene, we present a series of tools that were created over the past year. These tools include:

1. A collection of audio recorded one-to-one interviews with arts professionals, who, in their respective professions, hold administrative and managerial roles in organizations that shape a wide spectrum of the cultural production in Greece.
2. A text that summarizes the discussions that took place during the RESHAPE Athens Workshop for the future of governance in the cultural sector.
3. A new publication by 3 137 on fair practices that proposes a tool -a template contract- in order to better define and enhance the working conditions in the contemporary art field. This publication is the continuation of the work conducted by the immaterial art institution GABRIELA and the publishing of Around Labor, Art, and the Auratic Condition (This is Not a Love Song), the outcome of the collaboration between 3 137 and the curator Ilaria Conti.

OPENING DAYS & TIMES:
Tuesday, October, 26, 18:00-21:00

19:00-20:00
Presentation “When DCI met GABRIELA” by Kosmas Nikolaou and Paky Vlassopoulou

Wednesday, October, 27, 18:00-21:00

19:00-20:00
Book launch of “RESHAPE: A Workbook to Reimagine the Art World” by: Ash Bulayev, Myrto Katsimicha, Nefeli Myrodia, Kosmas Nikolaou, and Paky Vlassopoulou

Address: 3 137, 137 Mavromichali str., 11472, Athens

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