Slow orientation in Zapatismo

Slow orientation in Zapatismo - Lecture performance + Film Screening

24 October, 15:00-18:00 | Registration via Eventbrite

15:00-16:30 | Lecture performance

Speakers: Dmitry Vilenski, Olga Egorova (CHTO DELAT)

This lecture is based on the film and different versions of the installation #17, The New Dead End Street. Summer School of Orientation in Zapatism (2017-2021).

The film reflects on how the Zapatistas’ way of life could be practiced and questioned outside of genuine Indigenous experience – how we as Europeans/Russians, with all burdens of our own political and cultural histories, can imagine changing our lives? Realised in the Zapatista tradition of anti-culmination and with an irony well-known from Subcomandante Marcos' texts, the film investigates questions such as: what could be a theology of emancipation in the Russian situation; what is the role of culture in a process of liberation; and eventually, how can we build a movement of “good people” in a hostile world?

The lecture revolves around the process of working on the film with 17 young people in the countryside. The participants will discuss how going deeper into the realm of Zapatismo ideas resulted in various materials – documentation of performances, puppet theatre, objects and ephemerals.

16:30-18:00 Film Screening | About the footprints, what we hide in the pockets and other shadows of hope

Speakers: Dmitry Vilenski, Olga Egorova (Chto Delat)

Co-produced by Framer Framed and State of Concept Athens, The 84-minute film is the outcome of CHTO DELAT’s experimentation with integrating key texts by Zapatista spokesperson Subcomandante Marcos within the educational process of learning the Greek language. Along with a seminar delivered by architect Stavros Stavrides in the Open School for Migrants in Piraeus, in which he described the strong relations between the Zapatista movement and political activism in Greece, this process created a new paradigm of learning — somewhere in between real and imaginary concepts.*

In this film, one sees how reality intertwines with fiction and how our imagination gives us the ability to overcome our world’s cruel limitations, creating a shadow of hope. Finally, the film importantly reflects on the difficulties of learning and cultural production during the pandemic, and how we deal with brutal limitations imposed on us.

The performance on which the film focuses integrates two narratives: the first based on texts written by the Zapatistas, where Durito (a fictional beetle character) metaphorically describes the core sociopolitical ideas of the movement. The second is based on the personal histories of Piraeus Open School participants, refugees who came to Greece from different places of the world. The students worked closely with Stathis Markopoulos, a puppet maker, director and puppet theatre professional (Ayusaya Puppet Theatre), who introduced them to the basic methods of shadow theatre. Their collaboration resulted in the production of a performance as a finissage to this project. Read more about the process.

In this film, one sees how reality intertwines with fiction and how our imagination gives us the ability to overcome our world’s cruel limitations, creating a shadow of hope. Finally, the film importantly reflects on the difficulties of learning and cultural production during the pandemic, and how we deal with brutal limitations imposed on us.

The screening will be followed by a commentary of CHTO DELAT and a participatory conversation with the audience.