ΘΕΑΤΡΙΚΕΣ & ΜΟΥΣΙΚΕΣ ΣΚΗΝΕΣ, ΠΟΛΥΧΩΡΟΙ, ΕΚΘΕΣΙΑΚΟΙ ΧΩΡΟΙ, RESIDENCY CENTERS, BAR THEATERS κλπ.

[ENGLISH]


5/4/2013: Post-Council Press Release

After the unanimous vote of the Municipal Council of the Municipality of Athens (for immediate suspension of the shutting down of theaters and cultural spaces and immediate action towards an updated law regarding these spaces) and the announcements made by the Greek Ministry of Culture, the Perfromance Spaces of Athens review the events of the past few days and continue their action towards a new legislation regarding the licensing procedures of theaters and cultural venues.

The inspections ordered by the City of Athens within the past three months blindly requested theater licenses from multi-cultural spaces that don't specialize in any specific artform, drama-schools, residency spaces, bars and other places where performances are hosted, suddenly claiming that any space that hosts a theatrical performance should have a theater license (with the same requirements as a 500-seat auditorium or an opera house). These inspections also unraveled a series of efforts from small theatrical spaces (under 200 seats) to get the infamous "theater license" for several months, sometimes years - efforts leading to a dead end.

We are in a legal void, that's why we had the immediate response of the authorities and the support of all the unions in our industry. We insist on finding effective, long-term, solutions so the new cultural landscape of Greece coincides with a clear legislative framework that will neither compromise the security of the public and staff, nor the freedom of artistic expression.

In recent days we have already begun the process of collecting feedback from all cultural spaces in order to make a complete proposal, making sure the new law is made after an educated decision about today's reality of the performing arts. We believe that only in this way can we truly reflect this reality, and consider it necessary that there be representation of our Union (http://alternativespacesathens.blogspot.com) in the committee that will be appointed to work on the new legislation.

As the Mayor, Mr. Kaminis, said during the City Council, "the state did not follow the developments in the cultural landscape of our country in recent years."

We continue to see obstacles as opportunities presented for modernisation. Our spaces are not "traps", they are places that reflect the new artistic trends whilst opening dialogue with artists from abroad, giving breath to deprived areas of our city and providing hundreds of employment positions.

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27/3/2013: “Illegal theatres” in Athens

Surprisingly, today, on the International Theatre Day, Athens finds itself faced with a novel cultural threat: the City of Athens decided, without fair warning, to shut down 35 of Athens’ most vibrant performance spaces with the excuse that these spaces do not have a “theatre license”. Even thoughmany of these spaces are not and do not want even want to be called “theatres”.

Among a shady war between unions, big production companies and a jaw-dropping legal void (the theatre laws currently in use in Greece date back to 1937, when Greece was under a dictatorship), these 35 spaces, whose number will undoubtedly rise in the coming weeks after the City of Athens has finished with its “sweep” of the city’s cultural map, face the real threat of going out of business, leaving many professionals unemployed and the city significantly poorer in regards to cultural production.

The hard facts: there is no law in Greece which allows a performance space to function legally and safely away from the label of “theatre”. Most of these performance spaces barely fit 50 people, and even though their managers have secured their spaces with all the adequate measures as dictated by the Fire Department and the Health and Safety Board, their business will be shut down. Without a fair warning. Without suggestions as to how they can improve their spaces. Without time to react.

Additionally, the acquisition of the notorious “theatre license” is not only a highly costly business, but requires architectural features almost extinct from the city for many-many years. And fundamentally it requires for a specific spatial distribution of auditorium and stage that most of these spaces do not have. These spaces where created for Greek artists to experiment and work in free, flexible architectural formats and establish new and refreshing artistic signatures.

The crusade against performance spaces landed like a comet in Athens; nothing like this has ever happened before in the capital of Greece. The managers of the spaces in question formed a Group of the Performance Spaces of Athens in order to combat these irrational and hasty measures. It is our belief, already seconded by public opinion, that any closing should be put on hold and that the law immediately undergoes the necessary adjustments that will reflect the current reality of the performing arts.

The result, should the City of Athens has its way, is one: the gradual, yet definite deadening of an already crumbling city, where crime, corruption, trafficking and drug trading has reached astronomical heights. The performance spaces in Athens which have cropped up across town in the past decade created a fascinating network of cultural production and interchange, with some truly miraculous results, both artistically and financially. Some of the best performances in Greece were conceived and performed in these “illegal” spaces. To shut down these spaces equals an act of censorship, puts a stop to the free, evolving and fruitful cultural production, and brings the Greek performing arts to a monolithic state of repetition and stagnation.

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