Actopolis

A state of crisis has, in the meantime, become a permanent state for many European towns and cities. The long-running platform Actopolis has established a transnational testing ground for urban alternatives.

How have local urban communities in southeast Europe changed following the events in Gezi Park in Istanbul, on Syntagma Square in Athens, or following the opening and closing of the Balkan Route? How are culture producers reacting when towns become venues for an alternative, exotic catastrophe and survival tourism (as described by G. Stathopoulou)? Calls are becoming louder and more intense, for the good life beyond austerity policies, for a truly diverse public, for communities that do not define themselves through separation.

Actopolis. The Art of Action
© Photograph: eSeL.at

Actopolis. The Art of Action
© Photograph: eSeL.at

Actopolis. The Art of Action
© Photograph: eSeL.at

Actopolis. The Art of Action
© Photograph: eSeL.at

Opening: Actopolis. The Art of Action, Mayor for ten minutes
© Photograph: eSeL.at

Opening: Actopolis and urbanize!, Subchor Sing-Along
© Photograph: eSeL.at

Actopolis. The Art of Action
© Photograph: eSeL.at

„Commanding Heights“, Actopolis Ankara/Mardin
© Photograph: Sevgi Ortaç

Actopolis – participating cities
© NODE

Actopolis Micro-Residencies: inter-city networks
© Photograph: Michael Pappas

Actopolis Lab – project development
© Rainer Schlautmann

PAT, Actopolis Athens: „How much I enjoy listening to people going up in the
© Photograph: Michael Pappas

About the project

Since 2015 Acropolis has linked over 70 architects, urbanists and activists from Ankara/Mardin, Athens, Belgrade, Bucharest, Oberhausen, Sarajevo and Zagreb in one inter-municipal production laboratory. Both commonalities and differences have to be continually renegotiated in the process. The aim of Actopolis is not one major event but the passing on of experience and the development of urban tools. This topical exhibition shows the results of the three years’ collaboration, and in cooperation with the ‘urbanize!’ Festival is itself once more becoming a public space for debate.

Actopolis actors

Curators: Ana Dana Beroš, Danijela Dugandžić, geheimagentur, Ștefan Ghenciulescu, Raluca Voinea, Elpida Karaba, Glykeria Stathopoulou, Boba Mirjana Stojadinović, Pelin Tan

Artistic Directors: Katja Assmann, Angelika Fitz, Martin Fritz

Project Management: Juliane Stegner/Goethe-Institut Athens