IDEA
In the summer of 2018 the creative team of six d.o.g.s, in collaboration with the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, introduced ADD Festival to the international audience at the Industrial Complex of Piraeus 260 – a great celebration of contemporary electronic music which ushered in a new era in artistic events of Greece. The following summer of 2019 the six d.o.g.s team, this time in collaboration with the Onassis Foundation, presented the second edition of ADD Festival at the former Hellinikon Airport.
Four years later, and in the midst of the new, post pandemic, landscape in the wider field of culture, arts, human rights and sustainability, both locally and globally, ADD Festival introduced ACADDEMIA: a new, rich, interdisciplinary program of activations, launched for the first time in May 2022.
Divided into the distinct pillars of social empathy, music, the wider visual and performing arts and fashion, and expressed through a multitude of rotating, monthly activities, ACADDEMIA’s program aspires to embrace and empower the city’s independent artistic voices throughout the year, with the culmination of all this journey reaching its peak alongside ADD Festival’s calendar.
GOALS
ACADDEMIA as a venture has been in its infancy almost since the birth of ADD Festival itself, but its academic/educational character is considered more relevant and necessary than ever, constituting the tangible commitment to substantial assistance in drawing the contemporary artistic map of the city on the part of its coefficients.
Its primary objective is to support the wider cultural scene in Greece, providing its representatives with expertise, opportunities to network and highlight their work, as well as direct contact with modern international developments in their fields through masterclasses, workshops, industry events and parallel actions, which will take place in various locations in Athens.
In addition, it aims to highlight and shed light through open dialogue to all the current issues and reflections that have finally begun to concern the wider Greek society.
PILLARS
Social Discourse
Equal representation of women in culture
Mental health, reality and destigmatization in the arts
LGBTI and activism, a debate more relevant than ever
Sustainability and a green footprint on the country’s festival and wider map
How alternative entertainment venues can be turned into truly safe spaces
Cultural inclusiveness and integration of communities that are under-represented
Music and performing arts
Seminars, lectures, masterclasses, panels
Practical workshops
Electronic Music Production Mentorships
A/V installations/performances
Label/collective showcases
Green Initiatives
Dance as a medium
Visual Arts
Practical Workshops
Mixed Media
Painting
Photography
Sound Sculpture
Exhibitions
Exploring the world of synesthesia
Cinema – documentaries
Illustrated Fanzine
Incubator
Creation of an arts oriented incubator in the industrial zone of Athens, Eleonas
Transformation of a large-scale abandoned building into a living organization for the facilitation and execution of new ideas
A physical think tank, where fresh ideas will be hatched and implemented
This space will be the base of ACADDEMIA, hosting many of the organization’s future activities
While simultaneously welcoming activations by other, like-minded organizations
Abundance of studio spaces and artist residencies for musicians, dancers and other creatives
Launch events
ΑCADDEMIA Zine
The first edition of ACADDEMIA’s fanzine was released with LIFO on Thursday May 12th featuring opinion pieces, photo essays, interviews, studio visits, comic strips as well as a few surprises such as an NFT art exhibition. On its 30 pages, the active past and present met with the hopeful future of the wider cultural world of the city, redefining the form of fanzines in the year 2022.
Polygono Live
Saturday 21 May 2022: The night that marked the beginning of ACADDEMIA.
Pan Pan, known as Panagiotis Pantazis, is a versatile artist, musician, illustrator and comic book creator. In the outskirts of the neighborhood of Polygono, Pan Pan returned to the open basketball court where he used to play football as a child, for a block party that combined drawing and music. After all, Polygono has been everywhere in his work: from the field of action of a cat in “Cherry Jam” to sound samples in tracks throughout his entire discography.
Polygono Live started the afternoon with painting.
Panagiotis and his guests Giorgos Goussis, Kanellos COB, and Georgia Zaharis demonstrated how to draw a short comic and passed the tools into the hands of the audience, in an interactive afternoon that culminated to 8 large frames drawn by everyone inside the stadium.
At the same time, Tind offered on-site screen printing on skin with glow in the dark inks. As night fell, the music began with the energetic tracklist-ing including both tracks from Phantasmagoria One and Two, and material from earlier works alongside unreleased tunes.
Gusplained: 12 Awkward Hours with Larry Gus
Monday, May 23, 2022: The second… event of ACADDEMIA
Acrobating between an educational program, a play, and an avant-garde morning TV segment, Larry Gus’ whirlwind 12-hour Lives- tream took place live from noon until midnight on a Monday in May. Gusplained had 12 guests from the wider creative world and the help of Larry Gus’ friend, and award-winning Creative Director, George Garefalakis, on the stream.
The 12 separate sections were complimented by: Dani (illustrator), Demetria (musician), K.atou (DJ), Moose (rapper), Sissi Rada (musician), Will Westerman (musician), Byronas Theodoropoulos (stand up comedian), Irini Koulelis (barrista, coffee expert), Jacqueline Lentzou (cinematographer), Eva Papamargariti (digital artist), Elli Tryngou (actress), Costas Tsioukas (choreographer, dancer), Fotis Fotinoglou (chef) with the overall result available for binge-watching on YouTube or the ACADDEMIA Facebook Page.
Social Discourse Ι
Tuesday, May 24, Social Discourse I Forecourt of the Arts Center of the Municipality of Athens, next to the Music Megaron.
Publish Yourself in collaboration
with Hyper Hypo
A session aimed at deciphering the secrets of independent publishing and moderated by Andreas Kokkino and Stathis Mitropoulos, co-founders of Hyper Hypo, the new art bookstore in Athens. Participants Natassa Pappas (Desired Landscapes), Vassilis Karydis (Dapper Dan), Sotiris Trechas (Fluffer Everyday), Prodromos Papadopoulos (Doma), Yannis Bournias and Lina Stefanou (Nomas) shared stories, experience and thoughts about the creative adventure of publishing small editions with great impact.
The dancefloor as a safe space for fringe communities in collaboration with the Orlando LGBT+ team
How can alternative entertainment spaces be turned into real safe spaces for LGBTI people and other subjects who are discriminated against because of their identity? The Orlando LGBT+ Mental Health Without Stigma team in an open discussion more relevant than ever. The diverse panel consisted of ClubKid (DJ), Ody Icons (Performer), Vanessa (Be Queer), Konstantinos Menelaou (The Queer Archive).
pleAse be kind, rewInd
On Wednesday May 25th we went to the movies in collaboration with the Hellenic Film Academy.
The Iris Awards are the great celebration of Greek cinema. They are awarded to the best Greek films of the year, marking an exciting, eclectic cinema that is increasingly recognized at home and abroad. This year, the 13th Iris participated in ACADDEMIA with a series of screenings and a sound installation rewinding some of the best films of last year’s production.
On Wednesday May 25th in Trianon – from early afternoon until very late at night-short films nominated for Iris awards in the categories of Short Film, Study, Animation and Documentary were screened. The screenings were divided into parts A and B, with Berlin-based Scottish sound artist Claude Speeed curating a special interlude turning the five nominated soundtracks in the Original Music category into audiovisual installations – in the context of a creative discussion between the final vision of an artist and how this can be reinterpreted using AI technology.
Jeff Mills PRESENTS Tomorrow Comes the Harvest
On July 12, ADD Festival in collaboration with ACADDEMIA welcomed Jeff Mills to Herodion.
Jeff Mills, one of the world’s top techno artists, presented live for the first time to an Athenian audience his pioneering Tomorrow Comes The Harvest project, an improvisational concept he created in 2018 with Tony Allen, Afro Jazz legend and Fela Kuti’s drummer.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that without Jeff Mills, electronic music would probably be very different today. From the legendary activist music collective Underground Resistance, of which he was a found- ing member back in the late 80s in Detroit, to worldwide critical and commercial acclaim, signing collaborations with symphony orchestras, art and fashion projects, Jeff Mills has carved out an enviable and completely idiosyncratic artistic course over the years.
Much more than a simple producer or DJ, Mills is a true artist of sound, with a complete vision and deep knowledge of his subject, which he serves both through his own record label, Axis, and with countless other projects.
In 2000 he wrote music for Fritz Lang’s silent masterpiece “Metropolis”. In 2006 he released “Blue Potential”, a live recording of his concert with the seventy-piece Montpelier Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2008 his work “Critical Arrangements” was exhibited at the Pompidou Center in Paris as part of the exhibition “Le Futurisme à Paris – Une Avant-Garde Explosive” while for his 2013 album “Where Light Ends” he was inspired by the Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mohri. These are just a few of the milestones in the great career of a versatile and always restless artist.
12 years after his last appearance in Athens, Jeff Mills appeared in the unique space of the Ancient Theater of Herodos Atticus, to pre-sent live his highly acclaimed Afro Futuristic Jazz project. Accompanied by keyboardist and longtime collaborator Jean-Phi Dary, he was once again in conversation with Tomorrow Comes The Harvest, this time with new improvisational “partners“ in bassist Divinity Roxx and flutist Rasheeda Ali. There, in the timeless venue, past met future, analog met digital, jazz met techno and the audience a living musical legend.
IDEA
In the summer of 2018 the creative team of six d.o.g.s, in collaboration with the Athens and Epidaurus Festival, introduced ADD Festival to the international audience at the Industrial Complex of Piraeus 260 – a great celebration of contemporary electronic music which ushered in a new era in artistic events of Greece. The following summer of 2019 the six d.o.g.s team, this time in collaboration with the Onassis Foundation, presented the second edition of ADD Festival at the former Hellinikon Airport.
Four years later, and in the midst of the new, post pandemic, landscape in the wider field of culture, arts, human rights and sustainability, both locally and globally, ADD Festival introduced ACADDEMIA: a new, rich, interdisciplinary program of activations, launched for the first time in May 2022.
Divided into the distinct pillars of social empathy, music, the wider visual and performing arts and fashion, and expressed through a multitude of rotating, monthly activities, ACADDEMIA’s program aspires to embrace and empower the city’s independent artistic voices throughout the year, with the culmination of all this journey reaching its peak alongside ADD Festival’s calendar.
GOALS
ACADDEMIA as a venture has been in its infancy almost since the birth of ADD Festival itself, but its academic/educational character is considered more relevant and necessary than ever, constituting the tangible commitment to substantial assistance in drawing the contemporary artistic map of the city on the part of its coefficients.
Its primary objective is to support the wider cultural scene in Greece, providing its representatives with expertise, opportunities to network and highlight their work, as well as direct contact with modern international developments in their fields through masterclasses, workshops, industry events and parallel actions, which will take place in various locations in Athens.
In addition, it aims to highlight and shed light through open dialogue to all the current issues and reflections that have finally begun to concern the wider Greek society.
PILLARS
Social Discourse
Equal representation of women in culture
Mental health, reality and destigmatization in the arts
LGBTI and activism, a debate more relevant than ever
Sustainability and a green footprint on the country’s festival and wider map
How alternative entertainment venues can be turned into truly safe spaces
Cultural inclusiveness and integration of communities that are under-represented
Music and performing arts
Seminars, lectures, masterclasses, panels
Practical workshops
Electronic Music Production Mentorships
A/V installations/performances
Label/collective showcases
Green Initiatives
Dance as a medium
Visual Arts
Practical Workshops
Mixed Media
Painting
Photography
Sound Sculpture
Exhibitions
Exploring the world of synesthesia
Cinema – documentaries
Illustrated Fanzine
Incubator
Creation of an arts oriented incubator in the industrial zone of Athens, Eleonas
Transformation of a large-scale abandoned building into a living organization for the facilitation and execution of new ideas
A physical think tank, where fresh ideas will be hatched and implemented
This space will be the base of ACADDEMIA, hosting many of the organization’s future activities
While simultaneously welcoming activations by other, like-minded organizations
Abundance of studio spaces and artist residencies for musicians, dancers and other creatives
Launch events
ΑCADDEMIA Zine
The first edition of ACADDEMIA’s fanzine was released with LIFO on Thursday May 12th featuring opinion pieces, photo essays, interviews, studio visits, comic strips as well as a few surprises such as an NFT art exhibition. On its 30 pages, the active past and present met with the hopeful future of the wider cultural world of the city, redefining the form of fanzines in the year 2022.
Polygono Live
Saturday 21 May 2022: The night that marked the beginning of ACADDEMIA.
Pan Pan, known as Panagiotis Pantazis, is a versatile artist, musician, illustrator and comic book creator. In the outskirts of the neighborhood of Polygono, Pan Pan returned to the open basketball court where he used to play football as a child, for a block party that combined drawing and music. After all, Polygono has been everywhere in his work: from the field of action of a cat in “Cherry Jam” to sound samples in tracks throughout his entire discography.
Polygono Live started the afternoon with painting.
Panagiotis and his guests Giorgos Goussis, Kanellos COB, and Georgia Zaharis demonstrated how to draw a short comic and passed the tools into the hands of the audience, in an interactive afternoon that culminated to 8 large frames drawn by everyone inside the stadium.
At the same time, Tind offered on-site screen printing on skin with glow in the dark inks. As night fell, the music began with the energetic tracklist-ing including both tracks from Phantasmagoria One and Two, and material from earlier works alongside unreleased tunes.
Gusplained: 12 Awkward Hours with Larry Gus
Monday, May 23, 2022: The second… event of ACADDEMIA
Acrobating between an educational program, a play, and an avant-garde morning TV segment, Larry Gus’ whirlwind 12-hour Lives- tream took place live from noon until midnight on a Monday in May. Gusplained had 12 guests from the wider creative world and the help of Larry Gus’ friend, and award-winning Creative Director, George Garefalakis, on the stream.
The 12 separate sections were complimented by: Dani (illustrator), Demetria (musician), K.atou (DJ), Moose (rapper), Sissi Rada (musician), Will Westerman (musician), Byronas Theodoropoulos (stand up comedian), Irini Koulelis (barrista, coffee expert), Jacqueline Lentzou (cinematographer), Eva Papamargariti (digital artist), Elli Tryngou (actress), Costas Tsioukas (choreographer, dancer), Fotis Fotinoglou (chef) with the overall result available for binge-watching on YouTube or the ACADDEMIA Facebook Page.
The dancefloor as a safe space for fringe communities in collaboration with the Orlando LGBT+ team
How can alternative entertainment spaces be turned into real safe spaces for LGBTI people and other subjects who are discriminated against because of their identity? The Orlando LGBT+ Mental Health Without Stigma team in an open discussion more relevant than ever. The diverse panel consisted of ClubKid (DJ), Ody Icons (Performer), Vanessa (Be Queer), Konstantinos Menelaou (The Queer Archive).
pleAse be kind, rewInd
On Wednesday May 25th we went to the movies in collaboration with the Hellenic Film Academy.
The Iris Awards are the great celebration of Greek cinema. They are awarded to the best Greek films of the year, marking an exciting, eclectic cinema that is increasingly recognized at home and abroad. This year, the 13th Iris participated in ACADDEMIA with a series of screenings and a sound installation rewinding some of the best films of last year’s production.
On Wednesday May 25th in Trianon – from early afternoon until very late at night-short films nominated for Iris awards in the categories of Short Film, Study, Animation and Documentary were screened. The screenings were divided into parts A and B, with Berlin-based Scottish sound artist Claude Speeed curating a special interlude turning the five nominated soundtracks in the Original Music category into audiovisual installations – in the context of a creative discussion between the final vision of an artist and how this can be reinterpreted using AI technology.
Jeff Mills presents Tomorrow Comes the Harvest
On July 12, ADD Festival in collaboration with ACADDEMIA welcomed Jeff Mills to Herodion.
Jeff Mills, one of the world’s top techno artists, presented live for the first time to an Athenian audience his pioneering Tomorrow Comes The Harvest project, an improvisational concept he created in 2018 with Tony Allen, Afro Jazz legend and Fela Kuti’s drummer.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that without Jeff Mills, electronic music would probably be very different today. From the legendary activist music collective Underground Resistance, of which he was a found- ing member back in the late 80s in Detroit, to worldwide critical and commercial acclaim, signing collaborations with symphony orchestras, art and fashion projects, Jeff Mills has carved out an enviable and completely idiosyncratic artistic course over the years.
Much more than a simple producer or DJ, Mills is a true artist of sound, with a complete vision and deep knowledge of his subject, which he serves both through his own record label, Axis, and with countless other projects.
In 2000 he wrote music for Fritz Lang’s silent masterpiece “Metropolis”. In 2006 he released “Blue Potential”, a live recording of his concert with the seventy-piece Montpelier Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2008 his work “Critical Arrangements” was exhibited at the Pompidou Center in Paris as part of the exhibition “Le Futurisme à Paris – Une Avant-Garde Explosive” while for his 2013 album “Where Light Ends” he was inspired by the Japanese astronaut Mamoru Mohri. These are just a few of the milestones in the great career of a versatile and always restless artist.
12 years after his last appearance in Athens, Jeff Mills appeared in the unique space of the Ancient Theater of Herodos Atticus, to pre-sent live his highly acclaimed Afro Futuristic Jazz project. Accompanied by keyboardist and longtime collaborator Jean-Phi Dary, he was once again in conversation with Tomorrow Comes The Harvest, this time with new improvisational “partners“ in bassist Divinity Roxx and flutist Rasheeda Ali. There, in the timeless venue, past met future, analog met digital, jazz met techno and the audience a living musical legend.
Social Discourse Ι
Tuesday, May 24, Social Discourse I Forecourt of the Arts Center of the Municipality of Athens, next to the Music Megaron.
Publish Yourself in collaboration
with Hyper Hypo
A session aimed at deciphering the secrets of independent publishing and moderated by Andreas Kokkino and Stathis Mitropoulos, co-founders of Hyper Hypo, the new art bookstore in Athens. Participants Natassa Pappas (Desired Landscapes), Vassilis Karydis (Dapper Dan), Sotiris Trechas (Fluffer Everyday), Prodromos Papadopoulos (Doma), Yannis Bournias and Lina Stefanou (Nomas) shared stories, experience and thoughts about the creative adventure of publishing small editions with great impact.