Conference | Exploring the Experience of Refugees and Migrants in the Mediterranean

The event brings together performing arts practitioners, human rights activists and members of the Afghan refugee community in Greece, in order to illuminate their living conditions and the various actions undertaken by artists and activists to address the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean.

12:30-3pm Panel: The Intimacy of Identity
This live participatory symposium connects members of the Afghan refugee community in Athens, Greece with Unguarded collective and their partners in NYC. The event is dedicated to Empowering the Voice of Refugees. All are invited to the open discussion to engage our performing arts practitioners and human rights activists in a collective effort to illuminate the different modes of approaching communication. How can/do we cultivate community sharing in Performance (Art)?

Moderator: Adonis Volanakis , artist and co-creator of the Unguarded Collective (via skype from Greece). Participants: Mohammed Mirzay (Afghani Human Rights activist and leading representative of the Afghani community in Greece and of Act Up Drase Hellas) (via skype from Greece); Sara Zatz (Ping Chong+Company); Michael McGuigan (Bond Street Theatre); Despina Sophia Stamos (Modern Dance Awareness Society).

5pm: Stage reading. At the Periphery by Sedef Ecer (Turkey)
The play tells the parallel stories of two generations of migrants, from the countryside to the periphery of the urban centers and from there to the European Metropolis. Turkish French playwright Sedef Ecer casts a lyrical, funny and deeply human look into her 5 characters that linger in the memory long after the play is over.

7:30pm: IN∙CITE by Unguarded collective
IN∙CITE is a newly devised interdisciplinary performance created by UNGUARDED in collaboration with Mohammed Mirzay, Afghan refugee, human rights advocate and member of the Afghani community in Athens, Greece. The creative collective aims to raise public awareness about the personal and legal challenges, living in detention, day to day and/or homeless, that refugees experience in Greece and Southern Europe today. For this site specific performance UNGUARDED focuses its exploration on the power of knowledge, the ability to communicate and the importance of empowering one's own voice.