UrbanDig Project

Artist statement

“Ohi Pezoume Performing Arts Company Non-Profit Organization/UrbanDig Project” is an interdisciplinary team of artists, performers, cultural managers, urbanists, architects, environmental engineers and educators. It was first created as a performing arts group in 2004. Today the team produces most of its artistic work as an integral part of community research and community development programs (UrbanDig Projects).

Its projects, combining artistic, research, educational & community practices, attempt to provide a ground for interaction, collective expression & action in the contemporary city. Aiming to support place-based, human-centered development and activate cross-sector horizontal networks, the team works with neighborhoods to retrieve narratives, engage and co-create. The artistic performances are developed as part or as a result of this exchange with communities.

The beginning

After a few productions in national, municipal and private theater houses, the company quickly turned to site-specific performances that combine theater with dance in public and non-theatrical spaces. During the financial crisis, the company became more participatory and inclusive in its research of the city’s stories, challenges and potential. Community activities started becoming an integral part of most of its artistic projects. The 1st prize at TEDxAthens “The Art of Disruption” Challenge (2011), contributed to its expansion of scope. Dourgouti Island Hotel (2014-2015) was a flag project in this direction. 110 days of neighborhood festivals, tours, neighborhood workshops for researching and highlighting the hidden cultural capital of Dourgouti, a historic migrant-housing area in Athens. The program ended with performances in the streets, shops and buildings, created by UrbanDig Project (our renamed company), inspired by the whole process and material.

UrbanDig Projects

What followed has been a series of place-based, year-long programs based on the philosophy of Dourgouti Island Hotel:

– UrbanDig_Omonia (2016-2017), a program of research, artistic and place-making activities on the main square of Athens. The project ended with a performance in Athens & Epidaurus Festival 2017 inspired by the challenges and desires of the people of the square, mainly market workers and migrants. An artistic digital app introducing Omonia through their words and artwork and songs created from their stories were also produced.
– UrbanDig_Ushakova, in Strefi Hill in central Athens (2018) inspired by Ushakova, a local emblematic sex-worker of the 90s. Picking from Ushakova’s words, the project studied the function of the hill as a green place of escape from the thick urban landscape just below. The performance highlighted hidden qualities of the landscape collectively mapped with the local community. At that time, the team’s work was included in a study on audience-development framed by the EC on the basis of innovative approaches and methods. This led to re-thinking of our vision and processes and to the design of a more integrated program around water & land:
– UrbanDig_Adrianio (2020-2023) draws from the unused underground Roman Hadrian Aqueduct that still carries water underneath Athens. The project aspires to network people from the 8 municipalities that the aqueduct crosses and build a water solidarity community that can engage with the State’s development plans to utilize the aqueduct to lower urban-heat and to highlight the monument. UrbanDig Project has created a community in Chalandri, and is now expanding the methodology to all municipalities. A large multi-media performance and small site-specific performances immersing the audience to the resource underneath, have been an integral part of UrbanDig Adrianio.
– Starts4Water (2021-2022) is an Artistic Residency Program connecting the Arts with Science around EU water challenges. UrbanDig Project curates the artistic residency and the educational activities in Sifnos Island on the challenge of water shortage, focusing on community led sustainable water practices.
– Who owns the Land? (2022-2023) focuses on land-ownership in Greece. Two theatrical performances were produced, one focusing on the 19th c. and the other on the 20th c., based on oral testimonies from Arcadia. The performances, accompanied by discussions with a guest provocateur, created a group of audience members interested to further work with the team on the question asked. Four EU Collaboration Projects (one Culture, two Erasmus+ and one straight from the Commission) as well as two programs from private EU institutions (TANDEM, START) support part of the aforementioned line of work, leading to the co-creation and touring described in section C2.

Furthermore, the company has participated in international festivals and contests, receiving awards and distinctions also listed in C2.

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