Lydia Chatziiakovou

I am a curator based in Thessaloniki (GR) and Istanbul (TR). Since 2004, I co-direct ArtBOX (www.artbox.gr), an experimental agency that conceives, develops, implements and curates contemporary and public art projects, non-formal educational programmes, and digital technology ventures in culture. In this context, I curate and coordinate projects that emphasise on art for social change and the relationship between art and technology, bringing together communities, artists and institutions from Greece and abroad. Since 2020, I have also been developing Creative-Craft Platform, a joint project with artist Bilal Yilmaz, aiming to build a transnational network and community around crafts (https://bilalyilmaz.info/creative-craft-platform).

Q&A

Artist Statement

Throughout the years my work has evolved from object-focused contemporary art projects to process-based, socially engaged practices where the artist is a catalyst and the citizen is a co-producer. Questioning and searching for participatory sustainable alternatives lies at the heart of this process and here is where crafts come in as a contemporary medium for thinking and doing, community and sustainability. As crafts have been evolving and transforming together with humanity, they can be found almost everywhere — at home, in the field, in the production of objects and tools, but also in the production of social and financial relations. Because of this omnipresence, it is difficult to define crafts as they are often caught in a series of tensions — between function and non-function, labour and leisure, fine and applied art, analogue and digital, past and future. But it is exactly this flexibility and absence of borders that makes craft an excellent methodology for contemporary artistic thinking and practice, offering a pathway for artistic research and critical reflection on issues such as labour and production; globalisation, post-growth and sustainability; rural / urban transformations and social dynamics; history and colonialism; materiality, performativity, temporality and contemporaneity. To reveal this potential together with artist Bilal Yilmaz we have been developing Creative-Craft Platform, whose digital element Craft Net is a tool for building participatory networks and communities around crafts. Based on a 3-step strategy that goes beyond mapping as a way to preserve crafts, Craft Net encourages creatives to discover their local crafts ecosystem (which varies from city to city), connect with craftsmen, and reactivate crafts through creative collaborations. Bringing together Craftsmen and Creatives can be mutually beneficial for both sectors, and re-introduce crafts as a socially, culturally, and financially sustainable production system in the post-industrial era.