The Riots in Greece, December 2008

In December 2008, sparked by the police killing of a 15-year-old student, Alexis Grigoropoulos, severe riots broke out in Athens and rapidly spread throughout Greece. It became evident that the event had struck a deep emotional chord within Greek society, triggering a massive wave of upheaval, distress, anger and violence that not only affected virtually all the citizens of this country, but also raised crucial questions in the minds of people of other nations, worldwide.

"Gignesthai" could not remain untouched by these events. In keeping with the phenomenological approach, we did not seek to explain or interpret the situation, neither did we attempt to account for the significance that individuals attributed to their experiences. Instead, we sought to elicit and record, in a non-verbal manner, the personal reactions of our Existential group members in the immediate aftermath of the events. We consider this to be a minimal response to a crisis that, above all else, involved the tragic loss of a human life.

Excerpts from the interaction between our group members are presented in the following video:

J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould
photos: E. Georganda