Katerinis 10
11855 Athens
Greece
- Heritage
Communitism is self organised, run by the association board and the core team of 5 part-time employed persons, employed by the association. Communitism grosses annually approximately 50.000 euros. Main resources are grants received through EU funding ( mainly Erasmus+) , foundations and other collaborating institutions while also offering space to artists, collectives and entrepreneurs of socioculture. Our projects span in the fields of collective self- organising, cultural heritage preservation, community arts and commoning. We collaborate with several international and local networks such as Trans Europe Halles, Culture action Europe, the Mietheuser Syndikat and several independent cultural spaces and projects throughout Europe.
Communitism revives abandoned heritage buildings of Athens through creative commoning. By practicing community and arts, alternatives to existing structures emerge. The association operated the independent sociocultural center at Kerameikou 28, until 2023 that the neoclassical building got sold. Currently Communitism is addressing the issue of collective ownership as a method of safeguarding third spaces against gentrification and touristification.
Community arts is a big part of our activities as it constitutes for us a method of communication, bridging social gaps. Creating models of collective ownership and maintenance of newer cultural heritage is our main objective, as it is the scope of the association. Activities of social value such as commoning and self organization is also central to the way we work and we share our findings with collectives of the city. Activistic urbanism is also a phrase that characterises us.
In our country we are quite well known for our collective action and our contribution to the Athenian contemporary culture . We can offer great insight on ways of preservation of newer cultural heritage , through commoning and artistic practices.
So far, we have networked intensely on the national, the Balkan and the European level. Nevertheless, we see our references in the countries of the Mediterranean and we see a lot of potential in collabotation with cultural centers and artistic/ commoning initiatives throughout the Mediterranean due to similar cultural and economic conditions: intense touristification, commodification of ancient civilizations, neglect of newer cultural heritage because of these reasons.
