Bradie webb biography of mahatma

Elpida Rikou

Field, 2018

This paper presents the outline of ten years of research projects situated between art and anthropology that I have initiated, coordinated and participated in, both as an artist and as an anthropologist. These projects took place in Athens, Greece, between 2007 and 2017 and certain of their common characteristics are the following: All research projects included a rather large number of participants coming mostly from anthropology and the visual arts but also from disciplines such as history and theory of art, cultural studies and other fields. The projects were initiated inside the academy but surpassed its limitations, with students and teachers having equal say on the development of the activities that focused on different social issues. Each project enhanced both diversity and coherence, by giving form to the different personal, social and political concerns of the group members, while promoting exchanges amongst them and collaborations with other groups or individuals. Every single research project came about via a long-term, open-ended, creative and reflexive process, which kept pace with the political, social and economic developments of the decade of economic "crisis" in Greece. This complex, individual-cum-collective, research-cum-art making process was mostly based on participant observation, frequently including visual and audio documentation and sometimes interviews. The process was constantly stimulated by references to the literature and by feedback provided by all group members, while other individual artists or theorists, social or artistic groups were invited to contribute on specific issues throughout. Each participant was encouraged to bring in all kinds of relevant data, archives, materials, objects, photos or videos that he/she had found or made for the occasion, in order to contribute to an end product wh