The National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) realizes until June 2022 an art-based research art psychotherapy workshop, which is addressed to professional art psychotherapists. Important theories and approaches in art psychotherapy are examined, taking as the main theoretical axis the methodological tools of contemporary artistic practice. The workshop focuses on the artistic practice of the archive.
Karaba (2011) introduces a description of practice as “The art of the archive, according to relevant theories, refers to a type of artistic practice that simulates archives, addresses issues that are related to the archive, activates archaic mechanisms, produces archives” while P. Kouros (2012) proposes the archive “as a wider cultural approach that has the intention of intervention and empowerment”.
The workshop shifts the research for the artwork of the psychotherapeutic session to an art-based method of artistic practice of the archive. It aims through the active and creative participation of the members to highlight the importance of the adoption of an artistic practice, namely that of archival collection and recording. This practice aims to enrich the work of the art psychotherapist on three levels:
- strengthen his/her identity as an artist
- study and consolidation of art-based research in art psychotherapy with the application of contemporary art methods
- recognize the influence and effect of the wider context in which the session takes place
The workshop is realized by Maria Konti (artist and art psychotherapist) in collaboration with contemporary Greek artists and art theorists who give presentations and collaborate with a group of art psychotherapists.
EMST Coordinator: Elisabeth Ioannides, Education Curator – Art Psychotherapist
INVITED SPEAKERS
Invited speakers are:
Elpida Karaba, Art Theorist and Independent Exhibition Curator
Panos Kouros, Artist, Assistant Professor in the Architecture Department of the University of Patras
Grigoris Maniadakis, Psychiatrist- Psychoanalyst
Mary Zygouri, Artist
Adonis Volanakis, Artist, Assistant Professor at the Department of Fine Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology
Nikos Arvanitis, Artist, Assistant Professor at the Department of Fine Arts in the School of Fine Arts, Athens
Ioanna Portolou, Choreographer