Respublika!

Respublika! was a multi-faceted project curated by Nico Carpentier examining and contributing to the discussions and reflections about participation and democracy, and how they are performed in contemporary Western societies. Focusing on participatory practices, the rich programme of the project included three exhibitions, two screenings, two workshops, three seminars, ten performances produced for various venues in Cyprus, and a publication.

Respublika! was a cluster of an arts Festival, three Exhibitions and several Seminars, curated by Nico Carpentier. Respublika! translates the principles of community media in creative practice, in order to reflect on media, democracy and its participatory component, to analyse the (de)centralization of power in contemporary societies, and to showcase art projects that use participatory mechanisms to produce art projects, working with, and empowering members of one or more communities. Respublika! is multi-sited and multi-genre. It aims to tap into the creative reservoirs of community media, civil society organisations and social collectives (and their members); but also of artists that are committed to the basic principles of participatory (community) communication.

Respublika! incorporates art projects that relate to (at least) one of the following two objectives, which translate the principles of community media in creative practice:

to reflect on media, democracy and its participatory component, analysing the (de)centralization of power in contemporary societies,
to use participatory mechanisms to produce art projects, working with, and empowering members of one or more communities.

Respublika! consisted of three Exhibitions, a Festival and a Seminar series. The first main Exhibition, Open Community – Open Networks, took place from 4 November 2017 to 2 December 2017. The second main Exhibition, Participation Matters, took place from 8 December 2017 to 19 January 2018. The Festival ran in parallel with the first week of the second main exhibition, from 8 to 16 December 2017.

The main physical hub of Respublika!, the NeMe Arts Centre, provided shelter to the two main Exhibitions and a series of Festival events.

R! Exhibitions

Respublika!‘s rich program, included three exhibitions, documentation for which can be found here.

R! Screenings

Numerous videos were showcased at the Respublika! exhibitions, and their documentation can be found here.

About Respublika!

Respublika! has contributed to the discussions and reflections about participation and democracy, and how they are performed in contemporary Western societies. Respublika!‘s engagement has not been neutral, because it was driven by the idea of the necessity of deepening the democratic revolution, labelled by Chantal Mouffe (1988), or to democratise democracy, to use the words of Anthony Giddens (1994).