Personal Information
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Given name: Eleni









Surname: Kolliopoulou









Email: e.kolliopoulou@go.uop.gr









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Your contribution
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Title: Polariza(c)tion









Format: Experimental format (4)









Main language: English









Abstract:
Polariza(c)tion is an experimental, performance-based laboratory that responds to contemporary geopolitical conflicts and the increasing polarization of social and territorial spaces. Triggered by ongoing wars and their devastating human, social, and economic consequences, the lab investigates how performative art can function as a safe yet critical platform for exploring alternative modes of coexistence, dialogue, and peace-making beyond force-driven solutions.

The lab proposes a short performative experiment structured as a dynamic score to be activated by the participants. Participants are invited to collectively create temporary “living systems” through embodied interaction, attention, and relational decision-making. As with all living systems, this shared structure is fragile, unstable, and impossible to fully control. Within this framework, participants explore how power emerges, circulates, and shifts through proximity, negotiation, listening, resistance, and cooperation.

The research asks: How can we embrace and creatively adapt to situations of conflict? Is it possible to positively charge shared space and actively avoid polarization? Rather than aiming for harmony or consensus, the lab foregrounds tension as an inevitable and potentially productive condition of collective life. Conflict is treated not as something to be resolved, but as material to be experienced, negotiated, and reflected upon.

The performative experiment lasts approximately fifteen minutes and is followed by a brief collective feedback session. This reflection phase allows participants to articulate sensations, observations, and questions that emerged during the process, contributing to a shared evaluation of the lab’s provocations rather than fixed conclusions.

By situating embodied participation at the core of artistic research, Polariza(c)tion frames the experimental lab as a micro-political space in which power structures can be made visible, temporarily










Image: https://test.sar2026.ie/system/files/webform/submit_contribution/76/Crossing%20Borders%203%20performance%20at%20Embros%20Theater%20Athens.png









Short biographies of the presenter(s):
- Eleni Kolliopoulou (1980, Athens) is a mixed-media visual/ performance artist and researcher particularly interested in the intersection between performance and philosophy.
  She studied at the University Kapodistriaka of Athens in the Department of Methodology, History and Theory of Science (1998 -2003, BA). She moved to Italy in September 2007 to attend the ‘Philip Radice School of Physical Theater’. Between 2008 and 2013 she accomplished her BA and MA degree by the Academy of Fine Arts of Turin; Eleni was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy for her practice-based PhD research at Ulster University (Northern Ireland) and received Vice-chancellor's funding (2016-2020). She is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Peloponnese, PDA.










Previous presentations or iterations of the research:
This research builds on my participatory performative artworks KYTTAΡΟ / THE CELL (2020–22), Luna Park: What Is Democracy? (2021–23), and Rock, Paper, Scissors (2024). These works explore self-governed living systems, anti-hierarchical structures, and conflict through guided improvisation, embodiment, and collective decision-making, informing the current experimental lab’s focus on polarization. http://www.elenivisualart.eu/category/immersion-synergic-systems/performative-systems/














Requirements
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Additional information:
Workshop-based contribution, participatory artwork combined with open forum discussion. Total duration approximately 45 minutes.










Spatial and technical requirements :
Indoor activity with enough space to move freely. Participants should be at least 6 and maximum 20. 










Potential risks or ethical concerns:
No potential risks. 










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