By http://www.outoftheboxintermedia.org/
ELEVENTH PLATEAU by http://www.outoftheboxintermedia.org/
is a cross-border, site-specific project that aims to practically address the role of art in promoting new and critical ecological thinking and in creating innovative social ecosystems in Europe. From a post-environmentalist perspective, the project considers the intrinsic connection of nature to the wider social, political and economic forces and does not isolate the environment from other aspects of life. The project consists of a series of initiatives including art exhibitions, public interventions, conferences, ongoing discourse, education pilots and a publication, with the collaboration of organizations from eight European countries. Its central mission is to bring together politicians, artists, geographers, ecologists, economists, sociologists, architects and philosophers from across Europe to challenge each others thinking for an enquiry into the critical ecological issues of today and to discuss the shared concerns of these disciplines with regard to fostering new environments and sustainability in a longer term interdisciplinary exchange.
ELEVENTH PLATEAU sees the land itself as a living form of archaeology; given that it registers the impact of governmental policy, human migration, technological developments, changing environmental values, commercial interests and the shifting boundaries of urban and rural areas. The project examines a meticulous kind of compositional practice in which the machinery of nature and the machinery of art become one, in eleven different “sites-terrains” in an uninhabited island (Dokos-Hydra: In the 70s the most ancient shipwreck of the world has been found in the area around Dokos dated in the second half of the third millennium b.C.) and in 5 other cities of Europe. With the collaboration of architects, environmentalists, archeologists, artists and community involvement an interdisciplinary practice and discourse on the subject of eco-aesthetics, ecosystems, landscape reconstruction and its meaning for traditional cultural heritage will be instigated.
ELEVENTH PLATEAU takes place in collaboration with the Ecological Association of Hydra (founded in 1988, the association is responsible for preserving Hydra as one of the few places in the world without vehicles). Hydra is unique in the world as a vehicleless oasis, thanks to the diachronic presence of the mule and donkey culture in the island. The preservation of the distinct historical and architectural landscape is formed as a result of community involvement, however, tensions occur between the community and investors- developers who want to alter this traditional landscape.
