The singular compelling imagery of ‘occupying’ as a form of resistance is its multiplicity of voices – the collective mobilisation of the ‘multitude’. Yet, the force and urgency of a collective resistance lies in the individual untold stories of its proponents. Rather than glorify the movement as a faceless entity, the paper/ performance embraces the daily stories, struggles and wounds of occupation, by using photographs.
The resistant performances of the ‘outraged’ in Athens have gathered momentum over the last year, transforming the fixed landscape of a city into a platform for negotiation and dialogue. Both forms are connected with existing social conditions: austerity measures, mass immigration and ‘crisis’. We are arguing that resistance is a space of radical openness, in which the self is re-imagined in relation to its landscape – and in turn, the landscape is remapped. The presentation format is that of a dialogue/ performance of collected stories of protesters from Athens and political prisoners. The presenters attempt to resist discursive borders of social science and the arts by occupying both.
The stories evoke the urban remapping of a politically charged multitude (in squares and streets) alongside narratives of personal resistance from within institutions (prisons). The common element is a view of resistance as embodied, and with an aim to radically transform the spaces of domination and oppression perceived to be limiting the human rights of the subjects. The data evoke effects/affects of resistance by recalling images (photographs); interview testimonies and narratives of resisting bodies.
