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Play, download and edit the free video The 5th School | Take me to my home | Social Media Preview Four |.

In March 2016, the borders surrounding Greece closed in the wake of the EU-Turkey deal, leaving more than sixty thousand individuals seeking refuge in Europe suspended in untethered limbo. Unable to continue their journeys to settled independence, many of these individuals remained in Greece, awaiting asylum applications or pursuing illegal routes further into Europe, many without documents, accommodation or financial stability. Political squats, initiated by refugees and activists in Central Athens, emerged as local attempts to protest the EU’s response through solidarity, anarchism and activism. In abandoned hotels and schools, complex global issues found themselves situated amongst a mix of familiar decor and the warmth of personal space. Each day, the squats acted as protest to the conditions of government run camps as they fought to maintain the visibility of refugees in the city and to continue through collective responsibility. Between the walls, each moment, trivial or potent, was spent in pursuit of freedom and independence.

Towards the end of 2019 the newly elected canter-right government began forcefully evicting the squats and moving the occupants to official camps, often reported to be vastly over crowded with living conditions well bellow those required to respect human rights. The visibility of refugees in the city and the participation in society that had been maintained by the presence of the squats was undone, and individuals seeking refugee were moved to the outskirts where the narrative can be more easily manipulated and ignored. in 2020 through 2021 the images from ‘Take me to my home’ were pasted as an outdoor street exhibition throughout the central neighbourhoods of Athens in close proximity to the squats. The impromptu exhibition aimed To question and protest the exclusion of vulnerable individuals from the city and to continue the visibility of the narrative with those living close to the now evicted squats, using the visual language of protest art. A short film following the street exhibition will be published in 2020.

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| Preview Four | The 5th School.

Photography, Direction & Editing: Andrew O’Carroll
©andrewocarroll2020

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