For the fifth episode of “New Activists of European Culture”, we traveled to Thessaloniki in Greece during Reworks festival and got the opportunity to meet John Patelias and Nikos Kalligas. An urban planner and civil engineer and a street artist got together to discuss public space’s rehabilitation in Thessaloniki and the role of street art as a form of activism.

We took a flight to Greece with the purpose of finding out new stories about activism in the city of Thessaloniki. When we arrived, we found out that the claim of open space is the most important form of activism in the city. The city has a lot of empty and abandoned spaces in consequence of the crisis. Communities come together and take over these unused spaces for public use.

Reworks itself ends up being a form of space occupation and activism. The festival reappropriated abandoned spaces, as the Thessaloniki Concert Hall for the Agora Forum or the industrial complex of FIX for the music festival. In a way, the reappropriation of these spaces is a form of social activism and all of it helps in improving life in Thessaloniki.

John and Nikos, both Thessaloniki natives, care about the city, and both are activists in their own way. As Nikos told us, citizens are worried about the city and want to make Thessaloniki a resilient city again. Nikos says that if there’s a problem and the city needs a change, it is the people who have to solve it. He truly believes a city is its people.

We had the opportunity to walk on the streets of this city and appreciate John’s art in many walls and buildings. Patelias tells stories and sends messages through his art in the walls of Thessaloniki. Nikos, on the other hand, gave us a tour into the pocket park he and a group of his neighbours are constructing next to Svolou street. On our way there, we walked past the street where every year they organize the Spring Dinner (a dinner with the whole neighborhood in the middle of the street). The idea of these projects is to turn their neighborhood into a livelier district through a series of community activities and local participation. In the fifth episode of this "New Activists of European Culture" series John and Nikos talk about local activism, through the form of space occupation and reappropriation.

“New Activists of European Culture” is a series by Canal180 that focuses on conversations between activists from Europe. It was born from a partnership with We are Europe which promotes, creates and produces 8 major European events. Their goal is to develop a prospective vision of electronic culture, technology and entrepreneurship, while contributing to new social and political developments through an interdisciplinary approach.