Camille Pradon is a French artist who explores the history of sponges and the communities of sponge divers along the Mediterranean shores of Greece, France, and Tunisia. Her work Sol Absolu delves into the intricate connections, exchanges, and movements of people, marine life, and languages in these regions. Pradon focuses on sponges as vessels of memory and symbols of porous exchanges, highlighting their deep interactions with sponge-diving communities. In December 2023, she was an artist-in-residence, visiting both Athens and Heraklion, Crete, to continue her research with the marine biologist Thanos Dailianis at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR). She presented her cross-disciplinary project Sol Absolu on December 4, 2023, at the Institut français de Grèce, in conversation with curator Eleni Riga. Pradon continued her profound journey of exploration and creation in Kalymnos, supported by ATOPOS cvc, ADAGP’s Dotation Recherche, and the International Mobility Program of the City of Rouen. She was invited for a residency in ceramics at the House of France in Rhodes, in collaboration with the Institut français de Grèce, and is planning a series of exhibitions for 2025-2026. 

Maëlle Gross, a Swiss visual artist of Greek descent, explores themes of ecology and mythology through feminist science fiction and spirituality, with a particular focus on caves in Greece. In a spirit of care, the Office of Hydrocommons partnered with the organization Pro Helvetia to ensure Gross could be accompanied by her daughter and partner, providing her with the necessary space and time to expand her research. During a public event, we discussed the model of artist-parent residencies and the importance of creating conditions to support mother artists in particular. Furthermore, Gross and her family traveled by train, boat, and car, thereby reducing the ecological impact of their transport.

Lily Consuelo Saporta Tagiuri – an American-Spanish artist and designer of Greek, Italian, and Mexican descent – collaborated with the Greek botanist, agronomist, and food technologist Manos Bazanis to research native edible plants such as Crithmum maritimum (crimson), Hymenonema graecum (andralida), Elytrigia sartorii (Aegean sand couch grass), Origanum microphyllum (antonaida), and Brassica nigra (wild cabbage), which grow in water-deficient environments and are affected by salinity. Around the garden they developed at ATOPOS cvc, they hosted a series of foraging events where participants had the chance to taste these plants and learn to identify them. Following this residency, Consuelo Saporta Tagiuri and Bazanis have collaborated on a new performative tasting commissioned by the Office of Hydrocommons and scheduled on July 7, 2024. This event aspires to create a temporary democracy of waters, fish, and fishermen at Ichthioskala, the fish port in Keratsini, Attica, within the framework of the Athens Epidaurus Festival, following an invitation from the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus.

Lily Consuelo Saporta Tagiuri’s residency was supported financially by the European Union as part of the Culture Moves Europe mobility scheme implemented by Goethe-Institut. (The views expressed therein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.)

In collaboration with Avtonomi Akadimia, and alluding to the claims of ecofeminist struggles, the Office of Hydrocommons hosted Kasia Wojcik, a Berlin-based German artist of Polish descent, whose practice focuses on issues of immigration and commons. In June 2023, along with Avtonomi Akadimia, Eleni Tsamadia, Amazigh Labidi, and George Anagnosotopoulos, she led a public assembly on creating a nomadic constitution. At first glance, the idea of a nomadic constitution seems contradictory. Constitutions are typically seen as a cornerstone of nation-states. Therefore, nothing is more alien to traditional constitutionalism than the idea of a normative instrument that integrates and recognizes the political aspirations of undocumented groups of people.

Kasia Wojcik’s participation was supported by Fonds Darstellende Künste with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media in the framework of NEUSTART KULTUR, by the Goethe-Institut, and the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.

In August and September 2024, we welcome French artist Chloé Royer, who will explore the symbolic figure of the jellyfish, representing both marine life and mythological significance. In December 2024, through the Europe Moves Culture Host program, three international art professionals – Mathilde Rouiller, Emily Sarsam, and Annalisa Zegna – will join a residency focused on the theme of hypersalinity, examining it both as an environmental condition and a conceptual framework. This residency will delve into critical, interconnected ecological and feminist issues, as well as themes of social justice and food sovereignty.

The Office of Hydrocommons International Artist Residency is a fluid structure, with an ongoing and evolving list of participants who continually enrich the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of the program.