Balkans Beyond Borders

The goal of BBB in the neighborhood is the creation of active citizens and the highlighting of cultural heritage through cultural interactive events that bring the public closer to the special identity of the individual neighborhoods of the city, focusing on the city's inhabitants and the special perspective of each one.

BBB with audio-visual arts and cinema as a vehicle aims to wander through the neighborhoods of Athens and give an alternative point of view to different parts of the area, while all the routes gathered together create an artistic and social puzzle of sounds, images and experiences that can participant to follow as he visits and discovers the neighborhood through the gaze of a cultural collective map.

The actions include film screenings, seminars, workshops, artistic activities and the final products of the individual actions are short films, videos, visual works, comic design, graphic designs and crafts inspired by local history and tradition.

Citizens who live and are active in each neighborhood from various social and age groups (young people, children, elderly people, disabled people, students, researchers, artists, academics, visitors, etc.)

BBB in the Neighborhood actions have started and have been systematically organized since 2012 in various neighborhoods of Athens.

Our upcoming actions will be implemented in May - June 2022.

BBB in the neighborhood is a unit of actions of Balkans Beyond Borders that aims to connect residents and promote the cultural and special identity of each neighborhood. The action started from our need to ensure that the vision of the organization will be accessible to a wider audience, with a different profile, beyond the typical, equal, participating and active citizens. In the past, actions have been carried out both in Greece and abroad, always in collaboration with urban local bodies.

More specifically, in the city of Athens events have been held in the Ampelokipi under the title "Before you talk to me" and the topic of communication and multilingualism in the Balkans. The action took place in 2012. By marrying arts, languages and images and activating a small public space of the neighborhood the action addressed all the residents of the area, including many immigrants who live and work there. For its implementation, we collaborated with two artistic music and dance groups, the Romanian embassy, small private businesses and the Municipality of Athens.

In 2013 the action was moved to Metaxourgeio. Under the theme "Building Bridges", a two-day event entitled "Balkans in the House" was organized in collaboration with the space of the same name, as well as photography workshops mixing arts and people with the aim of interacting with the neighborhood and the conversation between art forms.

In 2016 and with the aim of contributing to highlighting the Cultural role of the Varvaki Market, BBB organized an open screening of selected short films under the theme "Living in city-mmetry" to promote both an experiential experience in the city and a discussion about the open issues of the region.

BBB in the neighborhood: Stories from Pagrati and Agios Artemios took place in March 2020 in the shadow of the global coronavirus pandemic. Each route created is geographically determined and the specific action of BBB in the neighborhood was to highlight the particular identity of the neighborhood through the creation of socio-cultural routes using street blogging as a tool. The action was organized within the framework of the "Culture in the Neighborhoods" program, an initiative of the Municipality of Athens and the Culture Network of the Municipality of Athens.

For 2022, continuing the collaboration with the Municipality of Athens and the Culture Network of the Municipality of Athens, actions have been planned in the neighborhood of Kypseli as well as Pagrati and Agios Artemios which will include screenings of short films, as well as photography workshops and exhibitions.

BBB in the neighborhood is organized every year in collaboration with the following organizations:

Municipality of Athens

Athens Culture Net (Athens Culture Net)

Twix Lab

Friendship clubs (Ampelokipo, Pakratiou, Kypseli)

Romanian Embassy

Local agencies and businesses

BBB in the neighborhood is organized by the organization's employees and volunteers. Instructors distinguished in the field are invited to the seminars. Also, students from the University of Piraeus participate in the organization of the activities as part of its academic internship, which is implemented with the support of the Ministry of Education and the European Union.

BBB in the Neighborhood actions have taken place in Ampelokipi, Metaxourgeio, Varvakeio Agora, Pagrati and Agios Artemios.

Next place of action: Pedestrian path of Fokionos Negri, Kypseli and Pagrati and Agios Artemios.

BBB in the Neighborhood directly creates new connections between neighborhood residents and works supportively as a welcoming framework for immigrants (when they come into contact with their language of origin, for example). At the same time, on a long-term level, the products of the participants remain available (such as, for example, the photographic material from the Metaxourgio exhibition).

The implementation of micro-scale actions also entails the emergence of possible social problems, as for example the activation of small public spaces is not always desired by everyone, something we experienced in the 2012 action by individual residents. The emergence of these issues is successfully addressed through direct collaborations with local bodies such as schools and the municipal department. Overall, the actions at the neighborhood level come into direct contact with the residents, insisting on the everyday life of the people and provide a trigger for a substantial interconnection of the artistic creation with the socio-political dialogue.

In more detail, the following have participated and watched the actions of BBB in the neighborhood:

Over 350 citizens

Over 200 young people & students

Over 100 elderly people

Over 25 local agencies and neighborhood businesses

Over 40 artists and creative teams

BBB, through the actions of BBB in the Neighborhood, attempts to develop a systematic contact with the Athenian public and to connect it with the communities of the other Balkan cities. The BBB Short Film Festival, one of the most important actions of the organization, travels every year to another Balkan city in an attempt to strengthen inter-Balkan relations and support the contemporary artistic production of the wider region. Returning to the city and neighborhoods of Athens, he aims to bring multicultural dialogue to the grassroots of the organization and expand its audience.

Through the BBB in the neighborhood actions, the organization has its own productions and contributes to the digitization of art with the aim of developing an audience.