POLIS21: CITY, NATIONALISM, MIGRATION The project develops over an opening event in London and three symposia in Athens, Zagreb and Belgrade on the changing nature of the city in the 21st century. The project is articulated over three questions, each of which will be the focus of one of the symposia in one of the cities. Aside from discussions, the meetings will feature artistic performances and promote the networking of urban interventions across European cities, contributing to the development of a strategy for transnational engagement. Click here for more information on the Polis 21 project ATHENS: Who is a member of the city? Between Filoxenia and Xenophobia The Byzantine and Christian Museum and Monastiraki Square November 6th, and 7th The recent exponential increase in the presence and visibility of migrants in Athens is the focus of a day of discussions bringing together academics, architects, activists and migrants' groups, and a public exhibition and artistic intervention in Montastiraki Square. Click here for more information BELGRADE: Ethinicity and Publicity – is the polis necessarily a bordered space? November 9th, Centre for Cultural Decontamination In a city torn between nationalist and europeanist sentiments, the appointment in Belgrade focuses squarely on the question of the nation, asking whether the polis is necessarily a physically bordered space, a community geographically defined that separates those who belong to those who are foreign to its constitution. The appointment in Belgrade preceeds and connects with the symposium in Zagreb. Many of the Belgrade participants will hop on a train the day after the Belgrade appointment and travel the road to Zagreb to join the symposium there. Click here for more information ZAGREB - Culture and the Commons November 11th, Center for Independent Culture and Youth The Zagreb appointment considers the way in which culture is used to open up public spaces in privatised and commercialised contexts, and poses the question of the cultural composition of the common. How can culture avoid instrumentalisation and be a force for resistance to exclusion from democracy? How do transnational networks reconfigure the compositions of such common spaces, and what are their relations to local political questions and issues? What potential is there for transnational artistic intervention? Click here for more information Polis 21 on the press The project is supported by the European Cultural Foundation Photo in the text: Athens, DavidDennisPhotos.com/Flickr, Zagreb, Weiko, Flickr, Beograd, acediscovery/Flickr)