Elena Boukouvala

Dialogues Across Borders questions and explores who are we to each other as the ‘refugee crisis’ unfolds. In 2016 a makeshift photography and poetry exhibition was co-created by refugees and volunteers at Pikpa Camp on the Greek island of Lesvos. The transnational friendships forged in this context and sustained by social media became the catalyst to a series of travelling interactive exhibitions across Europe. In this workshop we explore methodologies of trans-border networking and the cultural alliances developed through shared play and co-creation. Who are we and who are we becoming?   Through play can we co-create new understandings of the refugee crisis? What does it mean politically to bring play into a context that is determined by legal and media discourses? Can play help us relate to each other in new ways?

Elena, Knut and Marie ran Dialogues Across Borders Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 March 2017.

About the artist

Elena Boukouvala is a performance activist, dramatherapist and psychologist from Greece. She founded Play is Hope. In this project she is collaborating with Marie Gillespie, Open University and Norwegian photographer, Knut Bry. Their collaboration originated while volunteering at the open refugee camp Pikpa in Lesvos.