Gardening / Mnemonic Practices and Proposals (Adults)
Workshop for adults
Artist Residency
Fotini Gouseti
As part of her artist residency, Fotini Gouseti aims to explore the selected flora of the Vorres Museum garden and the relationships that may emerge between this ecosystem and members of the community in Paiania. The socially engaged aspect of her research will focus on local narratives, memories, and possibly community archives. Gouseti will also lead a workshop titled “Mnemonic / Gardening Practices and Proposals”, which will investigate the human relationship with nature as a vessel of memory, history, and cultural identity. Through the workshop, individual interpretations will converge, allowing the voices of the participants to directly shape the outcomes of the research. Gouseti’s goal is to cultivate a collective narrative and explore ways of translating this into artistic expression.
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The Vorres Museum Garden is not merely a natural space but a living archive of collective memory—where every plant and tree tells stories of local biodiversity, gardening practices, traditional knowledge, and the human relationship with the environment. In this workshop, participants will delve into the symbolic and historical dimensions of plants, as well as the importance of biodiversity preservation, particularly in the context of the climate crisis.
The workshop combines experiential and artistic methodologies. Participants will walk through the Garden, mapping personal and collective memories linked to the flora, and will then create individual artistic interventions by proposing their own botanical contributions—whether real or imagined species. These creations will arise from each participant’s personal connection to the Garden and their mnemonic approach, forming a dialogue between nature, memory, and possible environmental futures.
Through this process, participants will connect what they wish to be remembered with the artistic care of what already exists, creating a foundation for understanding and reclaiming the future. The final outcome will take the form of a collective multimodal herbarium, documenting the intersection of ecological and cultural memory.
A key part of the workshop includes a guided tour of the Vorres Museum Garden led by botanist Lefteris Dariotis (Liberto Dario), head of Dariotis Gardens in Paiania. This activity may also include a visit to the gardens themselves, offering participants a hands-on encounter with the region’s biodiversity, emphasizing the connection between plants, local history, and gardening knowledge.
Information
“Gardening / Mnemonic Practices and Proposals”
Workshop for Adults
The workshop will be led by visual artist and anthropologist Fotini Gouseti.
Dates and times: Friday, June 20, 18:30–21:30 & Saturday, June 21, 11:00–14:00
Participation: Free of charge
Target audience: Adults from the neighborhood of Paiania and the wider Mesogeia area, with or without prior experience in the arts.
This workshop is part of the museum’s new series of educational programs titled: “Materials, Techniques and Memory in Contemporary Creation: The Garden and the Pyrgi at the Vorres Museum as Bearers of Cultural Heritage.” As a living cultural institution deeply rooted in Greek heritage, the Vorres Museum proposes a series of workshops and activities aiming to explore the enduring value of traditional materials and techniques, as well as the natural elements that shape cultural identity. The core focus of the program is the museum’s folk art collection (Pyrgi) and Garden, which act as living archives of cultural memory. These spaces illuminate the connection between traditional arts and contemporary creative practices, cultivating fertile ground for the preservation, revival, and reimagining of cultural heritage.
Educational program design/curation: Myrto Lavda
Register
To reserve a spot, please call us at +30 2106642520 or fill out the form using the link below.
Bio
Fotini Gouseti
Fotini Gouseti is a visual artist and holds a PhD in Anthropology from the Department of History, Archaeology and Social Anthropology at the University of Thessaly. She has a degree in Painting and Printmaking from the Athens School of Fine Arts and a Master’s degree from the Dutch Art Institute (DAI) in the Netherlands. Her artistic practice and academic research focus on the role of art in society.
Her work explores how societies evolve through collective traumas, addressing themes such as parallel versions of memory, social class, and the relationship between the local and the Other. Her projects are often socially engaged, research-based, and result in multimodal artistic outputs.
Two of her representative works are The Present as a Result of the Past, which examines how the society of Kalavryta developed after the destruction of the town during World War II, and Renkonto, which investigates the tense diplomatic relations between two neighboring states. She is the coordinator of the Greek segment of the international and interdisciplinary project To Be-Named. Her work has been exhibited in Greece and abroad.