Keywords

1 Introduction

Cultural tourism has become an integral part of the global travel industry, attracting millions of tourists each year who seek to explore the diversity of history, art, and heritage in various destinations. Traditionally, cultural tourism focuses on historical and architectural landmarks, museums, and cultural heritage monuments in the countryside as well as the urban area [1]. However, an emerging trend goes beyond the conventional approach—the use of applied and visual arts to activate inactive or undervalued cultural spaces. The convergence of the different sectors encourages the production of a hybrid product of art and cultural heritage, which is an important prospect for the development of heritage tourism. Although cultural heritage refers to the past and tradition, while the arts look to the future and innovation, the combination of these two fields leads to a hybrid model of art and culture [2].

The purpose of this work is to explore the convergence of applied and visual arts as an educational tool, to unlock the potential of abandoned sites in the urban fabric and promote a deeper connection between tourism and cultural heritage.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Arts and Cultural Tourism

The role of the arts in cultural tourism is multifaceted and decisive in enhancing the overall tourist experience. The arts, which include visual arts, performing and applied arts, and music, are integral components of cultural tourism destinations. Here is an exploration of the role of the arts in cultural tourism and how they contribute to a well-rounded tourism experience [3].

2.2 Cultural Identity and Artistic Expression

The arts reflect the cultural identity and expression of a community. Promoting knowledge of the traditions, values, history, and beliefs of a particular culture or region allows visitors to connect with the core of a destination. ‘Cultural’ or ‘artistic’ tourism is signified differently from people tourism, but generally, these terms denote a range of attractions and activities that reflect the ‘persona’ (personality) of the place [4]. Cities, as living complex organisms, change and at the same time project history and culture as a constitutive element of their identity. Each city's unique spatial, social, and cultural identity is inextricably linked to the artistic expressions, customs, history, rituals and every spatial activity that is part of the urban space that functions as an active, experiential place. In the city, everyday life and its practices coexist and are affected accordingly by the imaginary background of the surrounding place. According to Harrison and Dourish [5], the structure of the space that surrounds us shapes and guides our actions and interactions. It is, according to Milgram and Jodelet [6], a mental mapping that has nothing to do with the true mapping of a space. The residents who live in a city, map it by marking some elements of the city selectively, as important, connecting them through their daily experiences as well as through the social representations of the spaces that they have and which may or may not be part of the daily experience there [7]. Space is understood as a function of historical events, societies, production systems, and relations that have developed in it but also as a personal experience [8]. According to the theory of city branding, as reported by Knierbein et al. [9], cities can refer to human entities that have distinct personalities, with the result that the evaluation of a city is not subject exclusively to aesthetic terms, but is linked to the way life, the memories evoked by the urban environment and the social trends associated with it. Cities inspire feelings, stories, and initiatives to improve them. The strategy of city marketing/city branding refers to the management of the image and promotion of the city’s identity, to strengthen sustainable development [10]. Art is called upon to act as a tool to strengthen the identity of each city by promoting cultural heritage with innovative digital tools and media, as well as with educational actions giving a comparative advantage. Through the different forms of art such as interventions in spaces with mapping projections or augmented reality, visitors can have authentic and immersive experiences in a dynamic and evolving cultural landscape.

In summary, the arts play a central role in cultural tourism, offering tourists authentic, educational, and emotional experiences. They contribute to the holistic development of cultural tourism destinations, encouraging a deeper appreciation of cultural heritage, creativity, and the diverse artistic expressions that enrich our global cultural tapestry. The arts engage tourists on a spiritual, emotional, and sensory level, creating integrated and transformative tourism experiences.

2.3 The Convergence of Applied and Visual Arts as a Strategy to Enhance Cultural Tourism

In the history of civilization, creativity has been associated with the creative individual. However, Amabile [11], suggests the re-examination of creativity in recent decades where the creative product is increasingly highlighted. Through the tradition of the Bauhaus as well as the multi-thematic performances of the Dada movement, the convergence of the arts, as integration, or interaction of different art forms or disciplines, contributes to the creation of a new and innovative expressions of creativity.

The combination of elements from different artistic and technical fields, blurs the boundaries between different artistic media (visual and applied arts, literature, music, performance, architecture, and new media), between art and technique, private and public, moving away from categorizations. The breaking down of traditional boundaries between the arts led to the uncertainty of the creator's identity, highlighting the importance of hybrid works in the public space and on a large scale [12]. The convergence of the arts emphasizes that art should not be passive but an interactive experience where tourists are invited to actively participate in the creation process, interact with artworks, and engage with their senses and personal experiences. Art is an experience and the point is to recover a continuity between the aesthetic experience and the ongoing processes of life. “In such experiences, each successive part flows freely, without seam and without gaps, in which follows” [13]. Tourists thus gain knowledge about the artistic process, cultural heritage, and local traditions, fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of the destination, through active participation [14].

Cultural tourism is inextricably linked to the exploration of historical sites, architectural sites, and museums. The convergence of applied and visual arts creates synergistic encounters that transcend the boundaries of individual artistic disciplines, adding a new level of depth and engagement to the tourism experience. Also it can be used as a strategy to enhance cultural tourism [15]. Creativity has been used to transform traditional cultural tourism, shifting from tangible heritage to more intangible culture and greater engagement with the everyday life of the destination. The emergence of ‘creative tourism’ reflects the growing integration between tourism and different place-making strategies, including the promotion of creative industries, creative cities, and the “creative class” [16]. It represents a dynamic and innovative approach to redefining the way tourists engage with cultural heritage and artistic expression.

3 Educational Actions: Co-Creating City Identity

The urban space gathers crowds of people, goods, and markets, as well as a multitude of actions and symbols. Lefebvre [8] describes the city as the stage on which all these complex interactions of everyday life take place. In the following educational activities of the University of Western Attica, the city functions as a stage, a living archive of social, cultural, and artistic performance, connecting personal and collective memory with local stories and cultures—material and immaterial. These synergies use the architectural space, the experience of the body within it as well as the video art to redefine and reconstruct the collective memory, the perception, through experiential and artistic processes projecting new narratives in the urban space.

4 Methodology

This paper is based on three scenography projects held in between 2016–2023 under the courses Stage Design, Spatial Narratives, Architectural design and Design of exterior spaces, Video_New Media Art and Editing of University of West Attica (UNIWA), Greece. The aim was to develop abandoned areas, through the prism of synergies between various groups (professors, students, artists and residents of the areas) and as well as different forms of art. The main methodology of the projects used to utilize abandoned spaces through art are the following:

  • Initially, the professors in charge carried out a first assessment of the safety of the premises, checking the structural elements as well as the surrounding area, so that they are safe and visited by the participating artists, students, and the public.

  • Collaboration was carried out with a set of independent artists or groups with the participating students, defining the context and the content of each action.

  • A fruitful dialogue was sought with the residents, regarding the history of the action area, and their experience to understand the needs that were important parameters for each project.

  • The range of technological and material equipment needs was determined, which was necessary for its implementation.

  • Funding and resources that would ensure the implementation of the project were sought such as grants, sponsorships, crowdfunding, or community fundraising efforts.

  • The possibility of community engagement for the participation of residents as well as different associations in the creation process was discussed.

  • It was deemed necessary to supervise the installation of the artwork, by groups of students and residents for the safety of the work and the participants.

  • Due to the ephemeral nature of the works, an attempt was made to preserve the memory of it through documentation with photographs, videos, and written records.

  • Participant groups, students, and institutions (UNIWA, Prague Quadrennial, Athens Festival, communitism group, etc.) actively contributed to the promotion of the project in the promotion of its projects and results on social media, local media, and cultural events, exhibitions.

• Long-term planning possibilities for the future of derelict buildings and urban areas were discussed extensively to determine the temporary or permanent nature of the project or whether there are plans for the eventual reuse or redevelopment of the site.

5 Results

The above stages lead to the following workshops. Through these the artistic vision is enriched by the integration, architecture, history of the buildings and the places and the personal stories, proposing a new narrative in the city encouraging the active participation of the residents and promoting cultural tourism.

5.1 Case Study 1: Reuse of a Neoclassical House Through Performing and Visual Arts

Through the coupling of different arts, we aimed to create a [in]visible place, a hybrid system. A system, that uses the performance event as a vehicle, connects text with Architecture, public with private space, and live interaction with digital technology. The interaction of Body, Space, Movement, Installations, and Digital media caused the birth of a new place between imaginary and real and explored the possibilities of coexistence of live performance with the space and the image that will emerge as a result [17]. An abandoned 19th-century neoclassical house, on Salaminos street, as well as the archaeological site of “Dimosion Sima” burial monuments was chosen as the site of intervention in the Kerameikos area.

The participants (faculty, students, residents and artists) were inspired by literary texts about the ephemerality of memory and virtual reality. The purpose is to activate memory, personal and collective, but also to reflect on the relationship between the imaginary and the real in virtual reality, through live, ephemeral constructions, recordings, videos and photographs. Our proposal focused on two axes:

A. The creation of a performance event, which sometimes uses modern ways of digital imaging, and its recording in direct relation to the history of the place and the experiences of the residents.

B. The creation of an architectural prototype, in the form of a model or construction on a physical scale.

The spatial proposal functioned as a means of public interaction with the space and as a perceptual and synthetic tool of participatory planning. The experiential experience of space, form, language, and representation reconstructed the abandoned building, presenting it as a platform for artistic expression, bringing the participants and the residents of the area into contact with the constantly evolving techniques in the field of sound and image. The photographic and video art and documentation of the proposal in all phases gave a completely new perspective both in the area of promoting the event and in the “on stage” coexistence of the three-dimensional with the two-dimensional space proposing an open, performative record of our community spaces redefining the city and the human connection to its history and culture.

The “intervention”, integrating elements of interaction with the space as well as with the participants, was a springboard for dialogue within the public and the wider social context but, above all, triggered new thoughts and reflections on space and memory, on the intangible and the material, for the private and the public.

5.2 Case Study 2: Reuse of an Abandoned Industrial Space Through Performing and Visual Arts

The workshop combined the choreographic action, the design of the scenographic space and the production of visual videos and mapping projections on the occasion of the different theatrical fields (text, stage space, lighting, etc.). The industrial building, formerly the Tsaoussoglou Furniture Factory on Piraeus Street, was chosen as the place of intervention.

Students from different fields collaborated on unified spatial concepts. The combination of different aesthetic approaches and techniques multiplied the possibilities in the design of the scenographic space [18], enriched the aesthetics and content of the works, and gave rise to interesting proposals, which were part of the exhibition. The project aimed to explore the concept of space, architectural and visual as an active field, a spatial system that presupposes narrativity, meta-plasticity, and movement, to convey the vitality and restlessness of the creative process.

The final result of the workshop resulted from the synthetic process of designing space and video, material and immaterial, digital and real as a single product that presupposes narrative, mutation, movement, and concepts that emerge from the analysis of the dramatic text and the existing industrial space. The project was presented as a platform for expressive artistic expression, form, language, and representation, reconstructing the abandoned building of the industrial space through the constantly evolving techniques in the field of scenography, sound environment, and image, strengthening the feeling of common identity, of collectivity and continuity.

5.3 Case Study 3: Reuse of an Atrium Square Through Performing and Visual Arts

On the occasion of UNIWA’s participation in the 15th International Exhibition of Scenography-Performing Arts PQ 2023-Prague. A scenography workshop was held to explore the concept of space, scenography, architecture, visual performance, and new media installations in the urban landscape as an active field on the occasion of Euripides’ play “Medea” [19]. The synthetic course includes three successive stages of critical and aesthetic interventions to connect the conceptual framework of the tragedy with the city and the contemporary multifaceted and conflicting social and cultural urban reality. It includes the design and implementation of small-scale spatial constructions in direct dialogue with the body and movement for situ performance by the students in the atrium of the building at 48 Piraeus Street.

The performance action in the atrium square of the building functioned as a dialectical place of intersection of multiculturalism and historical memory. The creative processing of the audio-visual material in its phase functioned as an autonomous visual work and at the same time as an active memory archive of the ephemeral project by displaying it in an important international exhibition abroad. In the end, the inactive decadent empty space was presented as an active field of cultural event, redefining the possibilities of its reuse.

6 Discussion and Conclusions

The above actions contributed to a strategy proposal for the branding of a city based on the perceptions, stories and emotions produced by the experiences of the residents and the history of the place as well as the artistic creation of the participants. Through theoretical and practical approaches to the use of public space as a setting for the reception of performance events, the intention is to reclaim it as a collective space, a fact that in our time is questioned, degraded and constantly shrinking. The model of performance activities in the city, which comes from the performance tradition of the outdoor space, is based on the dynamic production of new forms, with an emphasis on innovation, personal artistic identity, and the ease of adaptation to a constantly changing urban environment. The gathering of different arts, synergies, and participation, can be a powerful tool to transform and highlight neglected spaces into living cultural assets. The use of abandoned buildings through public art and educational activities encourages a sense of place, and community participation and contributes to the overall well-being of urban environments and the promotion of cultural tourism.