In regard to the defense needs of the demonstrators and to the needs of ephemeral dwelling in public spaces, an apparatus is introduced, that aims to protect demonstrators from directed water and chemical shootings and offer a temporal place to stay in the extreme condition of urban conflicts. The A.D.A.P.T. construction is an assemblage of four wooden or metal triangular panels 2X3X3,6 m. each. The device can continuously be reshaped. It folds into an orthogonal shape of a single panel, easy to be carried in the streets, and it unfolds to forms that function either as a defense device or a dwelling space. The mechanics of its form have an organic aspect. They are analogous to the mechanics of the shell. It opens gradually and starting from the version of the two-dimensional object, a thick panel 2X3X0.10m, it becomes a defense apparatus when it opens to a V-shape plan. When the V plan opens widely the roof closes like an oyster and the apparatus becomes a hard -cover-urban-tent. Thus, the A.D.A.P.T., due to its structural flexibility is appropriate both as the protestors’ defense device against suppression forces and as an ephemeral dwelling module for public space occupants. Eating, resting, sleeping, coming together and communicating are functions that can be hosted in the A.D.A.P.T. when it comes to its tent form. Compared with the bunker that bears a heavy cannon as a weapon, the A.D.A.P.T. is carrying a megaphone on its front. Speaking aloud and talking together are the elementary acts of the performing bodies in public space. This is an echo from long afar in time, and it derives from the ancient Greek Agora. To speak-in-public-aloud is the elementary condition of being -in -public (space). In this sense, a mutual transformation of the verb “to exist” to the verb “to resist” is appropriate. Thus, rexistance is being ministered through the A.D.A.P.T. device.
Instalation in 4th Athens Biennale.
Video & Sound: Yorgos Lavansiotis
Representation and Construction: Vasia Liri
Manual: Michalis Softas