ATHENS / COUNTER - MONUMENT:
AN ASSEMBLY OF POLITICAL BODIES
TRACES ON THE WALLS
ABANDONED BUILDINGS AS THEATRICAL SPACES
MEDEA PROJECT: DORMANT SPACES FROM THE THEATRE STAGE TO THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
A SPACE IN-BETWEEN (BASED ON HAROLD PINTERS’ "BETRAYAL")
QUARANTINE AND AFTER
NAFPLION BLUES: PRISON STORIES
TRANSIENT LUMINOUS EVENTS
THEN - SHUTS THE DOOR"
ΣΤΙΓΜΙOΤΥΠΑ / INSTANT DREAMS
FLORINA…IN WAITING
THE CITIES AND THE CITY
ATHENS
ATHENS/COUNTER-MONUMENT: AN ASSEMBLY OF POLITICAL BODIES
The one-sided view of the historical centre of Athens asa monumental ensemble -with reference mainly to antiquity- undermines the richness and diversity of the lived experience in a contemporary multicultural city providing heterogeneous sensory, aesthetic and sociopolitical stimuli. The exploration of the city’s sites as counter-monument, as a living situation, as current experience and performative potential, unfolds a polyvocal, contemporary and site-specific performative mapping of the city centre (and beyond) utilising the endless transformative manifestations of expanded scenography within the living archive of the city. An equally important starting point was the diverse explorations of the political body as personal and collective somatic writing in public space and its spatial context. An assembly of political bodies: politics of identity, gender and sexuality, love and desire, autobiographical reflections and social concerns regarding gentrification, homelessness and the immigrant/refugee crisis, media manipulation, critique of educational/cultural policies, even co-opting with the current protest mobilisations of the art world in Greece. The performative condition was a catalyst for activating public space and enabling human communication and direct interaction.
Participants (Undergraduate)
Vasiliki Aggeloudi, Alexandra Almpani, Zoe Kelesi, A City Our Home, the performance, National Garden, Athens 2023
Katerina Giakoumaki, Ιοannis Gionis, Dimitris Markos, Buried Alive, National Garden, Athens 2023
Maria Georgiou, Diamanto Nosti, Antonia Tsili, Unseen, Monument to the Unknown Artist, Amalias Avenue, Athens 2023
Davidia Velaeti, Konstantina Daratsaniou, Anastasia Liori, Katerina Skylogianni, Charalambos Hatzidakis, Restriction/political body, Ermou Pedestrian Street, Athens, Athens 2023
Elli Andritsopoulou, Lefteris Argyros, Artemis Giannopoulou, Pelagia Memmou, Leda Rapiti, How to Be Tender, Μousaiou & Lysiou Street, Ruins of Kioutsouk Mosque, Plaka, Athens 2023
Maria-Leda Diochnou, Irini Kazantzidi, Giorgos Braoudakis, Giannis Tsiptsis, Abandon the score but not the others, Theatraki Koumoundourou Square, Athens 2023
Anna Theodoridou, Diamanto Nosti, Giannis Tsiptsis, Fight like a girl, Stoa Arsakeiou, Athens 2022
Maria Georgiou, Maria Raistelli, Antonia Tsili, Giorgos Folokis, Fragments, Koumoundourou Square, Athens 2022
Stella Karageorgi, Filothei Kotzia, Aggeliki Lanara, Flora Fousteri, Αn insignificant story, Embros Theatre, Psirri, Athens 2022.
Participants (Postgraduate)
Eleni-Maria Antoniou, Lust Vote, Poikilis Street, Plaka, Athens, 2023
Tilemachos Angelis, Junk Food, Old Parliament, Athens, 2023
Olia Georgiadou, A-shamed, Gate of Athena Archegetis, Roman Agora, Athens, 2023
Maria Georgopoulou, Woman Holding a Heart, Attica Stores, Panepistimiou Street, Athens, 2023
Αmelia Eleftheriadou, Yiorgos Tatsis, Mediopticon, Syntagma Square, Athens, 2023
Maria- Sarra Karpouzi, Ιt matters because I gave it meaning, Athens, 2023
Maria Koronellou, My Hair and I, Ηair salon in Ilioupoli, Athens, 2023
Konstantinos Makridakis, Α Semi-Transformation, Syggrou Avenue, Athens, 2023
Stella Maggana Afroditi Mitsopoulou, Aggeliki Strataki, ΗΟPA! Exarchia Square, Athens, 2023
Marie-Suzan Mouzela, Uncaged, Plaka, Athens, 2023
Katerina Bilali, Georgia Kokkinou, Peel onions, it’s your job! Monastiraki Square, Athens, 2023
Giota Panagi, Please Mind The Gap, Monastiraki Railway Station, Athens, 2023
Vangelis Papadakis, Embracing Otherness, Korai Pedestrian Street, Athens Stock Exchange & Fethiye Mosque Museum, Athens, 2023
Ilias Sapountzakis, The Spirit of Areopagus (Supreme Court), Hill of Areios Pagos, Athens, 2023
Katerina Trikoglou, Dreaming Performance, Syntagma Square, Athens, 2023.
TRACES ON THE WALLS
ABANDONED BUILDINGS AS THEATRICAL SPACES
Starting from the thematic concept formulated for the Greek student participation, the students focused their research on the abandoned buildings of Athens, both public and private, which were used as stimuli and opportunities for the creation of performance spaces for theatrical or non-theatrical texts. The resilience of the buildings, the reasons for their abandonment and their histories were studied, interpreted and reflected in the design of the staging proposals. Students conceived, organised and implemented scenographic interventions on the exterior or interior of the buildings, formulated proposals for the configuration of the buildings, so that they could host a theatre performance or a performance piece and its audience, highlighted the relationship between the abandoned building and the people who, for different reasons, had been in these buildings in the past, prepared models and drawings and created performance material using and shaping the buildings as stage sets, in real or digital form.
Participants
Maria Alani, Christina Antoniadi, Emmanouil Askar, Aglaia Athanasiou, Stefanos Babanatsis, Konstadina Babili, Athina Badour, Zoe Cano, Marine Cauvin, Christina Chatzidaki, Stavros Chatzidimitriou, Anna Chioni, Eleni Chiotaki, Alexandre Dalmont, Chrysanthi Dimitriadi, Maria Dimitriadi, Eleni Dimopoulou, Panayiotis-Foivos Diktapanidis, Ioannis Doris, Dimitra Exarchea, Dimitris Fertis, Elli-Maria Filippou, Ntenia Floka, Emmanouela Fragouli, Coraline de Gaillande, Ioanna Giakoumi, Antonia Giannaka, Evangelia Giannakopoulou, Marialena Gioka, Maud Guays, Melis Gündoğdu, Raul Henrici, Christina-Sophia Ioannidou, Nefeli Kantemnidi, Panagiota Karanikola, Thenia Karavasili, Katerina Katsoulopoulou, Angeliki- Pavlina Kavvatha, Vasilis Kiriazopoulos, Eleni Komatea, Maria Kondylaki, Maria Konstantinidou, Calliopi Koutelieri, Emilia Kyriazi, Oceane Lechine, Panagiota Lygouri, Georgios- Evangelos Maniatis, Irene Minetou, Angela Mirasi, Despina Mouzaki, Georgia Nikolaou, Ekati Panagiotouni, Georgios Panaretos, Ioli Papalampidou, Eleanna Papamichael, Filippos Raptakis, Korina Sarikou, Hasan-Baran Şimşek, Eleftheria Sofianopoulou, Othonas Stavropoulos, Eleonora Syllaidopoulou, Anna-Maria Thalassinou, Katerina Theodorou, Fotis Trachanas, Nefeli Tsaparli, Alexandros Tsironis, Paraskevi Varkadou, Io Vellianiti, Wiktoria Wilczyńska, Maria Xenaki, Alkistis Xiradaki, Ania Żeberkiewicz, Angeliki Zontanou.
MEDEA PROJECT: DORMANT SPACES FROM THE THEATRE STAGE TO THE URBAN LANDSCAPE
Medea, Euripides’ tragic heroine, embodies an existence hovering between love and betrayal, eradication and integration, punishment and hubris, magic and rationality. The compositional process involved three successive stages of critical and aesthetic interventions in order to interconnect the conceptual framework of tragedy with the city and contemporary multifaceted and conflicting social and cultural urban reality. The stage space in the neoclassical National Theatre of Athens and in the urban void of a post-war modernist building on Peiraios Street that hosts natives and immigrants were studied. A scenography workshop was organised where emblematic- symbolic spatial constructions were constructed through the space/body relationship. A performance action was in the building’s patio-square that functions as dialectical place of intersection of multiculturalism and historical memory. The action invites experientially and symbolically the co-creation and redefinition of the myth of Medea as a vehicle of transition to the modern era.
Participants
Eleftheria Vraka, Dafni Papathymiopoulou, Anna-Iro Leivaditi, Anna-Asimina Panou, Paris Fakinos, Georgia-Anna Pagoni,Vasilia Papapostolou, Danai Androni, Anastasia Manolikaki, Anastasia Matzourani, Despina Spiridi, Sofia kyriakopoulou, Alexandra Tziomaki, Effrosyni Rachtsopoulou, Rafaela Fratzia, Eygenia-Maria Papakonstantinou, Konstantina Papagianni, Antonia Morfopoulou, Lida Mpitsika, Rania El Ouafi, Anastasios Fakos, Antonia Fatsea, Marios Papadakis, Natalia Karapli, Olga Adamopoulou, Georgia Birmpili, Nektaria Papa, Stavroula Karakatsani, Taras Bambiu, Athanasios Grantzas, Eleni Avgerinou, Emmanouela Sianna, Antonia Mpemplidaki, Alina Kashitsyna, Georgios Futas, Eleni Dobrogianni, Dimitra Tsiami.
Participants (Department of Photography and Audiovisual Arts, UNIWA): Nikos Venetopoulos, Stavrianna Bitsani, Niki Iliopoulou
A SPACE IN-BETWEEN (BASED ON HAROLD PINTERS’ BETRAYAL)
“One scene, two people, one door.
The poetic image of an indeterminate fear, an indeterminate waiting.”
What they fear most is what is outside of the room.
The viewer knows the end of the story from the beginning, while watching a game of maintaining a delicate balance between the three characters who speak evasively, answer with questions, say one thing but mean another. Everything is indirect. The discourse is fragmented, ambiguous and in a constant effort to disguise/discover information.
Participants
Eva Andronikidou, Juliana Vasilakou, Anastasia Georgitsi, Fedra Karantzou, Anastasios Klis, Foteini Mavridi, Ellie Memmou, Konstantina Panteri, Angeliki Papadopoulou, Myrto Papadopoyloy, Dora Papaspyropoulou, Katerina Stellatou, Panagiotis Tsoukanas, Greta Wilhelm
"THEN - SHUTS THE DOOR"
Through the artistic research that began in May 2022, the group of students created a project of their own. In order to find what lies within the nature of each one of us and of the group as a whole, a series of questions and freely gathered material led to a search for the poetic dimension through the rare and unique “within” us. The search for a place without people, the Athens of the pandemic. The silence of a city at a standstill. Houses, refuges of intimacy, in which many different parallel stories unfold. The source of inspiration is the narrative of the place itself, the real life of the city and the new reality of the internet. The question remains, however, until the last day of PQ23: What experience does our unique story, with its parallel different stories, create for the spectator, for their own story -if there is one- and how can it be shared with us?
Participants
Vasia Bizindi, Anrietta Gkioni, Alkmini Damianakou, Lena Drazinou, Maria Darmou, Marianna Juti, Sofia Kyriakidou, Angeliki Manta, Katerina Margariti, Martha Mavri, Katerina Merkouri, Sofia Panagiotopoulou, Afroditi Pouchtou, Sissi Tentzeri, Anastasia Tsigkou.
THESSALONIKI
THE CITIES AND THE CITY
The city of Thessaloniki as a synthesis of material and immaterial elements: history, architecture, social and spiritual life. The “historical city” with its transitions: the Ancient city, the Roman, the Byzantine, the Ottoman and, finally, the modern Greek city with its multicultural character. The multiple faces of the city. The transformation of the city through historical events: the fire of 1917, the arrival ofrefugees in 1922, the annihilation of the Jewish population in 1943. The “modern city”, with its particularities and contradictions, as a living archive, but also as aunique experiential space. Application: From the “imaginary city” to the “real” one, from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities to the “visible city”, Thessaloniki. Means of expression: collage, assemblage, maquette. Final synthesis: a collective artwork.
Participants
Irini Agianiti, Stavriana Dolme, Irini Zahariou, Anna Ischnopoulou, Iriri Theodosiou, Varvara Karasaridou, Irini Kyrifides, Toulin Osman, Panos Mitselis, Stefania Pantazopoulou, Despina Papadimitriou, Theodora Sarri,Dimitra Tsintsini, Konstantina Tsolakidou, Vivian Fliouka, Olympia Charalampidou, Louiza-Maria Charalampous,Ernesta Chatzilemonidou, Chrysa Chatzimichael
QUARANTINE AND AFTER
Eight student short films. They were produced during the period of strict quarantine and in the later phase of the pandemic’s remission. The timing of their realisation hasleft its mark on their subject matter and mode of construction, as well as on the mood of the creators’ artistic expression. They present and highlight the interesting differences in the function of private and public space.
Participants
Georgia Edinerli, Persa Eminidou, Kyriaki Tsortanidou, Dimitra Mexi, Anile Yanakova, Vivi Poulaki, Nikos Tsiamis, Christina Tseperi, Stavroula Charitidopu, Soultana Lymperopoulou, Elpida Papadopoulou, Maria Liapi, Angeliki Dekavala, Maria Liapi, Anna Papazoglou, Efi Anagnostidou, Michalis Laoulakos, Giannis Markopoulos, Anastasis Laoulakos, Thalia Stamatelou, Athanasios Lazarou, Christos Papapanagiotou, Galatia Kondi, Aggelina Medeleva, Stella Papanikolaou, Nikos Papachiou, Kornilia Priziou, Stavroula Koulouri, Chrysavgi Skoumpi, Giorgos Mokas, Apostolis Tselios, Stella Deliantoni, Dimitra Perdikopoulou, Ioanna Papanikolaou, Vasilis Kartas, Ariadni Angeliki Thyfronitou Litou, Dimitris Tsakaleas, Lida Vartzioti, Manos, Tzivakis, Alkaios Nikolaou Michail, Angeliki Politi, Vassiliki Vogiatzi, Asimina Lydia Dionysopoulou, Ermis, Xylogianni Gondria, Vicky Soufara, Olga Kompagianni, Iro Karavia, Maria Tzotzatou,Vaggelis Fampas, Joey Vassilopoylos, Stavros Symeonitis, Jonathan Cygom, Haris Saratsiotis, Lena Dourmousoglou, Arsinoi Pitou, Eva Gkogkou, Vlasis Papapetropoulos, Theodoros Koutselis, Argyro Bari, Kostas Daskalopoulos, Eliza Paramythi Charalampidi, Rania Tsekoura, Dionysis Giakoumis, Vangelis Trichias, Olympia Theodoritou, Vassiliki Fouka, Dolores Hajderaj, Diamantis Partsalakis, Sozos Christou, Thanos Michalopoulos, Anna Papanikolaou, Christos Douris
NAFPLIO
ΣΤΙΓΜΙOTYΠΑ / INSTANT DREAMS
The experience of the pandemic changed our perception and gradually shaped a different experience of our relationship with public and private space. Challenging the boundaries between real and imaginary/conceptual experience becomes a tool for experiencing space by creating worlds of sensations attractive to the imagination and memory. The memory of the quarantine experience being recalled, space is transformed and reconsidered through desires, memories, dreams and imaginary stories and is recreated in a surrealistic mood or through the memory and exchange of personal stories. The presentation of the students’ work was based on a series of creative/experiential assignments during the courses Scenography II spring semester 2021-22, Scenography Iwinter semester 2022-23 and Scenography: Installation and Intervention in the Public Sphere in winter semester2022-23. The final outcome of the assignments was eithercaptured in photographs of short performances orpresented as a performance event in public spaces thathad an experiential relationship with the students through their cultural/social knowledge of the specific site.
Participants
Nasia Averkiadi, Ioanna Adam, Eugenia Symela Armeni, Maria Varsou, Marilina Gianni, Eirini Gkotsi, Styliani Daktyla, Silia Kakolyri-Vai, Evagelina Kariofilli, Eleni Kotzamani, Dimitra Kostoula, Katerina Lampathi, Elena Lougkou, Stella Malliora, Maria Mouzaki, Katerina Mytili, Fragkiskos Papadakis, Georgios Papadopoulos, Alexandros Papatheodorou, Alexandra Sarantopoulou, Sofia Stergiopoulou, Kalliopi Sotiriou, Dimitra Tsangouri, Katerina Tsolaki, Marilena Stefanidi, Anna Chatzipapadopoulou
NAFPLION BLUES: PRISON STORIES / TRANSIENT LUMINOUS EVENTS
1. NAFPLION BLUES: PRISON STORIES
The project focuses on the concept of incarceration, through the case of prisons in the city of Nafplion. In the course Performance and space: the Audience, the Artist Performance as a Meeting Ground, students created the site-specific performance Listen-Watch-Βe Silent. Performers and audience participated in a pilgrimage procession to the places where prisons once operated (Palamidi, Vouleftikon, Bourtzi, Akronafplia). The course Socially Engaged Performance III: Social Theatre was held at the Agriciltural Prison of Tiryns. Inmates and students participated in theatre workshops and presented the performance "The Journeys of the Potato, from Andes to Tiryns: Legends and Truths".
Participants
Ionni Apostolidou, Ioannis Venetis, Konstantina Goga, Nefeli Grigoraki, Lena Delavia, Chryssa Kaloudopoulou, George Kondos, Percy Koritsidou, Mary Zaggla, Konstantina Mantzavinou, Anastasia Markella Neamoniti, Anastasia Ladopoulou, Beatriz Rodríguez Morgado, Christos Stathopoulos, Anastasia Statsenko, Virginia-Melia Stogiannidou, Spyros Stoupas, Sophia Stylianou, Sophia Hadziioannou, Danae Efrosyni Christoudi
2. TRANSIENT LUMINOUS EVENTS The project is a series of seven student artworks in the public space of the city centering on the relationship between light, text, performance and creative technologies. Taking as their starting point the rare homonymous electric light phenomena in the earth’s atmosphere (TLE), the works are topo-gestures where light is approached as a trace, sign, floating condition, absence and transition, highlighting in a poetic, political, reflective and romantic way issues of freedom, memory, transition and consciousnessin the city. The section presents a geo-signal where each artistic creation becomes a firefly for anonymous passers-by.
Participants
Lena Delavia, Pelagia Zeppou, Eleftheria Kouniou, Eirini Palimeri, Chrysi Stoikou, Katerina Psarianou, Christina Vlachaki
FLORINA
FLORINA…IN WAITING
This is a series of site-specific performances based on scores that emerged from the field research and mapping of the city of Florina, a “waiting room” city, according to Theo Angelopoulos. The binaries of private/public space, familiar/uncanny, foreigner/ "local", but also the notions of transition, wandering, identity, visible and invisible borders between us and the “others” are explored in live and non-live performances. The city regresses between the visible and the invisible, a semantic analogy of the meteorological phenomenon of “siniaki”, like a white veil covering and engulfing the city, but also, in a way, its history. Public space and the natural environment become the locus of the search for connection with the “other” beyond linguistic and cultural constraints. And the everyday life of the city, through iterative acts of care and arranging, projects the city as a living archive of the everyday and social performance of a diverse and complex whole.
Participants
Inaction, performance on camera, Nasia Karatsiraki
Waiting Room, performance, Paschalis Vouzios, Kirki Iosifidou, Nasia Karatsiraki, Kleanthis Kommatas, Fevronia Saroukou
Housework, performance, Fevronia Saroukou
Personal Public Space, performance on camera, Konstantina Stefanidou
Hey!, performance on camera, Paschalis Vouzios, Kirki Iosifidou, Nasia Karatsiraki, Kleanthis Kommatas