Once again, the Athens Epidaurus Festival extends the scope of its artistic activities beyond the summer season and the venues in which they unfold with the continuation of the highly successful Open Plan platform.
This year the Open Plan returns dynamically with digital artistic actions inspired by the “Hymn to Freedom,”, as two hundred years have passed since the writing of the leading poem of Dionysios Solomos.
The “hymn” remains to this day one of the most important poems in modern Greek, while at the same time it is a monument of historical self-knowledge of modern Greece. On the occasion of this emblematic anniversary, this year’s open Plan platform of the Athens Epidaurus Festival presents the artistic project Freequencies , consisting of four autonomous digital works, assignments of the artistic direction to young artists.
The works attempt to illuminate Dionysios Solomos ‘ conversation with the Greeks of today and his anxieties about what freedom is and can be in the modern world and in contemporary artistic expression.
In the framework of Freequencies, the following projects will be presented:
* My homeland: working title short film by Sofia Georgovasili
Premiere today, April 10 at aefestival.gr: https://aefestival.gr/festival-athinon-epidayroy-open-plan-2023-freequencies-eleytheres-sychnotites-sofia-georgovasili-i-patrida-moy-working-title/
* SpringTide/Great/Project videodance of Chrysanthi Badeka
From April 24 at aefestival.gr and on YouTube
* Here she was hosting a video and music project by the artist Myrto Xanthopoulou and the composer Panos Iliopoulos.
Facebook, Instagram, and Facebook of the festival
- With a certain freedom, musical theater work by Thodoris Abazis
From May 18 at aefestival.gr and on YouTube.
The creations of the new artists will be viewed on the website (aefestival.gr), YouTube channel, and other social media of the festival, but the public will also be able to watch them as part of events of the 2023 artistic program.
The artistic project is complemented by a series of discussions curated by Dionysis Kapsalis, on the themes opened by the “hymn to freedom”, primarily those related to the idea and concept of freedom.
Dionysis Kapsalis
The “hymn to freedom” is an ideal case in which to study the involvement of a literary text in historical development as well as the life of ideas (such as freedom) that are tested in the vortex of history.
It is not merely a literary work that participates secondarily in historical action, but a literary work that in itself constitutes historical action, intervenes and acts in history first, and produces historical results.
Two years after the celebrations for the two hundred years of the Revolution, where of course the “hymn” was also commented on (though not in depth), it is important to shift the weight of our attention a little from the “hymn” as the poem about the freedom of the Greeks (the poem of the Greek Revolution, which undoubtedly existed) to the “hymn” as the poem about the freedom of all, that is, not only us but also others: freedom as a universal value.
The works:
Sofia Georgovasili
My hometown: working title
Short film
As of April 10, 2023, in aefestival.gr and YouTube
It is still relevant, and, if so, what does it have to do with the period when the “hymn to freedom was written?
In this short visual work, director Sofia Georgovasili brings the poem of D. Solomos into dialogue with a composition of two well-known paintings by Eugene Delacroix, Greece in the ruins of Messolonghi and the massacre of Chios, and with the music of Nikos Veliotis, representing these key questions in a cinematic tableau vivant.
Playing Michalis Afolayan, Elina Dermitzioglou, Ioanna Toumbakari, Jasmine Roland, Navine Khan Dossos, Zephyros Bride, Edgen Lame, Elena Meggrelis, Stefanos Levidis, Niki Joakimidou, Temo Buyuktemel, Penelope Psalidas, and Konstantina Athinaiou • voice over by Elena Topalidou • music by Nikos Veliotis; editing by Yiannis Nikolaidis
*
Chrysanthi Badeka
SPRINGTIDE / high tide*
Project videodance / 9
From April 24 to aefestival.gr and YouTube
Like fire in a lake, freedom. An act of violence between two opposing forces: water extinguishes fire, but fire also evaporates water. Life breathes in the conflict. How can we be quiet “in our momentary prosperity” ;
As the party progresses, A1 and A2 decide to write a slogan on a wall, outside the nightclub. When R1 and R2 meet, S wakes up in the mountains. Freedom as action and attitude in life. Unfreedom as a spontaneous reaction
within the shape of the dominant frame. When reality violates, belies, and shatters justice, then anything can happen.
SpringTide’s short work, combining the language of dance with cinema, creates a kinetic universe between the real and the imagined, where love and the transcendent meet with rage and violence, in an open narrative of intertwined, physical episodes.
* The springtide effect, in Greek known as conjugate tides, occurs when The Sun, Moon and Earth are on the same imaginary line, resulting in the cumulative forces exerted on the Earth creating much higher tides and lower ebbs. The Greek title “Great Tide” is a free translation into Greek by the choreographer/director.
Scenario – Directed by Chrysanthi Badeka • co-choreographed by Sofia Mavragani & Chrysanthi Badeka • Lighting Design by Michael Kloukinas • composition and sound design by Lambros Chinis • Costume Design by Christina Sotiropoulou • Assistant Director & Production by Dimitris Cheimonas • camera & gimbal operator Chrysanthi Badeka • drone & crane operator Pavlos Kerasidis • focus puller crane Lina Stamatis • gimbal crane operator Petros Katsorchis editing by Chrysanthi Badekazis • special effects Prokopis Vlaseros • electrician / gaffer Giannis Volelis • costume designer’s Assistant Margarita Tzannetou• main dancers Kandy Karra A1, Nondas Damopoulos A2, Sofia Pouchtou R1, Maria Vourou R2 • friendly participation in the role of S Nikos Papathanasis • club team Dimitris Goulios, Ariana Zarmakoupi, Nikos Kalyvas, Christiana Katsibrakis, Sotiria Koutsopetrou, Marietta Manaroli, Avgi Mitsiani, Angelos Papadopoulos, Thanos Ragousis, Vasiana Skopetea • with the creative contribution of Sofia Adamis, Kalliopi Karalis, Eleni Kyparidi, Petrina Moudali, Diana Papadopoulou, Sevasti Stavrou • production manager Anastasia Kavallari
Thank you very much for their help and support.
Makis Staisson, Lia Karabela, Yiannis Issaris, and Christiana Katsibrakis
*
Myrto Xanthopoulou-Panos Iliopoulos
He lived here
Video art / music
Facebook Instagram from May 8, 2023 on Instagram and Facebook of the festival
The work Here in Ekatoikou Used to Live” is the result of the collaboration of the artist Myrto Xanthopoulou and the composer Panos Iliopoulos. It is a series of 7 “vignettes” / short videos, each of which consists of small gestures and performances, ephemeral installations, images and shots of everyday life, and words and phrases, which compose a hybrid of video art, DIY film, poetry, diary recording, and social media projects. Both the form and the content of the play balance between the banal and the sublime, between lightness and necessity, and between the funny and the tragic.
The creators open a fruitful dialogue with the tools of video, speech, and sound, raising questions about the fluidity and solidity of the concept of freedom, the arbitrariness and inevitability of language, the locality, the identity, the monument, the hybrid form, and the very methodology of cooperation regarding the music/sound investment of this audiovisual material.
The title “here in hecatoikia” is a paraphrase of the verse of D’s “hymn to freedom”. Salmon in there. The entire work has been written on the occasion of the lyrics and music of the “hymn”, which is the central theme of Orei Plan.
The project will be presented initially on May 8–14 as a series of Instagram stories on the festival’s social media, and in a second year as a video installation.
Video-Speech – Arrest Myrto Xanthopoulou • Music Composition-Sound Design Panos Iliopoulos
Thodoris Abazis
with a certain freedom
Music Theatre
From May 18 to aefestival.gr and YouTube
Six meetings of music-theater improvisation, will start with lyrics from the “hymn to freedom” by Dionysios Solomos, which will be videotaped and will be the basic material from which the final product will emerge.
Four performers and a composer-director explore the limits of individual freedom in a narrowly defined context. The composer-director participates in the improvisation and directs the ensemble to a different musical-theatre path in each meeting. The contemporary audio videography of the meetings will provide a musical and visual richness, that will eventually be recreated in a music video.
Arrest-direction-directed by Thodoris Abazis • Video-edited by Stathis Athanasiou • recorded by Kostas Bokos • Assistant composer-director Giorgos
Karoumbalos * Perform Anna Pagalou, Yiannis Anastasakis, Thodoris Vazakas, Thanos Polymeneas
*
Round of discussions
On the occasion of the monumental “hymn to freedom” by Solomos, a series of discussions will take place in Janos and Piraeus 260, with the diligence and coordination of Dionysis Kapsalis. Discussions will revolve around the themes that “Anthem” opens up, primarily those related to the idea and concept of freedom.
- A. “Liberal songs”: April 27
Ianos bookstore, time: 20.30
Speakers/speakers
Katerina Tiktopoulou associate professor of Modern Greek literature at the Department of philology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Yiannis Papatheodorou associate professor of Modern Greek literature at the University of Patras
Michael Marmarinos Director, Artistic Director 2023 Eleusis cultural capital of Europe
Nikos Xydakis Composer
Christos Bokoros Painter
Pantelis Boukalas writer, journalist
Dionysis Kapsalis
- “the uncanny freedom of creation”: May 4
Ianos bookstore, time: 20.30
Speakers/speakers
Stavros Zoumboulakis writer, President of the Electoral Council
The National Library of Greece
Charalambos Bakirtzis: curator of antiquities on Honor
Cyril Sarris: Visual Artist
ERSI Sotiropoulou: Author
Filippos Tsalachouris: composer, director of the music schools of the Athens Conservatory
Dionysis Kapsalis
- the freedom of the arts: May 11
Piraeus 260, time: 20.30
Open Plan artists:
Sofia Georgovasili, Chrysanthi Badeka, Myrto Xanthopoulou, Thodoris Abazis
This is the first time I’ve ever seen a woman in my life.
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