Assignment of a new project by NEON for the Portals exhibition titled ‘The stage is empty: Part II, 2021’ – Installation and performance

The second part of the performance by Chrysanthi Koumianaki in the framework of the Portals exhibition titled The stage is empty (2021) was presented on Saturday, November 20 at the theater and the hill of Ippios Kolonos.

Chrysanthi Koumianaki created a performance that takes place both inside and outside the theater, in various parts of Kolonos hill. Paraphrasing Shakespeare’s phrase “all the world’s a stage” and through the experience of public spaces during quarantine, the artist begins from the premise that “public space is everything”. The plays that are performed in and around the theater are based on theatrical texts, on improvisation but also on the observation, imitation and interpretation of the actions ‘performed’ by the people who visit the hill of Kolonos.

The first part was presented at the same time as the opening of the exhibition, in June 2021. The second part of the project is a performance created exclusively by light. Koumianaki uses light as a means of translating and rendering drama, emotion, speech, expression and movement to create the play. It focuses on light as a code that highlights, directs and visualizes an action. The stage of the theater remains seemingly empty while an intangible performance unfolds on it. The viewers are invited to imagine it or to invent their own by going on stage.

Performers: Eva Vlassopoulou, Katerina Mavrogeorgi, Maria Tzani