Pics from LUNA PARK: What is democracy? participatory artwork performed in Athens Art gallery (2021), Dublin IMMA (2022) and Malta TTT (2023)
This participatory artwork/ performative experiment wishes to inquire on the embodiment of democracy. My approach is based on concepts of post dance and choreopolitics (Lepecki). The artistic research methodology aims to the deepening of the concept and structure of Arquitecturas Biologicas (Lygia Clark). LUNA PARK: what is democracy? is a research project that challenges the perception and embodiment of the in-betweeness (Watsuji Tetsuro) here seen as the ‘tension’ among the individual and the social self. Ultimately, ‘LUNA PARK: what is democracy?’ would like to offer an alternative on current forms of biopolitics as an alternative means of resistance to current politics of time and space.
Video still from documentation of ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ participatory artwork, AVARTS Festival (2024) CorfuFeedback session after ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ participatory artwork, at NSU 2024, hosted by study circle Artistic Research, DK
A workshop-based presentation which is triggered by the current politics between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Israel and Palestine using Nagorno Karabach and Gaza current situation as a symbol for year-lasting conflicts between states. The proposal suggests ethnic cleansing strategies must be added to the list of the Anthropocene and seeks creative solutions making use of performative art as a safe platform to test out and embody new ideas.
In ‘Rock, paper, scissors’, I am borrowing the aesthetics of Japanese gardens in what concerns the fleeting and changing perception of the architecture (space/ time) to explore alternative ways of existing in a more constructive and harmonious ways within the framework of the workshop and beyond. Participants will be invited to create a living system which (as with all living systems) is fragile, subject to change and impossible to fully control. This workshop acts as a social experiment of our ability to listen to each other and to create (or not) harmonious coexistence in space.
Concept, performance, video, narration: Eleni Kolliopoulou
performance, narration: Stratos Papadoudis
video and audio editing: Thanasis Epitideios
With the support of H.F.R.I.
This work is the third artistic research project and part of my current post doctoral research in Butoh-fu inspired dramaturgy.
Watch video documentation: https://vimeo.com/956385594
Αιμοπετάλια/ Platelets (2024) Pic 2
Αιμοπετάλια is a mixed-media performance unfolding around the bodily sensations, feelings, thoughts of war prisoners informed by Butoh-fu ‘Walking as a pure measure’. The visual performance run along the recording of Italo Calvino’s ‘Waiting for death in a hotel’. This work is dedicated to all victims of injustices.
Inside-out (2015) site specific installation in the old tin factory, Prespes (GR), two cut T-shirts (one burnt), open entrance door of factoryInside-out (2015) site specific installation in the old tin factory, Prespes (GR), two cut T-shirts (one burnt), open entrance door of factoryInside-out (2015) site specific installation in the old tin factory, Prespes (GR), two cut T-shirts (one burnt), open entrance door of factoryInside-out (2015) site specific installation in the old tin factory, Prespes (GR), two cut T-shirts (one burnt), open entrance door of factory
Inside-out (2015) was a site-specific installation created during Prespes residency organized by Fine arts Academy, Florina, Greece
The space encloses and penetrates the material. The space allows the time to penetrate the material and produce/ mοuld new forms. During the encounter between time and space, gradually, matter’s limits are catalyzed thus dynamics is created, hence change comes into play before our eyes: the transition of space-time is visible in the materials.
Forms vary, get shaped, re -structured: garments’ fibbers blend with rust. The sculptor is space-time. I invite the time to impact on materials. I hasten its effect by opening a hole in the garment. My attempt is to illustrate artistically and visualize both concepts (space + time).
The two cut T-shirts (body, human presence or absence, meaning lived experience, in other words life) commune. They are appositely disposed opposite one another in a communicating relationship.
Among them “flows” space.
Being connected at a distance, they are a living system, a kind of contemporary eco-habitat.
This video performance was filmed in Hermes Areal at Halle an der Saale. I performed an action with the Butoh (Japanese contemporary dance) visualization of cigarette’s ash falling in the ground: the embodiment of an internal collapse. This location was chosen in base of its business of multiple directions of the traffic flow occurring simultaneously: I located myself in ”an urban island”.
I can imagine the roads being like rivers and the crossing of the cars as if they were the waves.
I have been working on the contrast between the figure that is monochromatic and quite still and the surrounding that is mixed with many colors and in continuous movement.
Why collapse ? This action condenses my feelings about the actual situation in Greece as well as in Europe.The economical crisis signs a very particular historical period that has to do with an inner need of a change. The crisis is not only economical, but more existential. Many questions arise such as how are we really treating the environment, are money worth so as to loose human lives, what is really happiness in an occidental society, how people can find an other meaning of their social being including the conviviality with the nature ?
A collapse is always connected with an upcoming birth which we can influence with our choices?
Site specific performance / Video-performance / Collaboration project
Concept and performance: Eleni Kolliopoulou
Sculpting project: Yiorgos Drosos
A pendulum never stops its movement … There are always regular intervals in the motion of the pendulum; it (the movement) is reloaded from its energy, it embodies transparent pauses, re launches and absorbs / processes the vibrations of its environment …
The space is manifested in contrast to the perpetual motion of the pendulum favouring the construction of a ring system that may have similarities to a magnetic field.
The location of the performance is a central pedestrian square of Athens. The performer moves with softness, regularity and tenderness between the living space that remains limited to a human being within the urban landscape.
The large sculpture “The Runner” created by the contemporary Varotsos emerges in the background.The strong impact of the statue which depicts a ‘man running in high speed merges with the figure moving slowly.
The fragility of the body of the performer acquires and reinforces its expression as it moves into and through the orchestrated aggression and hostility of the traffic flow.
This action gives the space perceived an imaginary tone. Viewers glide slowly in this liquid and dreamy state. This artificial situation opposes itself to the organic and liquid presence of the performer creating a rhythm among the functionality of everyday life of the contemporary city and the need to escape…
wishes to inquire on the embodiment of democracy. My approach is based on concepts of post dance and choreopolitics (Lepecki). The artistic research methodology aims to the deepening of the concept and structure of Arquitecturas Biologicas (Lygia Clark). LUNA PARK: what is democracy? is a research project that challenges the perception and embodiment of the in-betweeness (Watsuji Tetsuro) here seen as the ‘tension’ among the individual and the social self. Ultimately, ‘LUNA PARK: what is democracy?’ would like to offer an alternative on current forms of biopolitics as an alternative means of resistance to current politics of time and space.
