Protesting in a performative way...

Back in Greece for Christmas vacation... let's say... These days here in Greece and especially Athens nothing is festive. We are in the middle of a social crises with every day protests and riots all around. The reason why all these begun was the fact that a police officer shot dead a 15-year-old boy, named Alexandros Grigoropoulos, some days ago. 

Greek people became furious and turned openly against the conservative government and its unpopular social and economic policies as well as against the police forces and their tactics.

During the last days people express their feelings with protests that often turn out to have the form of a riot. Thousands of protesters burned and destroyed buildings and public property in Athens and other major cities. More than 60 people have been hurt and many have been arrested by the police with or without reason. How and when this is going to end is something that nobody knows yet.

Under these circumstances we (a group of friends and me, all of us coming from different disciplines) decided to protest once more but this time with a different way, a performative way. We decided to focus on the deaths, because that boy was not the first one who was killed the last few years by the Greek police with no good reason and for sure he is not going to be the last one. So, using very simple materials (white paint, brushes and our bodies), we went to the protest and we would paint on the street, the pavements and the walls figures of people, as the police paints the figure in a crime scene. We wanted to make clear that all this is a big crime scene were innocents are killed just because. Just that, so simply.

The task was difficult. The streets were crowded by the protesters and the police was around. Everything had to be done quickly. But the most great part of this after all was the reactions of the people. Nobody blamed us for destroying public property. In contrary everybody was willing to help either by verbally support either by lying on the ground so that we would create his figure on the street, ether by stopping the protesters for a few seconds so that we would be able to finish what we were doing. Nobody asked why. In it's simplicity this performative activity was crystal clear to everyone, even to the angry Greek protesters.

We hope that we will continue this in the next few days. We want to transform these main streets of central Athens to a big crime scene. And in this crime scene people will continue to walk, protest and driving their cars as always, as if nothing has happened or not?

There are some photos of that here. Soon I will make the video as well...

First draft for Danny's Costume for the Overlook project

This character is an outsider, different from Jack and Wendy, but it still feels like I need to find a link to connect him...

The Photos!!!

Windows In Paris!

There are some  problems with the photos, they can't be uploaded ... Coming soon

Last weekend I visited Paris. Everything was Christmasy and really magical. But the most impressive of all was the windows at the big shopping centers. These are just some still photos from the windows who can't in anyway describe the reality. Each window had another theme and it's purpose could be either highlighting a cloth or just decorative. All these, up to now sound really regular. The irregular element of these is that every single one of those was mechanically supported so the model-dolls or the decorative dolls were all mechanically moving puppets who would walk, dance, run or whatever. Additionally each one of the windows was accompanied by music or sounds specifically selected for the theme that the window would represent.

Those windows, as they informed have an audience. People go there just to see as if they would go to an art gallery or a performance. Then they discuss and write critiques in the papers and the magazines and if something is considered to be inappropriate - for example- the audience can demand to be changed. These made me return to all these thoughts of mine about the connections between theatre and installation. Should we add marketing somewhere near those as well? What do they have in common and what not, because, after all the do use the same materials and the same means of communication. A simple window can be considered as a set and these windows now can be considered as installations maybe.Is the difference between those that they serve a different purpose, that they are just decorative, they try to promote a product by impressing their ''audience''? Yes maybe, but I think that lots of installations in galleries and lots of plays have exactly the same characteristics and the only aspect that might change is that the product is the artist. 

But anyway... they were just windows... Marry Christmas!

About Station House Opera's Mind Out

The Station House Opera is a company founded in 1980. Their work varies and it could be characterized as theatre and site-specific performance at the same time.

Last Thursday, for the first time, I had the chance to finally attend to one of their plays,called Mind Out at the Battersea Arts Center, London and I am really glad to finally say that I went to the theatre to see something and I totally loved it. 

The play was a five character constant game that made you think how it could be if you did not have a mind of your own, but someone else always telling you what to do and what you want to do.

In an extremely "clean" set -at the begging at least-you could see clearly the separation of the body, the mind and the inner thought of each performer/character. But what started as a nice game, as the time went by it started transforming to a "spooky" mess were the joy and the safety would gradually disappear to give their place to an unsafe feeling, a mess and sometimes even fear. Why? Because when you feel like somebody else controls you, like somebody else gives you orders you might feel safe or unsafe depending on your character. But even if that starts to break and everything around you is uncertain and you have no idea who is controlling who and what, this is nothing. And nothing causes fear. To me at least.

All these were presented in the simplest way. With a set that passed from the same stages as the characters. From clean and tidy to messy and dirty. With costumes that were absolutely ordinary but successfully chosen for each one of the characters. And three musicians that appear from nowhere that were playing with your temper in you didn't know if you wanted to laugh with them or just start shouting at them to stop the music!

So simple,so full of meaning, so full of tense. Just like that! :)

i need to blog...

What happens when your thoughts are like this fjgueyqgfMSAXCIREUHUIHDHVHhjkhuhufhiuhvcjkjdivjiuhre30892t758ygfdjkn cmvhf3u4t8ruhmxufhjdoiuxj48y7t3yqp3uwn3i5cyntughvbmpi30c98u5rfekdscii5huihtc faxmdgruhf uhebfhbihuch4iwq;epokf and  you feel the need to blog? I suppose you just do it and you come back after two days to explain what you wanted to say...

About DV8's To be straight with you...

A week ago I went to see DV8's ''To be straight with you'' and after that I was thinking a lot... they describe their work as ''a poetic but unflinching exploration of tolerance, intolerance, religion and sexuality ...''. And indeed that was their work about. I was fascinated from the start. The multi-ethnic cast was really interested, the dancers were all great and their movements were so polished, the set and the projections (although based in a 90's graphic aesthetics) astonished me, the music was loud and the play was flowing and I got to be informed about the sufferings of the homosexual community around the world in an entertaining way... for the first thirty minutes. What changed after that? I got over the enthusiasm and I started thinking. Because the thing is that, if I wanted to see well trained dancers doing difficult staff,I could go to the circus. If I wanted to see a magnificent high-tech set design, I could go to Disneyland. If I wanted to feel the bit of loud music, I could go to a club and if I wanted to be informed about homosexuality, I could (and should) read and research about this. By these I don't imply that this was not a nice way to achieve all these at once but... at some point it made me feel that this was not theatre. It felt like those people wanted to say and share some information and they found a pleasing way to present them to an audience and that way they came up with, affected the structure of it. I was thinking at some points that they had a story and they were thinking " ok, how can we present this one now?" and something like this leads to the loss of meaning and point. What if someone does have an important matter to deal with and a great budget to help him make it happen, if in the end the result is a "well dressed" informative show? Is this the meaning of creating plays?

I do think that whenever we have all the means to do something we can easily loose control of what we want to communicate and  even if our subject is of great importance, if we just make a show about it's not important any more. (but the audience simply loves it...) 

The moving Castle + Mirror in a Mirror

What is this project 1 about after all?What was i working for for the past 3 weeks?For me it is a reality, an every day reality of people including me. I got very interested in this when I realized that every day, whenever I have to go back home or to the university, I follow the same paths. Up to now,I follow paths without noticing what is next to me, and I really believe that I am not the only one who does this... I only notice the space around when I think that I am so into this routine that I have stopped observing the world around me. This made me think what would happen if I start working somewhere and stay in this job for years. Stop taking advantage of the fact that I am still young and even if I want it or not, every year finds me in another place and gives me the chance to create my new paths, my new routine. What is going on with all those busy people that we see everyday running into the big public buildings as they go to work. Do they see?Do they notice who else is with them in the elevators when they go up or down? How the time goes by for them? Don't they fell sometimes trapped in time and space by following this routine that they choose because they wanted to but they can't change it easily... because let's be honest this happens or will happen to all of us because all of us have to work and act in this way if we want to survive in the big or small cities of the world. Up and down every day. My moving castle transformed into an elevator. Up and down. The Never ending story gave its place to Mirror in a Mirror. Up and down for ten days in an elevator. One actor and many people going to their jobs using the elevator. Are they going to see? Are they going to react? Maybe some day we will get to know...

Dafni back to the theory

At first I would like to inform that my background is theoretical and when I decided to become a designer I thought that it would be much better if I leave theory behind me and start not thinking with my mind but with my senses. Dead end.

The last days I think a lot about the theory that lies behind my work. One of the reasons is that at some point I will have to explain where is the basis of my work, what are my believes and what I want to say to the audience and all these simply conflict the above.

The problem here is that up to now I felt that I can't focus in one thing, one theory, one social phenomenon etc. As a person I refuse to focus my mind in one matter only. Every day is another day and something happens that needs attention and critical approach. I deal with my work in the same way first of all because I believe in dealing with different aspects of our lives and secondly because as a designer for the theatre/performance I can not work by myself. Normally there is always a director somewhere who actually creates the performance and decides on what the performance wants to communicate to the audience. Each different director has another way of thinking and is approaching each matter through different aspects and theories and to me this is the ultimate challenge. Doing this, every time I have to start from nothing from the theoretical point of view. The only thing that remains the same for me is my aesthetics and the artistic language I use to express whatever the director wants to say (when I see this written it makes me feel like I am the most stupid person in the world).

But, I have an excuse. All these were my thoughts up to now, that I was actually working with directors that I was absolutely communicating with and we had similar points of view and obviously interests. What happens to a designer like me when a) is on his own or b)has to work with someone that disagrees with? Is this time to realize that I do base my work in some theory? That after all I am not that open in experimenting with everything? And if yes, witch theory has influenced me and where is the borderline of my interests? Up to now I was just lucky because I never had to think about these. Time to grow up.

DELETE

What happens when you think and you work on a project and then within minutes you realize that there is no point in this? You then just have to find the strength to live that project behind. DELETE. Today I went to my studio and I erased the creatures and the ground plans, I threw away the model box. I was trying to convince myself that I really believed in my idea of creating the moving castle in the way I was doing it. But in reality I did not believe in this because there was nothing there... nether for me or for anyone. It was too much. It had no meaning. It expressed nothing. It was just a toy. And the worse is that it was a toy of bad aesthetics as well. But a performance is not a toy, at least for me.
I was trying to convince myself as well that I was done with theory. Done with philosophy and all these. I was tempted to try and work for once without any basis, just with my senses.
Result: I can not do that. It is not interesting at all. So... what are the changes?1) Back to my books and my theories...2) I will keep on working with the same movie,3) I will change the book but 4)I will not change the author of the book. I realized, finally, that I didn't choose those books because I like the stories but because I like the way that Michael Ende thinks. I am interested in the atmosphere and the caracters that he creates. Today, after many years,I discovered who and what Michael Ende is. I have a lot of reading to do during the weekend!!!!!!!!!!

.......

Creating creatures for my mush-up a very peculiar think to do... Creating a new world and playing with fantasy in peoples (and mainly adults) minds will be much worse... Do we communicate with that part of our humanity nowadays? What are the differences between adults and children, if we consider that there are differences? Can peoples imagination and creativity be aroused by a visual/performative/installation,something? And let's say that I believe that the answers to all these hide between the combinations of symbols that we usually call letters or in the words, that exist or not - but who can actually say that a wor(l)d or a name does not exist and why-? Are these even interesting for someone? Does this name : Kalpeliar mean something to you? Does this name/combination of letters have the power to move the Castle? Stop.

2 more creatures for the mush-up....

Done with the video...

This is the day I officially finished with the video I was making and I am actually ready to move one and think only for the mush-up (...at least for as soon as the third project does not appear...)! So... you have seen some of the photos from the model box I built for the video and soon you will be able to see the video on line at www.wcama.com. The procedure of making it was quite complicated for me from the start because it had to be an 1 minute video about myself...and how can I describe myself? I didn't know at all.. and then I just gathered the few thinks that I really know about me... that I feel sometimes like I am two different people one really dynamic and strong and one really calm and unsecured, that in my job I always like to make things from the scratch and so that I can have total control of the project and of course that my alter ego for the last 10 years is Ginger, my finger puppet, who is now traveling in a box from Athens, Greece to London, U.K. So out of these I started building my model box so that I could film it, I contacted Dimitri Kalliri and told him what I wanted to do and what kind of soundtrack I would like the video to have so that he would compose original music for this, I filmed, I (still don't know how...) edited the video and after these all... puff I handed it and now it's gone... nice...let's concentrate on the mush-up now...[Coming Soon]

The Mush-up... this might be a start for me...

Now I am working for an 1 minute video... these are some photos of the model box I'm building for it...

A few photos...

These are a few photos from the three performances I have worked for as a member of A.Z.E.R.T. performance group.

I put my finger on the spot of the falt

The Cartographer Adorn Falter Opens The Window/ A.Z.E.R.T./costume designs

[THE SPIRALS OF A REPTILE ARE MORE COMPLICATED THAN THE HOLES OF A MOLE]