Event Category: Music

Bees – The wondrous miracle of the microcosm and its haughty leaders

An allegorical and poetic description of the ideal state, modelled after the world of bees. Bees, that during antiquity were associated with the divine element (nowadays an endangered species), are described by Virgil as a fully developed society, with its own kingdoms, cities, work distribution system and work ethics. They are concerned with the continuation of their species in a unique way that exceeds the instinct of their individual survival. Through the fourth book of Georgics we follow the society of bees at times from the inside and at times from the beekeeper’s angle. Reading Virgil’s text one cannot but ponder on the self-centered course of the human civilization and man’s arrogant and destructive estrangement from nature. Α “musical reading” of this great poetic text. At its roots, music weaves a hymn to nature, which brings out man’s always topical and life-giving love for it.

The text of the performance is based on Konstantinos Theotokis’ translation of Virgil’s Georgics (Βεργίλιος, Τα Γεωργικά, Dromon publishing, Athens 1909).

About the Nature of Things

The combination of Epimenidis, a figure between legend and history, and Lucretius’ philosophical poetic work About the Nature of Things has been the inspiration for this year’s artistic meeting at the timeless cultural magnet of Ideon Andron. This year’s cultural meeting revolves around a composition of multidimensional art forms inspired by the philosophy of reapproaching Nature and man’s relationship with the environment. Using as tools different art forms and techniques or handcrafts that have been historically developed in the Cretan Culture, such as weaving, pottery and woodworking, along with visual arts, theatre and the dominant musical production, Epimenidis II treats the concept of man’s offering to the environment in which he lives, creates and evolves.

The event About the Nature of Things will be structured in three thematic units starting in the afternoon (18:30-19:00) and ending in the evening by 22:00. More specifically:

Presenter: Mirka Skoula (Cultural administrator, UCL)

• Part Α: The beginning of creation, from Nature to Use (18:00-19:30)

Open exhibition of craftworks: pottery, woodcarving and weaving

Featuring: Giorgos Dalambelas (pottery, Keramion, Margarites, Rethymnon), Manolis Xylouris, Aristea Xylouri (weaving, Traditional looms, Anogia), Stefanos Plousis (woodcarving, Anogia)

• Part B: Theatrical and Visual Design (19:35-20:00)

PandemonCracy – The Panic of the Days at Nature’s Pan-daemonium

Visual art event by artist Georgios Bounias and actor Giannis Athitakis, inspired by the Homeric hymn to god Pan. A visual art and theatre composition.

• Part C: Music event (20:10-22:00)

An original musical tribute inspired by nature and the environment in its many manifestations.

With the participation of: Kostas Fasoulas (lyricist), Giannis Kalomiris (musical creator, lute), Ioanna Kalogeraki-Kalomiri (mezzo soprano), Erini Tornesaki (musician, performer, assistant professor at Boston’s Berklee College of Music,), Ilias Zoutsos (classical violin soloist, lyrist, Doctor of Music Studies of the Faculty of

Philosophy), Bernardo Isola (musical creator, lute, Phd candidate in environmental protection issues)

Selva Oscura

An unexpected musical conversation, Alexandros Drakos Ktistakis’ new music work Selva Oscura, attempts to musically capture the forces that make forests an inextricable structural element of our survival. Written for a chamber orchestra, the work is divided into instrumental parts, improvisation, and parts with set paralogés (narrative folk ballads) performed by Elli Paspala with an original text by Alexandra K*.

The fragile rhythmic and melodic balance among the members of the orchestra, where each musician focuses both on their individual duty and on the orchestra’s goal as a group, reminds us of the balance and organisation of a precious ecosystem. At the same time the work musically captures destruction and rebirth. Its rhythmic contrasts outline the alternations of the life cycle and the destruction of forests. The realisat destruction, the despair of “why” and the hope for rebirth are all aspects that emerge through its musical structure. “After a fire, forests are burnt but not dead”.

And His Voice Was Like the Roar of Many Waters / A Revelation

A concert that, through the creative use of multimedia, John’s Revelation and digitally altered Fayum mummy portraits, touches upon the mental trauma of the age-old, constantly lurking destruction that is nowadays called climate crisis. The production includes multiple projections and a surround sound system, audiovisual digits created in real time, an actress performing with live music, debates between scientific discourse and sacred texts, multilingual accounts of liturgical rituals from across the world, as well as heretical speech delivery by the actress, along with an unexpected use of soundscapes by the musician and Studio 19st. The performance is grounded on the standpoint that man is not the centre of this universe but just a guest in it, and that the climate crisis is a huge chance to establish a culture of a Sacred Indestructible for our common home in the present day.

The Bell of Water

1966: Twenty villages, field crops, trees, dozens of monasteries and churches, including the Temple of Episkopi that has been designated as a cultural monument, were sunk to build the hydroelectric dam in Kremasta. Two thousand local residents left the area between Evrytania and Aetolia-Acarnania, watching their villages being destroyed for the sake of upgrading Greece’s energy production.

Four musicians and singers, one actor and an emotionally charged text represent the multiple feelings associated with the uprooting, memories, nostalgia and tradition, in the face of the inevitable subversion of everyday life in the name of “growth” and “progress”. Traditional songs and tunes from Armenia, Cappadocia, the Arab world, Roumeli, Spain, Thrace, Cyprus, the islands and the rest of Greece coordinate, co-colour, and go hand in hand with the text, aiming at achieving communion with the audience.

Breathing In Three Strings

Georgia Dakaki, a master of the Cretan lyre and a performer with a great knowledge of Greek music, converses on stage with Takis Chrysikakos in the music theatre performance titled Breathing in Three Strings, where music and singing engage in a dialogue with poetry and prose literature. The two artists join their forces to produce one single voice of awakening to everything that is at stake at the threshold of climate change and its non-reversible effects: along with the sea, the forests and the sky, we also run the risk of losing that great part of our national heritage that is inspired by all these elements, since references to nature, both in music and literature, will become increasingly more unfamiliar to each subsequent generation. We take a stand against this threat with a celebration dedicated to nature and its representation in Greek music and literature.

Karagiozis and the Beasts of Climate Change

Christos Stanisis’ shadow puppet theatre presents the performance Karagiozis and the Beasts of Climate Change for young and older audiences. The folk idol, the timeless hero next door, Karagiozis, is the most appropriate ambassador to present the catastrophic effects of climate change to the audience. Watching what’s going on around him, all those things that affect the environment, Karagiozis fears for the future and what is yet to come. With these thoughts in mind, enveloped by sleep’s wings, he “experiences” the nightmare of climate change. He fights against the elements of nature, the mutations taking hold in animal populations, and comes face to face with the horrific earthquake (Enceladus). The music parts are performed by a traditional instrument orchestra, while a group of traditional dancers performs during the change of sets or puppets.

The Chainsaws of Erysichthon

In his tree-cutting fury, Erysichthon did not even respect Demeter’s sacred poplar tree. As a result, the goddess condemned him to suffer from insatiable hunger, which eventually led him to his horrible death: he ate his own flesh. The musical performance with live sculpting The Chainsaws of Erysichthon treats the issue of nature’s exploitation by man. On stage there are two sculptors/loggers and four musicians. The sculptors sculpt poplar tree trunks while the instruments converse with the sound of the woodworking and tune their music to it. Their interaction is infiltrated by an altered version of the tsamiko dance tune “Why don’t you cry, trees and branches?”. The synergy of TETTTIX with the loggers produces eye-opening and unprecedented music that gets transformed from sound pollution and a bad omen into the myths’ dramaturgical vehicle. The tools in the hands of the loggers do not lead to the destruction of nature but to the creation of 3D sculptures through a dialogue with it.

Man Should Live Poetically

Michalis and Pantelis Kalogerakis’ performance Man Should Live Poetically is based on the work and reflection of poets of different generations and from different places. Music, songs, speech and images create a web of timeless stories about the diversity of nature and its influence on man’s psyche and evolution. After dominating the earth, the animals and eventually his own fellow-men, he is now faced with the consequences of his actions that threat the climate balance. The way man will handle climate crisis is today’s biggest challenge. The futility of existence should not be a cause of destruction and exploitation but a reason for offering, showing respect and realizing the perishability of things. Art illuminates the path through which we can change our perception and attitude towards nature.

Apokopos by Bergadis

Natalia Kotsani and Tasos Kofodimos, two of the most active and acclaimed performers and creators of the modern Greek music scene, join their forces once again by setting and performing Bergadis’ poem Apokopos, in an original musical production. With their compositions, voices and musical instruments as a vehicle, they present a pioneering setting that is inextricably linked with the roots of the Greek musical tradition and elements from traditional idioms of the Mediterranean. They propose a modern performative approach of the vocal idioms of the Greek tradition, through original and special orchestrations. Visual artist Natalia Manta illustrates the narration in real time through live visuals that are screened on the stage. Alongside them, three acclaimed musicians and collaborators, at times experimenting and at times improvising, enhance this synergy with their own temperament and artistry.