Catch-22 – the title of Joseph Heller’s novel – means “vicious circle” and has become established as an expression denoting the irrational of human existence, the irrational of war, where success and disaster are inextricably linked.
For what else is war but one more Sisyphus rolling his rock up the mountain and then repeating the process all over again? Catch (19)22 explores the Asia Minor Catastrophe, through the irrationality of war and dares to contrast it with the peak and decline of the Macedonian civilization. There, over the tombs of the great kings, where grandeur and death are the two sides of the same coin.
The site-specific performance Catch (19)22 unfolds in the archaeological site of the Royal Burial Clusters of Aigai, based on a collection of oral and written testimonies about life in Asia Minor and with the artistic contribution of students of the 1st Junior High School of Veria.
A land of rebirth, a place of co-formation, an old café with contemporary music. Spectators, habitués, refugees, residents, leaving back their memories, keeping personal narratives as a legacy.
The performance crosses the historical paths with theatrical tools, but also with the use of our mobile phones, our smartphones, our modern technological need, which can finally allow us to create our own personal narrative with new media, to find our place in this world.
The story can be shaped, if we are a part of history.
The work is a theatrical adaptation based on Stratis Doukas’ novel of the same title that incorporates participatory activities of an educational nature. The story of the original text is about the adventures of a Greek man who was arrested by the Turks during the Smyrna Catastrophe in 1922. It vividly describes his escape and his struggle to survive until he is rescued.
The novel is dedicated to “the common sufferings of nations” and has an internationalist character. The references and comparisons to the refugee waves shaking today’s world are obvious. The work’s main focus is human resourcefulness and the preservation of human dignity amidst the horrors of war and the bitterness of being uprooted.
The performance is enriched with interactive parts, which – using Educational Drama as a vehicle – aim at the further exploration of the work’s thematic core.
An interdisciplinary project by Bill Balaskas, which attempts a poetic reading of the anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe (1922). It revolves around a new large-scale neon installation consisting of the phrases “THERE IS NO SEA WITHOUT A LAND” and “THERE IS NO LAND WITHOUT A SEA”.
The project proposes a more contemplative or – even – optimistic approach to historical trauma, and is accompanied by a bilingual publication, two workshops, a dedicated website, and an international conference co-organized by Kingston University, London.
Through the project, 2291 becomes an imaginary date that refers not only to the universal and timeless nature of refugee disasters, but also to the hope that they will disappear sooner rather than later.
A musical performance that engages in a dialogue with the digital painting of George Kordis, who digitally creates a series of murals depicting refugee processions titled “Anestii” (Hearthless). Fenia Papadodima converses with the works, following George Seferis’ journey to Cappadocia, testimonies of refugees, and poems.
With her voice she travels across hymnody, singing, improvisation, speech. She leads audiences to an inner approach of the tragedy of the hearthless people of all eras.
From the person to the loss of the person.
Four actors sitting around a table. The feast begins. Their food is newspapers, their laptops and mobile phones. They read and comment on the headlines of the Greek, Turkish and Cypriot press from 1922 to this date.
How does the Press work? As a propaganda mechanism or as an information medium? How is the event presented, as a defeat or as a victory? And what about refugees? Are they presented as people or as numbers? Is the national interest a Need? How do newspapers treat war, destruction, the uprooting, expulsion, and settlement of refugees?
What are the references to the Event throughout the years? How have the relationships among the three countries evolved? How have they been shaped?
The Semio theatre company, using the unique contribution of Islahane to the history of the Greek state and Thessaloniki as a connective tissue, suggests a double approach, with 1922 always at its center.
The work revolves around 10 short theatrical pieces that have “The Islahane’’ as their central theme. Created by very important writers and performed by acclaimed performers, actors, disabled dancers, dancers, opera singers, the works run through the history of adjacent peoples, religions, consciences, families, orphans, Muslims, Christians, metalworkers, people of labor etc.
The celebration of the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, last year, and of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, this year, is an opportunity for evaluation and redefinition. The plays that will be presented in the exhibition, illuminate aspects of Greek social reality.
The Dark Side of Memory/The Pier is a musical multimedia performance about the collective trauma of “the Asia Minor Catastrophe” and the twofold substance of our roots. It is structured around testimonies of historical unnamed protagonists, which, during the performance, are voiced by an unseen person.
Small pieces of living memory, gleaned from the sacred pool of the dead, drip their blessing onto the present, weaving the ground on which every wound rejoices and heals. The living root of the catastrophe sprouts underground in the body of Greece, founding an Asia Minor which is more real than the actual one.
Everything is abandoned to the ocean of the inevitable, transforming the throng of the uprooted into an international symbol. Music is an islet of consolation, a hint about the inner homeland, towards which the refugees unceasingly march.
On 15/12/22 D. Gounaris, N. Stratos, P. Protopapadakis, N. Theotokis, G. Baltatzis and G. Hadjianestis were sentenced to death for high treason as the main culprits for the Asia Minor Catastrophe and were executed at Goudi. In the morning of that same day, the President of the Extraordinary Military Tribunal, Al. Othoneos, reads out the verdict and withdraws without saying “the trial is concluded”. The trial of the six was never concluded technically.
Freedom to Die is the trial and reenactment of those events that followed the verdict and those that were hurriedly kept secret “to convince public opinion that all lawful procedures were abided by”.
Nowadays, how many trials and what kind of trials are set up “to convince the public opinion”? How many real events are disguised as fictitious ones and vice versa? And how does each one of us perceive and interpret the world surrounding us?
In a directed performance of music and dance, the one hundred performers together with the orchestra and “Ionia” choir, the soloists, the dancers and the narrator meet the exceptional groups “Anatoliki Romilia”, “Horostates” and “Alismonites Patrides” Larissa, dressed in their authentic traditional costumes.
They take us a hundred years back to Smyrna with its sounds, colours, aura and culture. Smyrna was a multidimensional city that flourished but was finally destroyed and its residents give us a strong message of life and encouragement starting up new lives together in various places in Greece, such as Nea Ionia in Volos.
The great grandchildren of these refugees through performance of songs and dances, full of light and energy , bring us a message of hope, joy, life and promise for a better future.