Region: Crete

Measure Him—and, If You Can Endure It, Know Him

Ancient epigrams represent poetry of exceptional refinement. Like diamond fragments carved into marble, they travel across eras and centuries. The mantinades—the celebrated Cretan rhyming couplets—constitute their living continuation. Their creators, often unconsciously, carry forward the work of the ancient epigrammatists. They share the same philosophy: the condensation of profound meanings into only a few lines, centered on the fundamental themes of human existence, love, and death.

This performance is built upon a series of open dialogues. Ancient epigrams and mantinades face one another in conversation, drifting through the sonic universe created by Stelios Petrakis’s original compositions and the improvisations of his ensemble. The transition from the Cretan lyra to other musical landscapes becomes a metaphor for human experience itself—fluid, unpredictable, and deeply recognizable. Unexpected encounters unfold within a unique musical realm.

“The Collection – A Guided Tour to Happiness”

Drawing inspiration from Georges Perec’s Things, this music and visual art performance creates a hybrid environment in which sound, objects, and storytelling come together to explore desire, consumption, and contemporary everyday life.

At the center of the installation are elements of an imaginary apartment, unfolding through repeated objects, vivid colors, posters, sculptural forms, and projections, evoking the aesthetics of pop culture and the logic of consumerism. The music, structured in three parts, follows the temporal and emotional journey of the characters, employing electroacoustic media and hybrid compositional practices that reshape the perception of time.

The performer acts as a live guide within the space, activating personal stories and testimonies connected to cherished objects, transforming the installation into a reflective and deeply human environment of shared experience. At the same time, repetition and excess function as a commentary on contemporary consumer habits. The work seeks to create a space of identification, memory, and collective reflection.

Anthropoleipos: From the Ascent upon Stone to the Opening of the Horizon

Presented at the historic Arkadi Monastery in Rethymno, Anthropoleipos: From the Ascent upon Stone to the Opening of the Horizon is a two-day musical, narrative, and immersive artistic project exploring the relationship between humanity and stone as an expression of a forgotten bond between nature and creation. Drawing inspiration from the mountains, the memory of place, and the spirit of rebellion—as embodied in figures ranging from Prometheus and Sisyphus to Albert Camus—the production unfolds within the emblematic setting of Arkadi and is dedicated to the revolution of the human spirit, consciousness, and transcendence. It focuses on the individual who, in order to remain truly human, journeys through the inner stages of Search, Illumination, and Transformation, continually redefining their place in history.

The work begins with dialogue, develops into a narrative performance, and culminates in a musical concert by the ensemble of Thodoris Kotonias. Through this progression, the audience is gradually guided from contemplation and inner confrontation toward collective experience and musical expression. Throughout this journey, the profound connection with Arkadi is brought into focus. The monastery remains embedded in the collective memory as a place of sanctity, self-sacrifice, and resistance, reviving a timeless question that has echoed throughout human history: Civilization or Barbarism?

HUMENS

The genesis and evolution of the human body towards the perfection of movement is the central theme of Amphibians. From the primordial soup and the earliest amphibious life forms to the emergence of humankind, the biological history of the human body has unfolded through constant struggles with the environment, gravity, and the very imperfection and mortality of matter itself. Ultimately, the body confronts its own limits in order to overcome them and transform into the dancer’s body.

This performance moves dynamically between lecture and dance, scientific findings and personal narratives, Darwinian evolution and philosophical inquiry, proposing beauty as a form of existential salvation. At the same time, it traces the laborious, agonizing, and magical life of the human-dancer, seeking to uncover what it is that makes a human being truly human — both metaphorically and literally.

Ahhh…

Ahhh…An expression of frustration and irony about the fact that, despite the progressive image of our times, stereotypes and exclusion still remain strong. Through satire and dance, the work comments on the constructed nature of female stereotypes. Deconstructing the image of the “perfect woman” that society has promoted for years, the two choreographers and performers bring forward the so-called “magkia”* (a Greek word referring to strength and intensity), separating its qualities from being seen as exclusively male-coded. A journey through how the body crosses these boundaries, redefines roles, and connects with expression and identity.

*magkia (μαγκιά) refers to a specific philosophy of life based on street-wise courage, personal honor, and dignity. It is the defining quality of a mangas (μάγκας)- the rebellious, non-conformist “tough guy” of the early 20th-century Greek urban underworld.

Paradise drift

The artistic programme Paradise Drift unfolds across the Archaeological Site of Phaistos and the Archaeological Museum of Messara through an exhibition, a dance programme, and a film screening series. Bringing together new commissions, sculptural installations, video works, sound compositions, and performative actions, the project explores paradise as a historical, cultural, and political construct. Starting from the island’s repeated construction and consumption as paradise, the participating artists consider how this imaginary continues to shape landscapes, communities, and forms of life. Paradise emerges as a constantly shifting horizon, shaped by ecological processes, economic forces, and territorial transformations, and held in continuous tension with the fantasy of the idyllic destination. In doing so, the exhibition frames the island as an active field in which value, attention, and belonging are continually recalibrated, while communities continue to inhabit, resist, and renegotiate both the present and their possible futures.

PUBLIC PROGRAM

Friday, 21 August 2026
Archaeological Museum of Messara

19:00–20:00 Screening Program
Raffaela Naldi Rossano, WARP (2022)
Running time: 30′

Nour Ouayda, The Secret Garden (2023)
Running time: 27′15″

20:00–21:00 Premiere of the performance Where you long to be

Performance duration: 50′
Performed by: Christina Karagianni
Sound design & co-creation: Viki Steiri

Saturday, 22 August 2026
Archaeological Museum of Messara

18:30 Lecture-performance
Nikos Sakkadakis
Reconstructing Eden: Modernity and Utopia in the Minoan Ruins

19:00–20:00 Screening Program
Dimitra Kondylatou, LUXENIA (2021)
Running time: 10′4″

Karrabing Film Collective, The Mermaids, or Aiden in Wonderland (2018)
Running time: 26′29″

20:00–21:00 performance Where you long to be

Performance duration: 50′
Performed by: Christina Karagianni
Sound design & co-creation: Viki Steiri

The Earth Gods

Inspired by the work The Earth Gods by Khalil Gibran, the performance explores the relationship between human beings and the divine through a subtle sense of humour and irony towards power and human vanity. What is the relationship between humans and the divine? Who are the gods we believe in, the earthly gods of our time? Three “earth gods” observe humanity and engage in dialogue about its nature: decay, fragility, and desire. At the same time, a human stands before them, moving through a continuous process of conflict, worship, questioning, and acceptance. The performance combines live performance and visual art practice, creating a ritualistic stage environment in which body, natural materials, light, and decay are constantly transformed. At its core emerges love as an enduring force of relation and transformation—a presence that permeates tensions and silences, ultimately connecting the human being with themselves and the world.

The Roots of the Orange Tree

The performance The Roots of the Orange Tree is an artistic ritual that brings the female experience, as a carrier of memory, resilience, and creation, into the foreground. Traditional and electronic music, live performance, audiovisual media, and shadow puppet theatre intersect to recreate enduring women’s stories, forming a live audiovisual web where silence becomes significant and voice emerges through the body.

The female figure functions not only as a symbol but also as an active subject that reinvents tradition. Inspired by Chrysostomos Tsaprailis’ work Women Who Return and Fotis Varthis’ engravings, this performance transforms individual experiences into a collective narrative, reclaiming space for women in history and art – not as a shadowy memory but as a vibrant breath that propels the future forward, transforming silence into voice and experience into action.

Poetry in Music – Hidden Poetry | Secret Concert

Inspired by remarkable poems by great Greek creators that they have set to music, the legendary band Ypogeia Revmata (Underground Currents) will give a special concert, showcasing all these exceptional and original compositions, both old and new, specifically adapted for this “secret” event. This concert is intended to lay a foundation for discussing, inspiring, and developing the logical connection between our classical heritage and contemporary artistic expression.

At the same time, visual artist Rena Papageorgiou exhibits her works, which depict portraits of renowned Greek male and female poets in her uniquely abstract yet utterly respectful and intriguing style. The performers, along with the set poems and visual portraits, view the past as a creative source of inspiration for this tribute to poetry and artistry, through an atmospheric concert that will offer audiences a unique experience.

Peramatisma – Weaving the Future of the World from the Past of the Land

Peramatisma is a cultural proposal inspired by the timeless ritual of weaving on a traditional loom, known as “peramatisma” – the process of interlacing threads according to each weft’s pattern and style through the loom’s instruments. As a concept, peramatisma becomes a tool for understanding the intertwining of the local with the global, tradition with innovation, time with space, and humanity with matter and technology.

Presented on Mount Psiloritis, at the Idaean Cave—a place of special significance and strong symbolism in Crete—this work aims to blend cultural memory with contemporary creation, focusing on the role of the human creator. Through Peramatisma, the dynamic of weaving emerges as a gesture, a symbol, and a cultural code; as an intersection of traditional arts with new technologies and digital forms of expression; as an interlacing of different musical idioms that lead to a new listening experience.