Focusing on dreamlike states as fields of interface between nature and our fellow humans, Karst Dreams invites the audience into a mindful presence, proposing a return to care, community, and the environment as the ultimate expression of our shared humanity. The project activates different points within the archaeological site and the wider landscape.
The performance by Angelo Plessas resonates with karstic, subterranean topographies and calls for a participatory ritual around a conduit that functions as an interface. Through seated circles, sounds, and guided meditation, the language of digital culture is transformed into a poetic tool that makes the economy of attention perceptible.
Meanwhile, in the broader archaeological site, Lydia Delikoura presents installations composed of fragments of her visual vocabulary, placed in direct relation to the landscape as site-specific interventions within a land art framework. As part of the exhibition, an educational program will also take place, designed according to the principles of land art and forest pedagogies.
Ιn the garden of the Byzantine Museum of Argos, where the soil remembers more than people do, a ceremony begins almost silently. Three actors and a chorus of elderly participants from Argolis, compose a stage experience as if they are following instructions they were never given, and yet execute them with precision. Inspired by the myth of Lynceus and Hypermnestra, the dramaturgy moves between memory, loss, and the uncertainty of the end. Two psychopomps converse with those transitioning from life to death. Bodies come to a halt, yet souls stubbornly continue. Some refuse to cross without their loved ones, and love renders death insignificant.
The passage: a process that has already begun—we simply have not been notified.
A contemporary approach to Erasmus’ emblematic The Praise of Folly, that attempts to remind us of our relationship with the theatrical experience. Through a holistic scenic composition, the actors function as Folly’s multiple voices. Folly is the goddess of foolishness and madness, who creates a universe that is poetic, satirical and deeply human. The performance unfolds using movement, rhythm, sound and music in equal terms with the spoken word. In a direct dialogue with the archaeological site of Mystras, the stone, the memory, the silence of the space- the performance creates a juxtaposition between the ongoing line of history and the human nature. In the digital era of constructed images, the Praise of Folly invites us to laugh with our faults and weaknesses, to reconcile with our imperfections and to acknowledge the human measure, the need for connection and coexistence through tolerance and acceptance of the “other”
The new work by Mariela Nestora / YELP danceco. explores the forms adorning red-figure and black-figure vases of ancient Greek pottery. It brings these forms to life, not as mere representations of the past but as a potential arena for questioning and creating narratives. The choreography – as a mechanism of appropriation, repetition, and reformulation – stirs and inscribes memories, rendering time fluid and porous. This excavation of movement takes place in the here and now in ongoing interaction with live music.
Is movement form or energy, action or context, embodiment or transformation, positive or negative space, sensation or thought, source or echo, perception or transmission, reproduction or comment? In the dance performance Appropriations: Excavation of Movement, the past, present, and future are not distinct entities, but interrelated manifestations of the same experience. What do we choose to place in the background and what in the foreground of our attention?
The first Governor of the Greek state returns to Nafplio today; he passes by St. Spyridon’s Church and proceeds to Palamidi, holding a letter in his hands. Three actors and a team of musicians create a modular show – a “music theatre Babylonia” – transporting us to the turbulent era of Kapodistrias. The performance revolves around texts based on original documents and dialogues from that time (Historical Memories by Nikolaos Dragoumis, Apologa about Kapodistrias by Georgios Tertsetis, Military Memoirs by Nikolaos Kasomoulis, Historical Anthology by Giannis Vlachogiannis, History of the Greek Revolution by Thomas Gordon, and more), as well as other original texts.
A music theatre piece that explores the core of human existence. The custom of “tama” (vow, offering), deeply rooted in Greek tradition, unfolds as an enduring act that unites the Divine with the human, and the past with the present. The performance delves into the lives of ordinary people from different generations who, through trials, pain, and miracles, make a promise to a supreme force as an ultimate call for help.
Through storytelling, live music, and movement, the performance Vow explores the human need, illuminating the fine line between faith, superstition, and sacrifice. The performance’s text is composed of materials based on true accounts of people, ranging from the past to the present day. Three actors reenact the journey from trial to promise, sacrifice, and anticipation of the miracle on stage. The performance combines elements of traditional art with modern directorial methods, where music, speech, and movement function as allegorical tools.
Two performers present a peculiar concert manifesto; a dialogue between two women fighting to keep a man by “screaming” against the hypocrisy of the male gender while opposing the values of marriage, motherhood, and the very concept of what it means to be a woman. This concert manifesto aims to explore the deeper motives behind a murder and the upheaval of an entire society surrounding gender issues, viewed through the lens of ancient myth.
The two Medeas converse without looking at each other, raising questions that concern women in art from ancient to contemporary times: What leads a Medea to kill her children? How can a serious crime be justified? What led to committing it in the first place? How can that be conveyed on stage through the tragic element of ancient drama, and how does ancient drama ultimately create a universal language to express contemporary issues? The performance unites the voices of many different versions of Medea written worldwide, from Euripides’ time to the present day, with music playing a primordial role in the composition of the vocal score.
The Mododentro Theatre Group presents an original and interactive music theatre performance based on Mania Douka’s book The Prince’s Crown and Other Stories (Kastaniotis Publishing, illustrated by Daniela Stamatiadi). An ordinary school trip to a museum transforms into an adventure for two children, Mania and Daniel, when, all of a sudden, a mysterious woman named Mrs Clo appears in front of them. In her hands, she holds an old, small flywheel that can awaken art objects with just one turn. As the flywheel turns for the first time, a sword trembles, ready to recount battles and triumphs. A crown is illuminated by an invisible light, revealing the lost glory of a forgotten kingdom. A golden bead whispers secret vows, and a vessel filled with warriors comes to life, ready for new adventures. A fairy-tale-like wandering unfolds across the prehistoric civilizations of Greece and a journey through the museum’s magical world, where art objects come out of their display cases, breathe, and move, becoming the heroes of an unpredictable story!
In the enduring dance of existence, the concepts of Beginning, Space, and Time intertwine, creating a grid that connects life to death. LOGOS 132 revolves around the performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, Op. 132, a composition that explores mortality and the human condition. At the same time, John Cage’s piece Atlas Eclipticalis will illuminate the concepts of non-space and the atemporal, through a sound conversation between music and sculptures, inviting visitors to reflect on their relationship with time.
At the heart of the installation is a series of sculptures specifically created for this performance by Cypriot visual artist Stella N. Christou. These sculptures will transmit natural microsounds, recorded by members of the Ergon Ensemble and inspired by modern techniques employed by pioneering composers, which will simulate the sensation of being in an anechoic chamber and create a sonic atmosphere complemented by the recitation of poems from T. S. Eliot’s collection, Four Quartets.
Common Tale is a performance based on real-life testimonies from women sharing their experiences across various periods of 20th-century Greek history, including the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the Interwar Period, World War II, and the Civil War.
These stories illuminate war’s destructive consequences on people, regardless of time. They reflect the voices of ordinary people, capturing a shared reality that bridges the past with the present while reminding us of the need for a collective memory. Through the equal participation of deaf and hearing actors, a profound message about shared human experiences is conveyed. Using a bilingual storytelling process that combines vocal performance and Greek Sign Language, as well as physical theatre, and music-motor expression, diverse expressive forms are brought to the foreground. The stage action unfolds through interpretive music and motor references, as well as percussion instruments played by all performers, both deaf and hearing, in collaboration with an onstage musician, creating an enhanced and uniquely riveting theatrical experience.