Onassis Stegi travels around the world

Onassis Stegi wants to get people talking about Greek works of dance, theater, music and visual art on an international level. It boosts the prominence and visibility of contemporary Greek culture by bringing Greek and international artists together, helping artists unleash their full potential, and drawing attention to contemporary works of Greek art across the globe. More than 60 Greek productions have already been presented at various theaters and festivals around the world through the support of the Onassis Stegi's "Outward Turn" Cultural Export Program.

Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, France is presenting a major tribute program titled “Un Printemps Athénien” (“An Athenian Spring”) that includes four Onassis Stegi productions; "Tomorrows" is an exhibition of works by artists, architects and designers that detail narratives concerning possible worlds of tomorrow, as well as the hopes and fears of the people who inhabit them. First presented at Athens’ Diplarios School from May 16 to July 16 2017, it opened in Nantes on March 27. Visitors will be able to wander through video installations, architectural narratives, plans, mock-ups and models of hypothetical systems, wearable teach, and 3D-printed objects until the exhibition closes its doors on June 2.

On April 2 and 3, two formidable voices of the contemporary Greek theater scene – award-winning author and screenwriter Efthimis Filippou, and director Dimitris Karantzas – will be introducing French audiences to "Rob" – a work that premiered at Onassis Stegi in January 2018, on a murderer, now dead but brought back to life through the stories and testimonials of his victims and devotees.

On April 6 at the same festival, Lebanese composer Zad Moultaka gives voice to Gilgamesh with the music ensemble Mezwej, comprising distinguished soloists from Greece, the Middle East and Italy. His "Epic of Gilgamesh", an Onassis Stegi co-production, which will be presented in Athens on April 19 and 20.

Christos Papadopoulos’ "Ion", – a work that zeroes in on the microphysics of motion, thereby allowing the eye to wander – premiered at Onassis Stegi in February 2018. Since then, it has toured non-stop around festivals across Europe. On March 27 and 28, French audiences were taken on a journey through the endless sweep of human interrelations.

Alongside "Ion" – which will also be presented in Amsterdam as part of the Julidans Festival, at the Grote zaal – Internationaal Theater Amsterdam on July 13 – other Onassis Stegi dance productions continue to tour Europe, too; "Europium" – a work by RootlessRoot in which they build a raft for the unknown future of Europe – premiered at Onassis Stegi in October 2015 and is still in demand. On March 22 and 23, the work was presented at the Nouvelle scène nationale de Cergy-Pontoise in Paris, and will be performed in the city once more at La Vilette on May 10 and 11.

"In Dandelion" – which premiered at Onassis Stegi in April 2017 as part of its Young Choreographers Festival 4 – Hannes Langolf and Ermira Goro wonder how far danger lies from happiness, and why we are forever getting in our own way. The work will travel to Sofia, Bulgaria on June 12 for the East West Festival.

Tzeni Argyriou’s "ΑΝΩΝΥΜΟ", which premiered at Onassis Stegi in June 2018, continues its journey – through all that is anonymous, both in society itself and in artworks created by particular, named individuals – at various festivals, with performances on May 21 and 22 at the SPRING Performing Arts Festival in Utrecht, and on June 14 at Theater Rotterdam.

Katerina Andreou’s "BSTRD" – an abbreviation of the word “bastard” and all that word entails – is a hybrid-amalgam of various music and dance cultures. It premiered at Onassis Stegi in April 2018 as part of its Young Choreographers Festival 5 and has since been presented at various venues and festivals around Europe. Upcoming dates include: March 15 and 16 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, March 30 and 31 at the Festival Les Printemps de Sévelin in Lausanne, and June 12 at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan as part of the Milano Incontra La Grecia Festival.

"Clean City" by Anestis Azas and Prodromos Tsinikoris is to be presented on June 10 as part of the same festival at the Piccolo Teatro – a work in which Athens’ immigrant cleaning ladies are placed center stage. This production has not stopped touring since its premiere at Onassis Stegi in February 2016. Azas and Tsinikoris’ cleaning ladies will soon be sweeping Spanish audiences off their feet with their honesty and truth at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid, from April 11-13.

Staying with theater, we have the unconventional performance-cum-panel discussion "Antigone – Lonely Planet" by Lena Kitsopoulou, where five people from the snowy mountains talk about something that seemingly has nothing to do with them – Antigone. Following on from its sold-out performances at the Onassis Stegi Upper Stage in December 2017, the work now returns to New York – the city where its first incarnation was created in October 2016 as part of the four-day festival Antigone Now, organized by Onassis USA. And so from April 18-20, with new blood-spattered turns at The Public Theater in New York, Kitsopoulou’s skiers will be injecting the Sophoclean myth with moments of a satirical and desperate here and now as part of the Onassis Festival 2019: Democracy Is Coming Festival, to be held in New York from April 10-28, 2019.