STAGES A/LIVE presents Constantine Skourlis at Lavrion Technological Cultural Park

Philosopher Peter Kropotkin posited that humanity is an ecology separate from the fauna and flora that spawned before our time and has grown and evolved since. The human ecology is one that he called "The 2nd Ecology," an ecosystem that mirrors the first ecology as well as integrates itself with the very nature of its environment. This interaction creates a society that operates naturally upon itself, but like the 1st ecology, moments of sheer force and raw exposure occur. This period, this exposure to the elements as it were, it is DAWN ETERNAL attempts to describe. Sonically, Constantine Skourlis has pushed the envelope time and again in what a listener can endure by easing them gradually into the powerful moment of clarity. With his previous performances of the record Hades, a body of work so subtle yet so powerful that an audience cannot tell when their bones began to shake in their bodies or the journey that lead to this arrival, he deftly placed the listener in a moment of Hellscape. This concept could be as abstract as a poem by Milton, or as brutally real as hanging on for dear life in a raft, seeking solace from states and governments of unprecedented oppression, on a sea whose name is not even the refugee's own language. That darkness, that primal episode, is the ongoing drive for Constantine; be it depicted with the bloody knuckles of dancers (as Skourlis has worked tirelessly in the past with choreographers and ballet troupes), or, in this case, with light installations A/V artist Theresa Baumgartner. Baumgartner works in a medium that we all have since the dawn of time: light. Where some depend on and cherish the time of day to grow and sustain life, Baumgartner uses technologies and visual cues to make physical the human experience of light within, being without light, waking, dozing, and shying away from brightness, implementing everyday household bulbs and fixtures to tell a larger narrative (think Dan Flavin, Robert Irwin), with a keen attention to detail of how certain bulbs operate she creates a sensation and experience that is extremely inventive and thoughtful. What these two artists set to do in several, meticulously detailed performances and installations is produce a synthesis of Constantine's warped neoclassical musical depictions of humanity's exposure to primal nature and Baumgartner's visual language of that nearly indescribable moment in the music. This is one of the those rare occasions where we see musicians and visual artists set a stage to explain the inexplicable of ourselves, a powerful undertaking that is genuine, fresh, and absolutely necessary in a time when human interaction feels numb and the only light we soak in is from screens.

The Lavrion Technological Cultural Park (LTCP) was founded in 1992 and is a pioneering project of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). The NTUA, with the support of the local community, contributed to the regeneration of the industrial facilities and their operation as a cradle for the development of technological, educational, and cultural activities. It is housed in the industrial premises of the former French Mining Company of Lavrion (Compagnie Française des Mines du Laurium – CFML) on an area of 250 acres, much of which has been restored. CFML (1875-1989) was the battleship of Greek industry in the 19th century, active in the mining and metallurgical processing of the silver and lead deposits of Lavreotiki.

This complex is a unique monument of industrial heritage and an outstanding testimony to the evolution of industrial history of the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, the area hosts companies active in the production and development of innovative ideas and products, NTUA laboratories that link the know-how produced at NTUA with businesses and society, and educational institutions. The Park’s facilities operate as an established film set in the field of cinema and TV productions, while it was the place Synch Festival had its first outing in 2004. Also, the area hosts events of cultural interest, such as performances, exhibitions, as well as educational activities such as conferences, seminars, and workshops.