Yolanda Markopoulou

Yolanda Markopoulou is a director creating interdisciplinary works with a focus on the use of site-specific locations and public space. She has directed over twenty performances and short films. In 2007, she founded SYNERGY-O, a collective art space in the center of Athens, where several performances and education programs were created. Among others, the refugee and immigrant theater group Station Athens was formed there. The performance “We Are the Persians!” (Athens Festival, ISPA – NYC, International Theater of Finland, mind the fact festival) was presented internationally, while the site-specific walking performance “I_LEFT” (initially presented in SYNERGY-O) became part of the Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe program, with which Markopoulou maintains a steady artistic collaboration until 2023. In SYNIKISMOS Festival 2019 in Eleusis, she presented “I_LEFT Asia Minor.” She is currently in pre-production for the completion of the trilogy with “I _LEFT Pontos.” Her short films “The Pyramids of Athens” and “It’s OK, My Friend!” showcased in film festivals globally. She also is in production of the creative documentary “Station Athens” (Agora Lab Prize 2021, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival) while she has just completed the 360 VR film and interactive performance "White Dwarf" (2022) inaugurating the Immersive - all around cinema section at the 63rd Thessaloniki International Festival. Her next interactive VR film entitled "Paradise Lost" is in pre-production (Pitching Forum of the 25th International Documentary Festival of Thessaloniki). Her next 360 VR interactive film “Kappadokias Street” is in pre-production. Her work in theater and interdisciplinary projects includes “Tejas Verdes,” “La Tierra,” “Shoot-Get-Treasure-Repeat,” “Against Progress,” “1911” (SYNERGY-O), “In the Forest of the Kind” (International Conference for Ancient Drama, Delphi), “Musicosmos” (Big Bang Festival, Onassis Stegi, 2016), “WARD No. 6,” “ImmiGRants” (Kefallinias Theater, 2014-2016), “Traces” (Dome Event, Athens Biennale, 2016), “EROICA” (Greek Art Theater Karolos Koun, 2018-2019), and “Multiverso” #1 & #2 (mind the fact festival, 2020; Re-Fest, SeoulArts & La MaMa, NYC, 2021). She has co-directed the performances “Player, I” (Reload Festival, Onassis Stegi, 2016) and “Rouletenburg” (mind the fact festival, 2017) by The Gamblers theater group, consisting of men who were addicted to excessive gambling in the past. As the co-founder of mind the fact, a cultural initiative aiming to present “true stories by the people who have experienced them,” she has co-curated two festivals in 2017 and 2020. Running the company Polyplanity Productions, she takes on major theater productions and other projects as a creative producer and artistic collaborator, such as “The Walk” (Good Chance Theater, produced by Stephen Daldry, Tracey Seaward, and David Lan, UK, 2021). In 2011, she was nominated for the Eleftheria Sapountzi Prize for best woman theater professional. She has participated as a mentor in the Atelier for Festival Managers twice, as well as in other international conferences for arts and theater. She studied Film in Boston University College of Communication.