ENTER 11.5

THE ENTIRE HOUSE TURNS INTO A STAGE. PRESS ENTER AT ONASSIS.ORG AND WATCH OUR NEW SERIES OF ORIGINAL WORKS MADE AT HOME IN 120 HOURS

New-York houses and Athenian streets; Lebanese rooms and Japanese gardens; Darwin and Isabella Rossellini; a game with a narrator and four characters; a brief guide on how to make a garden; the cannibalistic nature of a well-known children’s song; the tiles of Athenian houses; songs created during the quarantine period; practical exercises for remaining functional; a live YouTube role-playing game inviting us to participate. Welcome to the world of ENTER. Visit onassis.org/enter.

Works by Isabella Rossellini & Paul Magid, Ziad Antar, Evi Kalogeropoulou, Kareem Kalokoh – ATH Kids, Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis & Alexis Fidetzis, Akira Takayama, Risa Puno & Avi Dobkin, and RootlessRoot.

ENTER: The entire house turns into a stage. Reflecting on the present day, this moment in time and the current situation, the Onassis Foundation continues to share and create without contact but with the same love for culture and its people, the artists and their audiences. Onassis Stegi, Athens, and Onassis USA have commissioned new works by artists across the world, created in 120 hours during the quarantine period. Without having any access to theatre stages, rehearsal rooms or studios, the artists create everything from home, their neighborhood, gardens, and terraces. From our homes we press ENTER to view new works, new artistic forms, which aim to constitute a kind of artistic digital time-capsule; a ray of hope for the artistic world which has been hit hard; yet another proof that we are not alone.

From Monday, 11 May, the following artists welcome us to their homes. Isabella Rossellini and Paul Magid create a moving and comforting film about human expression in different countries and civilizations (Darwin, What?). Risa Puno and Avi Dobkin’s contribution is a fun game that can be played from a distance (The Quiet: Part 1). Akira Takayama offers us advice about how to create our own garden and remain creative and connected with the outside world (Heterotopia Garden). Ziad Antar creates a one-take film, reflecting on the implicit violence in a well-known children’s songs (The Little Boat (Il Était un...). Evi Kalogeropoulou’s stories about rappers and car wash services focus on tiles and mosaic floors (Tiles). Kareem Kalokoh creates a music piece about friendship during isolation (Swim). RootlessRoot present us their internationally acclaimed Fighting Monkey Practice as a way of dealing with everyday life (Take Your Time). Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis & Alexis Fidetzis’s live-streamed game interacts with YouTube audiences through YouTube comments (Notes on Readiness: Step One).

Works by the following artists are already available online: Elias Adam, Simos Kakalas, Dimitris Karantzas, Vasilis Kekatos, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Efthimis Filippou, Andonis Foniadakis, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Maria Antelman, Kimberly Bartosik, Annie Dorsen, Emily Johnson, Kathryn Hamilton (Sister Sylvester), Radiohole, and RootlessRoot.

In the following days, also available will be new, original works by Lena Kitsopoulou, Maria Papadimitriou, Daniel Wetzel, Effie Birba & Aris Servetalis, Maria Diakopanagiotou, Ioannis Mandafounis, Yorgos Zois, Samita Sinha, Frisly Soberanis, Alina Tenser & Gabo Camnitzer, and Xin Liu. The list is ever expanding. Each artist, but ultimately all together, create works that beam from their living rooms over to ours, bringing home the message that art must never stop, regardless the restrictions.

Press ΕΝΤΕR, free of charge and time limit, to explore artistic works that reflect on the current situation.

Isabella Rossellini & Paul Magid

Darwin, What?

Video

Duration: 8´22´´

What is Darwin doing at Isabella Rosellini’s house? A successful model appearing in numerous covers of magazines, a remarkable actress in numerous films who has worked with some of the greatest directors of international cinema, Isabella Rossellini was never the one to rest on her laurels. She has a keen interest in animals, she has made an award-winning series of shorts ("Green Porno", "Seduce Me" and "Mammas offer") after completing a master’s degree on Animal Behavior and Conservation. Paul Magid, the co-founder of the theatrical comedy musical juggling group the Flying Karamazov Brothers (FKB), has appeared numerous times on Broadway, London’s West End, on TV and in film, has written many plays and has won many awards including an Emmy and an Obie. He is also the co-founder and current director of the New Old Time Chautauqua (NOTC), a not-for-profit organization which, since 1981, has brought education, entertainment, and laughter to underserved communities in the Greater Northwest.

Together, they produced a touching film for Enter, which praise with compassion human expression. Isabella is in quarantine due to the coronavirus. She decides it’s the right time to read all of Darwin’s books, but the writing is heavy and she falls asleep while reading. Darwin’s ghost appears in her dream. He wants to talk about the expression of emotions, because Isabella is an actress. Darwin explains that in his book “On the Expression of Emotions on Man and Animals,” he presents his hypothesis that basic expressions – just like bones or the famous beaks of his finches – are also shaped by evolution.

Created and performed by: Isabella Rossellini & Paul Magid

Camera & Editing: Kirsten Tanjutco

Technical Assistance: Roberto Rossellini

Music: Doug Wieselman

https://www.onassis.org/video/darwin-what-isabella-rossellini-paul-magid

Risa Puno, Avi Dobkin

The Quiet: Part 1

Game

Risa Puno is an NYC-based sculpture and installation artist who uses interactivity and play to understand how we relate to one another. She has exhibited with national and international organizations,

and is the recipient of multiple awards and residencies. Avi Dobkin, a lighting designer specializing in exhibition and installation, collaborator of Risa Puno, a lifelong tabletop gaming enthusiast, he played his first game of D&D when he was 12 and has been running games for the past 6 years. He firmly believes that one can never have too many dice.Together they produced for Enter “The Quiet: Part 1”, a collaborative adventure game in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Designed for playing remotely, this interactive artwork is rooted in tabletop role-playing game mechanics. This collective storytelling experience is inspired by the complex emotions and social dynamics of this unprecedented moment in history. Rather than providing distraction or escape, The Quiet is intended to help people engage with themes of safety, guardianship, access, and support. It provides players a disarmingly fun opportunity to consider content that might otherwise seem overwhelming during this time of uncertainty. The game is designed for 3-5 players, one Narrator and up to four Characters

Created by Risa Puno & Avi Dobkin

https://www.onassis.org/enter/quiet-part-1-risa-puno-avi-dobkin

Akira Takayama

Heterotopia Garden

Instructions on how to make a garden at your home

Theater director and artist Akira Takayama, with a wide range of projects that include sightseeing tours, video installations, social experiments, and temporary schools across the world, aims with his work to update the ‘architecture of theatre’ by expanding the audience participation in society and the urban space. In recent years, he has been interacting with various fields, including visual arts, tourism, urban planning and education. He has collaborated in the past with Onassis Stegi on "Heterotopia Project" (Fast Forward Festival 4, 2017)

“Heterotopia Garden” is a short instructional guide of how to make your own “garden” at home. You can then share an image of your “garden” and create your own story perhaps with an accompanying story, sound, music or poem – in any way you like. The garden is the smallest parcel of the world and then it is the totality of the world. The garden has been a sort of happy, universalizing heterotopia since the beginnings of antiquity. Heterotopias are worlds within worlds, the garden as an heterotopia in which various times and spaces are juxtaposed. The garden that Akira Takayama invites us to create need not be a garden in its literal sense: regarding its size, miniatures that fit in the corner of the living room or on a bedroom desk are equally perfect. You might create one new, or re-imagine one that already exist.

This garden making activity may help one pass the time and stay home. At the same time, it may serve as an exercise/game for those, who by locking themselves in their house have become too ‘immune’ to the outside world, foreign substances, and others (viruses being the foremost example); to remember and reorganize their connection circuit to the ‘outside’ so that they will not destroy themselves in isolation or get swallowed by hateful thoughts.

We hope that this activity will serve as a vaccination in a time where to infect and to be infected has become a prominent fear.

* Heterotopia is a concept elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe certain cultural, institutional and discursive spaces that are somehow ‘other’.

Created by Akira Takayama

https://www.onassis.org/enter/heterotopia-garden-akira-takayama

Ziad Antar

The Little Boat (Il Était un...)

Video

Duration: 3’

Ziad Antar (1978, Sidon) is a Lebanese video artist and photographer whose work has been acquired by public and private collections, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, the British Museum, the Louis Vuitton Foundation and the Aishti Foundation, among others.

Taking one of the world’s most popular children’s songs as a sample, this video slowly reveals the latent violence embedded in the culture addressed to kids. This is a single video take, similar to a photograph, in which a tiny instrument is left to self-unwind with so much tenderness while the song’s story of almost carnivorous nature is told.

Concept-direction: Ziad Antar

Editing: Nayla Mabsout

https://www.onassis.org/video/little-boat-ziad-antar

Evi Kalogiropoulou

Tiles

Video

10´28´´

A visual artist and filmmaker with studies at the Athens School of Fine Arts and the Royal College of Arts in London, Evi Kalogiropoulou has presented her work at the Chisenhale Gallery, the Whitechapel Gallery, the BFI in London, at Kunstverein Dresden, participated in a group exhibition organized by the DESTE Foundation and the New Museum, is represented by the Breeder Gallery and her work is part of the “Onassis Collection.”

Evi Kalogiropoulou states about this work: “I created a moving image work inspired by the people I encounter during the quarantine – my partner and friend, and my trainer. The common axis is formed by the mosaic floor, the tiles, and also our personal relationship”.

A rapper writes his new song, talking about his night out in the center of Athens. He sits in the kitchen of his apartment, where we see a mosaic floor and some colorful tiles on the wall. At night, a car wash transforms into a kickboxing studio, where the employees practice in pairs – yet all alone. The floor is mosaic and there are colorful tiles on the wall.

Concept, direction, editing: Evi Kalogiropoulou

People Appearing: Negros tou Moria, Mohammad Usman, Evi Kalogiropoulou, Bilaljan Bilaljan

Music: Mohammed Rowe

Music/Songs Used: Sound Piece #1: “In Head,” Sound Piece #2: “Strung”, original music composed by Mohammed Rowe

Color Correction: Dimitris Karteris

https://www.onassis.org/video/tiles-evi-kalogiropoulou

Kareem Kalokoh

Swim

Video

Duration: 3΄30΄΄

Born and raised in Athens, Greece, Kareem Kalokoh is a hip hop artist – a member and co-founder of the ATH KIDS collective. Along with Valentin Rivera, his partner and co-founder of the ATH KIDS collective, he managed to create his own unique world: the new street Athenian perspective, conveyed through music and visuals, was enough to captivate the audience, whereas dark heavy-hitting anthems like “OTAM” and “New Flame” created a huge buzz in the city. His debut album “Congo” was his breakthrough record, while singles off the album (such as “Whip Game”) landed him a spot at the “A Colors Show” and a great number of shows in France, Germany, London, New York, and the Netherlands.

For Enter he created a music piece which captures his universe during the pandemic. A short film about the feeling of isolation, creating art in a world paused by Covid-19, and friendship.

Created by: Kareem Kalokoh

Directed by: Theodoros Selekos

Camera: Giannis Oumoudoumidis

Sound Design: Fox

Music/Songs Used: Kareem Kalokoh – Swim (unreleased), produced by Damian Alter

People Appearing: Kareem Kalokoh, Jamal Ernesta

https://www.onassis.org/video/swim-kareem-kalokoh

Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis & Alexis Fidetzis

Notes to Readiness. Step 1

A role-play work, Video in Live-Streaming on YouTube

Live stream: Thursday 14 May at 20:00 GMT+3

Kostis Stafylakis, an artist, theorist, author and curator with a PhD in Political Science has taught theory and fine arts, has co-curated important exhibitions in Europe, he is the Artistic Director of ViZ Laboratory for Visual Culture, and has participated in international art events. Theo Triantafyllidis, an artist who builds virtual spaces and the interfaces for the human body to inhabit them, has presented his work in museums all around the world and has participated in Biennales. Alexis Fidetzis who has studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts, at the Munich Kunstakademie, and at Pratt Institute of New York (with and Onassis Foundation scholarship) explores research-based artistic practices focusing on matters of art and geopolitics. He employs a multitude of media including installation, drawing, performance and video. He is the recipient of prizes and scholarships and his work has been shown all over the world.

The three artists collaborated to create a role-play work referring to the contemporary cultures of preparedness. “Notes to Readiness: Step 1” is a guide to prepare yourselves and your shelves. Drawing on the reactionary cult of ‘preppers’ (individuals and groups prepping for survival in scenarios of catastrophe and civil collapse), Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis, and Alexis Fidetzis use role-play to develop a set of characters for “Readiness,” an immersive work that seeks to dissect the apocalyptic fantasies of preparedness. “Readiness” unfolds in the form of an epic battle between a group of preppers and the Golden Horde, the rampant mass of the ‘unprepared,’ in preppers’ patriotic jargon and literature. Using a tabletop play structure that extends to domestic environments, the artists produce a live stream that interacts with the YouTube audience via Chatbox. In a play mode, these characters will share notes on readiness, suggest strategies of survival, and develop a sensual lexicon for our on-going confinement. As the three artists state: “The world of “prepping” and “preppers” is overrun with a mix of anxiety and fascination with the future. This mostly reactionary global cult has come to epitomize the current demand for alert and preparedness. Using role-playing (a structure that cuts across the preppers’ identity, from the “Dungeon & Dragons” lifestyle to the patriotic fantasies of surviving the wrath of external enemies), we seek to decipher the sensual parameters that will determine this new reality of confinement, distance, and “privateering” – in the name of “public health.””

Created by: Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis, Alexis Fidetzis

With: Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis, Alexis Fidetzis, Aliki Stenou

https://www.onassis.org/enter/notes-readiness-step-1-kostis-stafylakis-theo-triantafyllidis-alexis-fidetzis

RootlessRoot

Take your time

A series of videos

Duration of 2nd video: 2’46’’

Want to move better? Age better? Cope better with stress and the uncertainty of everyday life?

How about start working on it while housebound? Linda and Jozef are introducing the basic principles of Fighting Monkey Practice.

But to observe, you need stillness. You need to wait. To move slow. To expand time. To learn slow. To see.

This is the second video of a series of videos that Rootless Root created for ENTER.

RootlessRoot Company was founded by Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek in 2006 in ATHENS. It was formed out of their need to develop their artistic language which is defined as primal and raw. Rootlessroot is an artistic vehicle hosting Kapetanea’s and Frucek’s practical philosophy, helping them to discover their capacities and fulfill their desire to dive into the depths of the human being. Their works (solos, installations, medium and large-scale performances) have been presented in 21 countries around the world. RootlessRoot have been collaborating with Akram Khan on his dance solo "DESH", as well as with Staadsteater Kassel Dance Company, DOT504, Helsinki Dance Company Finland, and many other companies and institutions. The Onassis STEGI has produced and presented their “Eyes in The Colors of The Rain” (2011), “Kireru” (2012) and “Europium” (2015), and has been the company’s touring supporter. Since 2006, they have been developing the Fighting Monkey Practice, focused on the basic principles of human motion and human development. Rootlessroot have been travelling around the globe to teach the Practice.

Linda Kapetanea has been the artistic director of the Kalamata International Dance Festival since 2017.

Concept, Direction, Production: RootlessRoot

Music: Vassilis Mantzoukis

Video: Alexandros Papathanasopoulos

People Αppearing: Jozef Frucek

https://www.onassis.org/video/take-your-time-part-2-rootlessroot

New Entries

Isabella Rossellini & Paul Magid, Darwin, What?

Video | Duration: 8´22´´

Risa Puno & Avi Dobkin, The Quiet: Part 1

Game

Akira Takayama, Heterotopia Garden