Enter 18.5

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

From Lalka of Northern Nafpaktia to 7 Train in New York, a solitary adventure game, coming to term as humans with the violence of nature, a discussion with our inner self, cocooning, work in the time of quarantine, the soles of our feet, a poem of an “exquisite corpse”, a song which banishes the sorrow of the spring of Covid-19. Welcome to the word of ENTER. Visit onassis.org/enter.

Video Enter: https://youtu.be/ia-8XRkOcjk

Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qvfotglzqloemyt/AABopsBshS0FBTvkDjTmvLMfa?dl=0

Works by the following artists: Lena Kitsopoulou, Maria Papadimitriou, RootlessRoot, QUEENSBOUND 2020 (Nadia Q. Ahmad, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Pichchenda Bao, Nana Brew-Hammond, Jared Harel, Abeer Y. Hoque, Joseph O. Legaspi, Robert Ostrom, KC Trommer), Samita Sinha, Frisly Soberanis, Alina Tenser & Gabo Camnitzer, and Xin Liu.

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 on their own; their laptops are turned into a superpower. 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, 18 May, the following artists welcome us. At an altitude of 1.400 meters, Lena Kitsopoulou makes several realizations about human survival in a bleak world system (Lalka). Maria Papadimitriou creates a parody of loneliness and isolation (Alter Ego). RootlessRoot explain the ways in which the soles of the feet can tame everything (Our Feet). The commissions program of Onassis USA curated for the fourth week Queens Museum at Queens, the area that has been most severely affected in the State of New York. All artists involved live in Queens. The program includes the collaborative sound project QUEENSBOUND: the poets Nadia Q. Ahmad, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Pichchenda Bao, Nana Brew-Hammond, Jared Harel, Abeer Y. Hoque, Joseph O. Legaspi, Robert Ostrom, KC Trommer create a poem about an “exquisite corpse” (In the Here and Now). Samita Sinha features a song-spell about sadness (Into the day). Frisly Soberanis reflects on working during the quarantine period (Forces of a City #1). Alina Tenser and Gabo Camnitzer observe the changing conception of space through Covid-19 (A Compass for the House Door). Xin Liu creates a videogame for the era of self-isolation, which you will find very familiar (Sleepwalk).

Works by the following artists are already available online: Isabella Rossellini & Paul Magid, Ziad Antar, Evi Kalogeropoulou, Kareem Kalokoh, Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis & Alexis Fidetzis, Akira Takayama, Risa Puno & Avi Dobkin, 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.

Since its launch on April 24, each week, the project has released new groupings of commissions, and in the coming weeks Onassis Foundation will continue to collaborate with exciting partners. The Chocolate Factory Theater will curate Week 5, which will be shared Monday, May 25. In the following days, new original works by such artists as Daniel Wetzel, Effie Birba & Aris Servetalis, Maria Diakopanagiotou, Ioannis Mandafounis, and Yorgos Zois will be uploaded. 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, and explore artistic works that reflect on the current situation.

QUEENS MUSEUM CURATED WORKS

Xin Liu: Sleepwalk

Sleepwalk is a solitary adventure game (for macOS and Windows systems) in which you find yourself confined to your apartment in New York City under quarantine. Information about the outside world comes to you through the news, and sometimes filters in through your window. As the days pass, you start to wonder whether this is all a dream.

Artist: Xin Liu

https://www.onassis.org/enter/sleepwalk-xin-liu

QUEENSBOUND: In the Here and Now

QUEENSBOUND is a collaborative audio project that seeks to connect writers across the borough, showcase and develop a literature of Queens, and reflect the borough back to itself. For In the Here and Now, nine poets from the QUEENSBOUND project created an exquisite corpse poem: a collaborative poem whose primary rule is that each participant is unaware of what the previous contributor has written. Each poet wrote 7 lines in honor of the 7 train that runs through Queens, which is sometimes referred to as the “International Express.”

People appearing (In order of appearance) KC Trommer, Jared Harel, Abeer Y. Hoque, Nana Brew-Hammond, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Nadia Q. Ahmad, Pichchenda Bao, Robert Ostrom, Joseph O. Legaspi

https://www.onassis.org/video/here-and-now-queensbound

Samita Sinha: Into the Day

This is a spell to move grief into the light of day, inspired by the riotous singing of the birds on COVID-19 spring mornings. The sounds come from North Indian classical music, broken to pieces and composed into new form, through the body.

Created by Samita Sinha with video by Sunil Bald

https://www.onassis.org/video/day-samita-sinha-sunil-bald

Frisly Soberanis: Forces of a city #1

Filmed under the elevated 7 train, Soberanis' audiovisual work slips between memories and reflections on the current moment in Queens. In this suspended reality, heightened by the pandemic, the forces of the city haven’t stopped. The 7 train continues running, the fare is still charged and the rent is still due. The train has moved families, workers, and even the virus. While one part of the city works from home, the other rides the train to work. It seems that everything is going well, but the reality under the train is the opposite. There is a palpable moment before a drastic change. This is where we are.

Frisly Soberanis (Writer, Director)

Diego Alejandro Soberanis (Assistant Camera)

Henri Guillén (Composer)

Lucas Gonzalez (VO Mixer)

Génesis Mancheren Abaj (thank you)

https://www.onassis.org/video/forces-city-1-frisly-soberanis

Alina Tenser & Gabo Camnitzer: A Compass for the House Door

In A Compass for the House Door, Alina Tenser and Gabo Camnitzer use the floor plan of their apartment as a schema to consider the shifting boundaries of traditional conceptions of space during the COVID-19 crisis. Made using an old camera and craft materials the artists had at home, the video grapples with a wide set of topics including: Lucretius’ conception of the clinamen, marketing consultant, Faith Popcorn’s term “cocooning”, Angela Mitropoulos’ consideration of Oikonomia and Edward Hall’s theory of proxemics.

Artists: Alina Tenser and Gabo Camnitzer

People appearing: Alina Tenser

Music/songs used by Gabo Camnitzer

https://www.onassis.org/video/compass-house-door-alina-tenser-gabo-camnitzer

ENTER WEEK 4 WORKS FROM GREEK ARTISTS

Lena Kitsopoulou: Lalka

This project addresses man’s right to let time flow without the arrogance of doing good deeds and great works all the time. Life is not fear and panic, not even a monthly wage without which you’ll die. Life is the air you have to let guide you and not devalue it. This project proposes to love our instincts, celebrate them, at least not oppress them anymore on the altar of a so-called civilized and unfree/restrictive/illiberal life.

Concept & direction: Lena Kitsopoulou

Video editing by MLL Productions (Lena Kitsopoulou & Marilena Moschou)

People appearing: Lena Kitsopoulou, Indian

Music/songs used: “Save me” by Nikos Kipourgos, "This is the time" by Coyote's Arrow

https://www.onassis.org/video/lalka-lena-kitsopoulou

Maria Papadimitriou: Alter Ego

The artist has a chat with her alter ego as it watches her slowly cutting her hair. Sometimes it encourages her, other times it tries to stop her. Alter Ego exists in the thin borderline between paranoia and extremist self-expression. It is essentially: a parody of loneliness and isolation, and the existential void which evolves from the present situation.

Concept, Direction & Apperance: Maria Papadimitriou

Voice over: Tessa Kouroukli Clark

Editing: Stefanos Papageorgiou

Production Management: Temporary Autonomous Museum for All

https://www.onassis.org/video/alter-ego-maria-papadimitriou

RootlessRoot: Our feet

How dynamic our posture is depends on our feet’s intelligence.

We age from our feet

Keep them alive

Move them

Concept, Direction, Production: RootlessRoot

Music: Vassilis Mantzoukis

Video: Alexandros Papathanasopoulos

People Appearing: Linda Kapetanea

https://www.onassis.org/video/our-feet-part-3-rootlessroots

New entries

Lena Kitsopoulou, Lalka

Video | Duration: 13´21´´

Maria Papadimitriou, Alter Ego

Video | Duration: 2´41´´

RootlessRoot, Our Feet

Video | Duration: 1´27´´

Week 4 of Onassis USA’s ENTER commissions was curated by the Queens Museum

QUEENSBOUND 2020 (Nadia Q. Ahmad, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Pichchenda Bao, Nana Brew-Hammond, Jared Harel, Abeer Y. Hoque, Joseph O. Legaspi, Robert Ostrom, KC Trommer), In the Here and Now

Video | Duration: 4´46´´

Samita Sinha, Into the day

Video | Duration: 3´00´´

Frisly Soberanis, Forces of a City #1

Video | Διάρκεια: 3´43´´

Alina Tenser & Gabo Camnitzer, A Compass for the House Door

Video | Duration: 11´06´´

Xin Liu, Sleepwalk

Videogame

Already available

Isabella Rossellini & Paul Magid, Darwin, What?

Video | Duration: 8´22´´