ENTER 4.5

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

Athenian and New-York apartments; houses in the Greek provinces; the sun setting; dancing couples; a daughter who will be called Quarantine; screen-mirroring; a chance to become better human beings; practical exercises for adaptability; a sleep epidemic; a lockdown that bridges distance; teleporting; DNA and Brecht. Welcome to the world of ENTER. Visit onassis.org/enter.

UNTITLED, PART 1 | ROOTLESSROOT

Works by Elias Adam, Simos Kakalas, Vasilis Kekatos, Andonis Foniadakis, Emily Johnson, Kathryn Hamilton (Sister Sylvester), RootlessRoot, Stefanos Tsivopoulos.

ENTER: The entire house is turned 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. A few days ago Onassis Stegi, Athens, and Onassis USA 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. Apartments, gardens, terraces, children, husbands and wives, roommates, along with their house goods, become the new site-specific stages, the characters and props, as the artist’s laptop is turned into a creative superpower. From our homes we press ENTER to view new works, new artistic forms, which will 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, 4 May, the following artists welcome us to their homes. Elias Adam will present a different Hamlet. Simos Kakalas has prepared a series of videos titled Tarantino. Vasilis Kekatos created a short film about love that persists in a deserted world, with music by Pavlos Pavlidis (As You Sleep The World Empties). Through their world-famous Fighting Monkey Practice, RootlessRoot will help us manage better everyday life with a series of videos screened in sequel on a weekly basis. Inspired by the brand new song of American composer Active Child “Color Me”, also featuring in this work, Andonis Foniadakis created a duet that decreases distance choreographing, from his apartment in Paris, two dancers in Montreal through Skype (st Dominique bd Arago). Emily Johnson’s “dance” traverses one hundred years, teleporting the past in the future (inbetween Kwimiak, blue). Kathryn Hamilton (Sister Sylvester) created a series of microscopic scenes, focusing on behavioral changes of an organism, gene sequences, human DNA, also weaving Brecht into it. In Untitled [Junkopia Redux], Stefanos Tsivopoulos’ gaze is suspended between uncertainty for the past and agony for the future.

Since 24 April, works by Dimitris Karantzas, Efthimis Filippou, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Maria Antelman, Kimberly Bartosik, Annie Dorsen, and Radiohole have been available online. In the coming days, new works will be added by the following artists: Isabella Rossellini and Paul Magid; Ziad Antar; Evi Kalogeropoulou; Kareem Kalokoh – ATH Kids; Lena Kitsopoulou; Maria Papadimitriou; Kostis Stafylakis, Theo Triantafyllidis, and Alexis Fidetzis; Akira Takayama; Risa Puno; and Daniel Wetzel. The list is ever expanding. Each artist, but ultimately all together, will create works that beam from their homes over to the viewers’ spaces cancelling out, through art, the distance that separates us.

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

In brief

Elias Adam

Hamlet

a desktop performance

Video

Duration: 34΄11´´

Hamlet browses his desktop. Shakespeare’s play themes become transparent through the use of media. During an evening screen-mirroring, love, grief, anti-depressants, death, self- destruction are intermixed with endless references to pop internet culture, to animation, to current affairs.

Born in 1991, director Elias Adam studied law at the University of Athens and theatre at the Theatro Technis Karolos Koun, Athens. His works have been performed in Greece, Cyprus, and Germany. Attempting to bridge the personal and the political, his approach features a personal, non-fiction theatre. During the last two years he developed and realized the project Smallville as a Fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation; the project aims to empower residents of Greek provinces through public dialogue, methods of collective writing, and through a kind of theatre that incorporates biographical elements. He has worked with Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, Ringlokschuppen Ruhr, Mülheim, Onassis Stegi, Athens, National Theatre, Athens, and Internationales Forum – Theatertreffen of the Berliner Festspiele.

Director: Elias Adam

Collaborator: Christina Mavrommati

Actors: Jeo Pakitsas, Styliana Ioannou, Sofia Priovolou

https://www.onassis.org/video/hamlet-desktop-performance-elias-adam

Simos Kakalas

Tarantino

Series of Video

Duration of Video 1: 3΄04΄΄

A wonderful digital world is not just colors and playful ringtones. It is also a space for constructive discussion, an opportunity to become better people, to leave our past behind, and with the help of science to make the future that we deserve.

Born in Thessaloniki in 1973, Simos Kakalas studied at the Drama School of the National Theatre of Northern Greece, in which he also worked as an actor and assistant director. Founding member of the theatre company “Nees Morfes” and founder of Horos theatre company, Kakalas has pursued and supported a kind of theatre that uses scarce means (poor theatre), corporeality, poetic language and interaction. He has worked with National Theatre, Athens, Athens and Epidaurus Festival, Onassis Stegi, Athens, and Greek National Opera, among others. His work has been performed at the Dialog Festival (Wrocław, Poland), 40th Tampere International Festival (Finland), 43th International Festival Kontrapunkt (Szczecin, Poland), Sibiu International Festival (Romania), Heidelbergerstuckemarkt (Heidelberg, Germany), New Greek Wave (Bremen, Germany), Europe Speaks Out! (Staatsschauspiel Stuttgart, Germany), and Festival of Union of the Theatres of Europe (UTE).

Production team

Directed and performed by: Simos Kakalas

Props (dolls and corona virus): Martha Foka

Consultation and other useful ideas: Dido Gkogkou

Editing and rough cuts: Dora Kalakidou

https://www.onassis.org/video/tarantino-simos-kakalas

Vasilis Kekatos

As You Sleep The World Empties

Video

Duration: 12΄33΄΄

An epidemic has hit mankind. People from all ends of the Earth are asleep, and no one knows when they'll wake. Few are those who are not infected; among them, a boy who fell in love with a girl right before the disease outbreak. With an old camera, he attempts to capture what beauty is left, so that the girl can see it once she awakens.

Vasilis Kekatos (b. 1991) is a writer and director. He recently became the first Greek filmmaker to ever won the Palme d’or and the Queer Palm for best short film in Cannes Film Festival. With his films The Silence of the Dying Fish (2018) and The Distance Between Us and the Sky (2019), he has participated and been awarded in many prestigious film festivals, such as the ones of Locarno, Sundance, Clermont-Ferrand and Telluride. Besides directing, Vasilis has worked on the field of art photography and has made a cover photoshoot for the Greek “Vogue”, focusing on the beauty of diversity. He is currently working on his debut feature film.

Production Team

Written, Directed, Narrated & Edited by Vasilis Kekatos
Cinematography: Giorgos Valsamis
Original Music: Pavlos Pavlidis
Sound Editor/Mixer: Valia Tserou
Title Design & Poster: Nikos Pastras

https://www.onassis.org/video/you-sleep-world-empties-vasilis-kekatos

RootlessRoot

Series of videos

Duration of Video 1: 2΄56΄΄

Fighting Monkey Practice

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.

Life rarely happens as you expect. Most of the time it is unpredictable. What games do you play to grow young? There are no ‘exercises’ complex enough to prepare you for life. But open games–or movement situations as we call them–which involve partners, ever-changing rules, and are developed through the context in which we live, can. Instead of trying to ‘fix’ your body, try to learn joyfully and with long lasting benefits the importance of adaptability. RootlessRoot has prepared a series of videos, which will be added in sequel to ENTER on a weekly basis.

RootlessRoot was founded by Linda Kapetanea and Jozef Frucek in 2006 in Athens, out of their need to develop their artistic language which is primordial and raw. Their works (solo, installations, medium- and large-scale productions) have been presented in 21 countries. They have collaborated with Akram Khan in his dance solo DESH, Staadsteater Kassel Dance Company, DOT504, Helsinki Dance Company (Finland), as well as with many companies and foundations internationally. Their works Eyes in The Colors of The Rain (2011), Kireru (2012), and Europium (2015) are co-productions with Onassis Stegi, Athens, which also supports their tours. Since 2006 they have developed the Fighting Monkey Practice, focusing on the primary principles of human movement and development, which they teach worldwide.

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

Production Team

Conceived, directed, and performed by RootlessRoot

Music: Vassilis Mantzoukis

Video: Alexandros Papathanasopoulos

https://www.onassis.org/video/untitled-part-1-rootlessroot

Andonis Foniadakis

st Dominique bd Arago

Video

Duration: 4΄01΄΄

He’s alone at Boulevard Arago in Paris, while the two of them, together, are at St Dominique street in Montreal. The chilly North Atlantic separates them, while the Active Child’s haunted voice unites them. The world-renowned Greek choreographer Andonis Foniadakis creates, for the first time in his career remotely–through Skype–, a duet for the dancers Alexander Hille and Pier-Loup Lacour. He was inspired by “Color Me,” the brand-new song of the American composer Active Child, taken out of his album In Another Life. The two dancers’ fluidity is refracted through shadows and reflections, capturing the state of confinement into non-common streets, countries, and continents, in terms of a new poetics: the one body’s lust to imagine, touch and feel the other. But here lies a certain peculiarity: the choreographer captures the two dancers’ confinement under the same roof, perhaps seeking out a way out of his own, utter isolation–having nobody with whom to share it.

Born in Ierapetra, Crete, Andonis Foniadakis studied dance at the National School of Dance, Athens (KSOT) and, having received a Maria Callas Scholarship, at Maurice Bejart’s École-Atelier Rudra (Lausanne). As a dancer, he has worked with Maurice Bejart’s Ballet, the Lyon Opera Ballet, and with Saburo Teshigawara / Karas. He has also danced with his own company, Apotosoma, founded in 2003 in Lyon. As a dancer, he has collaborated with such choreographers as Jiří Kylián, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin, and Mats Ek, among others. As a choreographer, he has created works for the Rambert, Martha Graham Dance Company, and for ballet companies in Lyon, Flanders, Spain, Hannover, Sydney, New Zealand, and Florence, among others, as well as for three operas. In 2014 he worked as movement coordinator for Darren Aronofsky’s film Νοah. He has received the 2012 Danza & Danza Award (Italy) for Best Choreographer and the 2018 Best Choreography Award by the Union of Greek Critics for Drama and Theatre. For his dance company Apotosoma he has created the following works: Sensitive Screens Skins Intervals (2003), USE (2004), Rite of Spring (2008), All Things Are Quite Silent (2009), Romeo and Juliet (2010), Wisteria Maiden (2014), Priority (2015), and Salema (2019).

Production Team

Choreography, Camera, Editing: Andonis Foniadakis

Dancers: Pier-Loup Lacour, Alexander Hille

Music / Song: Active Child, “Color Me”

Song performed by: Active Child

https://www.onassis.org/video/st-dominique-bd-arago-andonis-foniadakis

Emily Johnson
inbetween Kwimiak, blue

Video

Duration: 22΄47΄΄

This is a dance that is listened to and viewed through four images. They are slow, the images. But then again we are traversing more than a hundred years. Emily Johnson is often teleporting the past to the present in what she makes. And we are very suddenly in an inbetween. She invites us t to listen. To imagine with her a way to emerge and begin again and to view as you wish – with intense looking, or restful witnessing. As she characteristically notes: “I think of the ground when I do this dance. And I think of my grandmas. And I think of yours.”

Emily Johnson is an artist who makes body-based work—a Bessie Award-winning choreographer, Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award. Originally from Alaska and now based in New York City, Johnson is of Yup’ik descent, and her body of work considers the experience of sensing and seeing performance. Her dances function as installations, engaging responsible audience-ship within and through space and environment—interacting with each location’s architecture, history and communities. Her choreography is presented across the United States and Australia. Emily currently hosts monthly ceremonial fires on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in partnership with Abrons Art Center and is part of a consortium developing a Global First Nations Performance Network.

Conceived and directed by Emily Johnson

https://www.onassis.org/video/inbetween-kwimiak-blue-emily-johnson

Kathryn Hamilton (Sister Sylvester)
Every Hologenome For Themselves

Video

Duration: 8΄49΄΄

Every Hologenome For Themselves is a series of microscopic stages and DNA-inspired performance scores for the world we live in now.

Kathryn Hamilton, aka Sister Sylvester, is an artist and accidental microbiologist. She is a 2019 Macdowell Fellow and Yale Poynter Fellow. Recent performances include “The Eagle and The Tortoise,” National Sawdust, NYC; “The Fall,” Yale University, and Under The Radar, NYC; “Three Rooms,” Shubbak Festival/Arcola, London; Bozar, Brussels; Frascati, Amsterdam. Video work includes “ARK,” 601Artspace NYC; “Kaba Kopya,” Amsterdam University and Humboldt University, Berlin. Her work has been reviewed by “Artforum,” “The New York Times,” “The New Yorker,” “Performance Art Journal,” “Télérama,” among others. She spent the years 2011-13 in disguise as a French diplomat in New York.

Deniz Tortum works in ﬁlm and new media. His work has screened internationally, including at the Venice Film Festival, SxSW, Shefﬁeld Doc/Fest, True/False and Dokufest. His last ﬁlm “Phases of Matter” premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam this year. He was recently featured in “Filmmaker” magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film.

Kathryn Hamilton (Sister Sylvester), editing in remote collaboration with Deniz Tortum

https://www.onassis.org/video/every-hologenome-themselves-sister-sylvester-editing-remote-collaboration-deniz-tortum

Stefanos Tsivopoulos

Untitled (Junkopia Redux)

Video

Duration: 4΄17΄΄

Tsivopoulos' new short film Untitled (Junkopia Redux), is best described as a view to an inner-landscape suspended between the uncertainty of the past and the agony of the future.

Stefanos Tsivopoulos (GR/NL, 1973) is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker and educator, who has exhibited extensively in art institutions and film festivals worldwide, including the biennials of Athens, Beijing, Budapest, Limerick, Moscow, Thessaloniki, Xinjiang, and the 4th Riga Quadrennial. Recent solo shows include Bellas Artes Projects, Manila; MuCEM, Marseille; Cycladic Museum Athens; Stella Art Foundation, Moscow; ISCP, New York. Group exhibitions include the Tate Modern, London; MACBA, Barcelona; MuKHA, Antwerp; BAK, Utrecht; EMST, Athens; Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Rubin Foundation, New York. In 2013 he represented Greece in the 55th Venice Biennial with his multimedia video installation History Zero.

Conceived and directed by Stefanos Tsivopoulos

https://www.onassis.org/video/untitled-junkopia-redux-stefanos-tsivopoulos