The New Infinity Athens

Athens – a city in transition, focused on the past – is seeking out its own future and undergoing a transformation so rapid that it cannot be comprehended by our minds and senses. Onassis Culture is contributing to the city’s transformation through initiatives and works that spotlight contemporary culture within present-day Athens. Now, Onassis Culture is bringing “The New Infinity Athens” festival to the city for the first time, in partnership with the Athens Biennale, the Berliner Festspiele, and the Eugenides Foundation: a three-day festival exploring the limitless possibilities of techno-visual culture through a series of iconic works presented at the Eugenides Foundation’s New Digital Planetarium.

The New Digital Planetarium – one of the largest, most state-of-the-art fulldome auditoria in the world – is a high-tech space capable of showcasing elaborate simulations of artificial worlds, making it the perfect venue at which to present striking images of our times. Founded sixty years ago, its dome seeks to capture and convey the star system, and break down boundaries in order to allow outer space to be explored in the most realistic possible ways.

Since 2017, Berliner Festspiele’s program series “The New Infinity” has invited visual and sound artists, filmmakers, and video game designers to enter into the unconventional architectural space that is the planetarium and create new works to be presented at such venues, and fulldome festivals around the globe.

The festival is being held as part of the 7th Athens Biennale ECLIPSE. Onassis Culture has been a systematic supporter of the Athens Biennale since its very beginning, and has seen contemporary Athenian art and culture emerge as one of the most exciting and promising scenes anywhere in the world. This is why the Onassis Foundation is planning to formulate a joint strategy with the Athens Biennale to facilitate the institution’s continued development, its presence on the world stage, its connections to the performing and visual arts, and its promotion of work by Greek artists around the world.

Visual artists, filmmaker, video game designer and musicians – inspired by their own concepts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow – are inviting us to join them for three days filled with cosmic dust and its beyond. Speculative, post-cosmic realms, galactic sculptures, the pandemic, post-industrial music symphonies – there’s space for it all in these fulldome films.

“The New Infinity Athens” presents works by artists of the digital age. The evolution of life from the time of the Big Bang down to the present day (David OReilly, “Eye of the Dream”), stories of people from around the world in the wake of the pandemic, represented visually with cascades of choreographed space-debris (David OReilly, “The End of Stories”), a hypnotically enchanting séance that revives Earth’s lost prehistoric biosphere in the most poetic of ways (Agnieszka Polska, “The Happiest Thought”), the sci-fi qualities of earthly objects (Fatima Al Qadiri & Transforma, “Extraordinary Alien”), fantastical objects and new soundscapes (Robert Lippok & Lucas Gutierrez, “Non-Face” & “SPIN”), psychedelic experiences resembling those made under the influence of ayahuasca (Jan Kounen, “Ayahuasca – A Kosmik Journey”), a planetoid like a galactic sculpture, astronomical phenomena, and alien ecosystems (Theo Triantafyllidis & Sun Araw, “VHW7”), and a post-industrial symphony that presents our civilization as a decaying, imploded space (Actress & Actual Objects, “Grey Interiors”). The event program also includes intermediary sound performances by Panos Alexiadis, ILIOS and Devika .

Thursday, 04 November 2021

17:30 – 18:30

Robert Lippok & Lucas Gutierrez: Non-Face (15΄)

Agnieszka Polska: The Happiest Thought (21΄)

Theo Triantafyllidis & Sun Araw: VHW7 (18΄)

Break

19:00 – 19:45

Jan Kounen: Ayahuasca (13΄)

Fatima Al Qadiri & Transforma: Extraordinary Alien (16΄)

David OReilly: The End of Stories (15΄)

Break

20:30 – 21:00

Live show/concert curated by Onassis Stegi: Devika

Break

21:30 – 22:30

Lucas Gutierrez & Robert Lippok: SPIN (13΄)

David OReilly: Eye of the Dream (30΄)

Actress & Actual Objects: Grey Interiors (20΄)

Friday, 05 November 2021

17:30 – 18:15

David OReilly: Eye of the Dream (30΄)

Fatima Al Qadiri & Transforma: Extraordinary Alien (16΄)

Break

18:45 – 19:45 pm

Agnieszka Polska: The Happiest Thought (21΄)

Actress & Actual Objects: Grey Interiors (20΄)

David OReilly: The End of Stories (15΄)

Break

20:30 – 21:00

Live show/concert curated by Onassis Stegi: Panos Alexiadis

Break

21:30 – 22:15

Robert Lippok & Lucas Gutierrez: Non-Face (15΄)

Jan Kounen: Ayahuasca (13΄)

Theo Triantafyllidis & Sun Araw: VHW7 (18΄)

Saturday, 06 November 2021

17:30 – 18:20

Lucas Gutierrez & Robert Lippok: SPIN (13΄)

Agnieszka Polska: The Happiest Thought (21΄)

Fatima Al Qadiri & Transforma: Extraordinary Alien (16΄)

Break

18:50 – 19:40

David OReilly: Eye of the Dream (30΄)

Theo Triantafyllidis & Sun Araw: VHW7 (18΄)

Break

20:30 – 21:00

Live show/concert curated by Onassis Stegi: ILIOS
Visuals: Sara D'Uva
*Strobe lights will be used during the live show

Break

21:30 – 22:15

Jan Kounen: Ayahuasca (13΄)

Robert Lippok & Lucas Gutierrez: Non-Face (15΄)

David OReilly: The End of Stories (15΄)

Onassis Culture – centered around Onassis Stegi – attunes itself to Athens through a series of initiatives and works set within the city. Opens up dialogue about democracy, social justice, gender equality, and the unequivocal human rights of the LGBTQIA+ community through a series of talks and events. Supports artistic development, creation, and experimentation through the production of performances, films, and hybrid works, and through fellowships and residencies offered to both emerging and established artists. With a constant online presence, creates content for the present moment in which we live. Culture in synch with the here and now that becomes a way of life, embracing the local made global and the global made local.

The 7th Athens Biennale ECLIPSE, co-curated by Omsk Social Club and Larry Ossei-Mensah under the artistic direction of Poka-Yio, is being held from September 24 to November 28. The exhibition features artists based in North and South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe, many of whom will be exhibiting in Greece for the first time. The exhibition title highlights the obscured perspective of reality caused by the constant state of flux we are experiencing in our society now. ECLIPSE engages the social, political and spiritual changes of today’s global construct and in Athens itself, as a rising metropolis located at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa both physically and historically.

Berliner Festspiele stand for a cultural program where the new becomes visible. All year round, Berliner Festspiele host a multitude of festivals, exhibitions and individual events at two houses – the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and the Gropius Bau – and other venues in the city. The combination and network of a festival house and an exhibition hall bears special potential for interdisciplinary project formats and the interaction of different forms of art. An annual program includes the exhibitions at Gropius Bau, the festivals MaerzMusik – Festival for Time Issues, Theatertreffen, Musikfest Berlin and Jazzfest Berlin, the program series Immersion, as well as four National Contests for young people.

The Eugenides Foundation’s New Digital Planetarium, which opened its doors to the public in November 2003, consists of a 945m2 278-seat amphitheater overarched by a huge dome. Thanks to its state-of-the-art equipment, combined with all the creative and technical capabilities offered by modern audio-visual media and new technologies, the New Digital Planetarium projects spectacular images showcasing the latest developments in astronomy and other natural sciences. This combination creates such an impressive result that the audience feels like they are in the projected environment. The New Digital Planetarium produces two new original digital shows each year.