Onassis
What’s OnFast Forward Festival 5
Part of: Fast Forward Festival 5

FFF5 | The Primary Fact

Hikaru Fujii

Dates

Prices

Free admission

Location

Athens

Time & Date

Day
Time
Venue
Day
Monday-Sunday
Time
12:00-19:00
Venue
Old Chemistry Laboratory (Law School Library) | 17-19, Mavromichali St & 104, Solonos St

Information

Cost

Free admission

At the entrance, visitors must present some proof of identity (ID card or driver's licence) and leave large bags for storage.

General

With English subtitles

An Ancient Greek mass grave with 80 dead prisoners was discovered two years ago in Paleo Faliro. The Japanese visual artist Hikaru Fujii returns to the FFF and after extensive research, in collaboration with the choreographer Patricia Apergi and the people in charge of the excavation, he turns his eye to this astounding find, spotlighting the "dark" pre-Golden Age Athens of the 7th century BCE. The audiovisual installation that he mounts in an emblematic building of the academic community, the former Chemistry building, which is now the Law School library, includes interviews with those in charge of the excavation – from archaeologists to dentists – and the reenactment of the execution and the burial by a chorus of young Athenians.

Still from the film: Hikaru Fujii

Hikaru Fujii, who presented "Piraeus/Heterochronia" at the Fast Forward Festival 4 last year, examines the relation between the history and the contemporary society though his video installation, based on an extensive research. For FFF5, responding to the festival’s interest in archeology and history, he produced an artwork related to the ancient Greek mass grave of 80 captives found at the outskirts of Athens. It seems they were executed during the period that preceded the Democracy. In collaboration with choreographer Patricia Apergi, he tries to reproduce the scene as an artwork with physical expression which will take shape via young Athenians’ bodies.

Hikaru Fijii's note
“About 80 shackled skeletons which seem victims of execution were discovered in a mass grave in an ancient Greek cemetery, near the city harbour. According to the archaeologists, they might be young persons, neither enemies, nor thieves or slaves that escaped, as they were buried with their clothes which shows the respect by the executers.

Yet, many things remain unknown, such as who they were and how they were executed. The mass graves are dated back to the second half of the 7th century BC, an estimation based on the two vases (“oenochoes”) found between the skeletons. “The Primary Fact” is the execution, which happened at a time when the society in Athens had been chaotic, before the advent of the democracy. Did the execution of the young people have any influence upon the forthcoming political transition or has nothing to do with it? We cannot know.

The relic or artefacts show the “fact” of the execution, but do not shed light on the reasons.

This work examines the physical impact which led to the death, by observing each skeleton, while at the same time attempts a research through the art as physical experience. The execution which took place with no witnesses during the ancient Greece will be reproduced with the youth of today.”

PARALLEL EVENT

Thursday 3 May | 19:00 | Will be held in Japanese with simultaneous translation into Greek

Talk with: Hikaru Fujii (Visual Artist and Cinematographer), Patricia Apergi (Choreographer), Stella Chryssoulaki (Archaeologist, Director of West Attica, Piraeus & Islands Ephorate of Antiquities)

Moderated by Katia Arfara, Artistic Director of the Theatre and Dance Department at the Onassis Stegi

Translator: Panagiotis Evangelidis

    Image 1 / 4

    Photo: Hikaru Fujii

    Image 2 / 4

    Photo: Hikaru Fujii

    Image 3 / 4

    Still from the movie: Hikaru Fujii

    Image 4 / 4

    Photo: Hikaru Fujii

Credits

  • Conception & Direction

    Hikaru Fujii

  • Cordinator

    Natsuko Odate

  • Curated by

    Katia Arfara

  • Commissioned and Produced by

    Onassis Culture/FFF

  • The research was realized with the following participants

    Stella Chryssoulaki (Archaeologist, Director of West Attica, Piraeus & Islands Ephorate of Antiquities), Panagiotis Karkanas (Director of the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science, American School of Classical Studies at Athens), Jenny Wallensten (Director of the Swedish Archaeologic Institute of Athens), Anne Ingvarsson (Chief curator at Gustanvianum Uppsala University Museum), Maria Deligiannaki (Dentist), Sevos Aggouras (Archaeologist), Giannis Pappas (Archaeologist), Eleanna Prevedorou (Postdoctoral Fellow of the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science, American School of Classical Studies at Athens)

  • Cinematography Crew

    :

  • Producer

    Dimitra Dernikou

  • Line Production

    Vassilis Panagiotakopoulos

  • Production Manager

    Chris Hasapakis

  • Director Dop

    Hikaru Fujii

  • Assistant Director

    Kostis Levantis

  • 1st Camera Focus Puller

    Irini Zevgoli

  • 2nd Camera Focus Puller

    George Metaxas

  • Camera Operator

    Dimitris Kasimatis

  • DIT

    George Athanasopoulos

  • Fisher Grip

    Kostas Meridis

  • Panther Grip

    Nektarios Solidakis

  • Grip Assistant

    Sotiris Ioannidis

  • Sound Engineers

    Dinos Kitou, Nasos Tsialtas

  • Sound Assistant

    Andreas Kitou

  • Gaffer

    Patapios Savas

  • Electrician

    Nektarios Voutsinas

  • Make Up Artist

    Ioanna Simeonidou

  • Production Assistant

    Stefanos Georgiakakis, Nikos Drekis

  • Subtitles

    Orestis Kalantzis

  • Translation

    Sofia Charalampous, Eleni Stergiopoulou

  • Catering

    Thanos Mihopoulos

  • Still Photographer

    Τhanos Lazopoulos

  • Choreography Crew

    :

  • Research-Choreography

    Patricia Apergi

  • Research and Choreography Assistant

    Irene Kalaitzidi

  • Research team-Dancers

    Karahanidis Anastasis, George Michelakis, Euthimios Moshopoulos, Stelios Pavlopoulos, Stylianos Tsatsos, Ilias Chatzigeorgiou, Alex Gotch, Adrian Kolaritz

  • Lighting Design

    Nikos Vlassopoulos

  • Line Production on behalf of the Onassis Stegi

    Zoi Mouschi

  • Production Manager (Aerites Dance Company)

    Theodora Kapralou

  • Casting Coordinator

    Nikitas Vasilakis

  • Performers

    Pavlos Antimanto, Panayiotis Apostolopoulos, Andreas Apostolou, Alexandros Avgerinos, Stefanos Achilleos, Stelios Vasilas, Alexandros Vederakis, Lefteris Vlachos, Charalambos Votsidis, Spyraggelos Gavrielatos, Konstantinos Ganotis, Stefanos Gergopoulos, Nikolas Georganis, Panagiotis Doukas, Pavlos Iordanopoulos, Giorgos Kalimeris, Nikos Kalkanakos, Nikos Kalivas, Gerasimos Karavasilis, Antonis Karastergiou, Stavros Kastrinakis, Apostolos Kolokythas, Angelos Kolosionis, Panos Koulis, Andreas Koumpoulis, Kostas Koutris, Dimitris Koutsoumpas, Michail Koutsouris, Antonis Kyriakakis, Dimitris Lagos, Iosif Hussin Lalas, Fotis Lamaris, Stelios Lyritzis, Vasilis Magouliotis, Evripidis Makris, Ioannis Mantzaris, Alexandros Mata, Iosif Miliarakis, Vasilios Mitsopoulos, Michalis Michalakidis, Ioannis Moshovas, Polykarpos Moschos, Giannis Bakalis, Dimitrios Babaniotis, Manos Batsios, Panos Boras, Antonis Ntaouxis, Arment Delia, Dimitris Ntinas, Spyros Ntogas, Dimitris Oikonomidis, Theodoros Oikonomou, Dimitris Papadopoulos, Dionysios Papadopoulos, Stamatis Maourissio Papathanasiou, Tasos Petridis Pappas, Panagiotis Politis, Apostolis Polykretis, Athanasios Restas, Nick Samouridis, Angelos Sergedakis, Vasilis Skarmoutsos, Simos Spinthourakis, Antonis Stamopoulos, Apostolis Sykiotis, Giorgos Tzigounakis, Alexandros-Erve Tsavalos, Euthymios Filintras, Augoustinos Fytilis, Nikos Fotiadis, Giannis Chorianopoulos, Christos Psonis

  • We would like to thank

    Vasiliki Strakantouna from UoA: Law School Library

Biography

Embedded media

If you want to enjoy embedded rich media, please customize your cookie settings to allow for Performance and Targeting cookies. Your data may be transferred to third-party services such as YouTube, Vimeo, SoundCloud and Issuu.

Customize Cookies

More in: