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FUTURE N.O.W.

Onassis Stegi Festival

Dates

Prices

Free admission

Location

Online, Onassis Stegi

The future is here, now, in Neos Kosmos – the “new world”. Artists drawn from various fields (theater, performance, and the visual arts) decipher the future in the present moment at Onassis Stegi and on the Onassis Channel on YouTube. Here we are. Under a melting iceberg. War manuals in hand. Among passionate protectors of the Earth, scientists, and new life forms. With four online premieres, an online international open forum, and an in-depth talk with the festival’s artists about culture and the lack thereof in 2021.

A new theater festival – FUTURE N.O.W. – is being born at Onassis Stegi to be made available on the Onassis Channel on YouTube. The first four works to be selected during lockdown for the festival via the FUTURE N.O.W. open call last March offer up new, amusing, and surprising stories that treat the future as the present. Because what do we really want to be in the future? Funnier? Smarter? Richer? Wiser? Tougher? More resilient? One thing is certain: the future is yet to come. And the idea that the future is doomed is by no means established fact. In the words of the British thinker John Higgs: “It is a story we tell ourselves.” With a wink, this first crop of projects springing from FUTURE N.O.W. are beating a path for those to come; declaring – boldly, and with cheek – that the future is not unlivable. Quite the opposite.

Since it proved impossible to premiere these productions in front of live audiences (as planned for November 2020) they are now being presented in a new form that flirts with cinema. Award-winning next-generation directors were brought in to work with the festival’s four stage directors and create versions of their works designed specially to live online. Filming took place both on Onassis Stegi’s stages and outdoors to create a hybrid form.

A group of hardcore environmental defenders and social inequality fighters set out to recruit us to their cause (Ilias Adam, "We Are in the Army Now", April 10). An iceberg melts above our heads (Vicky Kyriakoulakou, “The Art of War”, April 11). Four scientists investigate the question: “Where did all the babies go?” (Dimitris Bampilis, “Babybird Babybird”, April 17). The Onassis Stegi Main Stage is transformed into a nightclub for the new species now being born (Eva Giannakopoulou, “Kin Baby”, April 18). Filmmaker Alkis Papastathopoulos directs Ilias Adam’s "We Are in the Army Now" and Eva Giannakopoulou’s "Kin Baby" for the Onassis Foundation YouTube Channel. Papastathopoulos has garnered awards for the “Gomenaki” music video, and has won the HBO Europe prize for best television project at the Midpoint TV Launch for “Sleepover”, which was also selected by the Sundance Institute for its YouTube New Voices Lab. Panagiotis Kostouros, a filmmaker with major short films under his belt who has worked both in Greece and beyond, took on the cinematic version of Vicky Kyriakoulakou’s "The Art of War". Christos Sarris, a director who has worked on international projects, is the Head Creative at the Onassis Foundation, and created the STAGES A/LIVE concert series among other things, directs Dimitris Bampilis’ "Babybird Babybird". Last but not least, FUTURE N.O.W. presents the video documentation of an international online forum and workshop for specialists in, and lovers of new dramaturgical approaches held in November 2020 and titled DRAMATURGY NOW, as well as a disruptive discussion with the festival’s participating directors – titled “Theater Futures as Present Realities” – that gives voice to the thoughts and concerns of young artists. The future is here, now, in Neos Kosmos – the “new world” – and all around the world thanks to the online YouTube platform, in the hope that we will all soon meet again inside theaters.

    Image 1 / 4

    Photo: Pinelopi Gerasimou

    Elias Adam: "We are in the Army Now"

    Image 2 / 4

    Photo: Andreas Simopoulos

    Vicky Kyriakoulakou: "The Art of War"

    Image 3 / 4

    Photo: Andreas Simopoulos

    Dimitris Bampilis: "Babybird Babybird"

    Image 4 / 4

    Photo: Andreas Simopoulos

    Eva Giannakopoulou: "Kin Baby"

Curatorial note

Future Ι: The world has changed – but theater already knew that

Here we are. In the wake of a new world order. With artists turning their gaze to city streets, social uprisings, and environmental catastrophes; to ruling culture and the speeches made by those in power. The art they make is not limited to their four walls. They know Instagram is no less public a space than Syntagma Square. That Steve Jobs is as influential as Bertolt Brecht. Living with the problem means inventing new artistic protocols in order to face and/or overcome it.

Everything began with an open call last March for new original works that would seize the explosive present moment (FUTURE N.O.W. = New Original Works). Hundreds of submissions were considered. Taking the pulse of both the people around us and the present day, we decided on the joint presentation of four works in order to highlight their interconnections. In addition to this, a series of research and development grants are set to inspire a new round of proposals for works to be presented in the future. Last but not least, we convened a workshop for collective reflection.We set ourselves up as an experiment. An interim community – consisting of the four artists and their collaborators, our visiting dramaturg Manolis Tsipos, and the Onassis Stegi team – that thought things through and worked together, exchanging ideas and practices. In startling meetings – with historians, poets, social anthropologists, activists, geneticists, journalists, midwives, and even passers-by. Sometimes individually, sometimes as a collective. At Onassis Stegi – but also at the Victoria Square Project, APARÄMILLON, the VOTANIKOS Live Stage, Neos Kosmos cafés, and even at the top of Mount Parnitha. Always in line with the Latin motto “Simul et singulis” that adorns the crest of the Comédie-Française theater: “Be Together and Be Yourself”.

The works that sprang from this process were written and developed in the midst of the pandemic. We will never know how they would have turned out had Covid-19 not struck. Had it not forced us to kiss the 21st-century we knew goodbye and open ourselves up to this transformative and tumultuous moment in time.

The future has become the present. Let us state, here and now, loud and clear: it is not unlivable. And let us decipher it. Just as theater has already begun to do.
— Iliana Dimadi

Performances

These productions will be available to view on the Onassis Channel on YouTube until May 9, 2021.

Discussion

Open call

Workshop

Credits

  • Concept & Design

    Iliana Dimadi

  • Cocurator

    Konstantinos Tzathas

  • Production Management

    Dimitra Dernikou, Vassilis Panagiotakopoulos

  • Technical Manager

    Lefteris Karabilas, Phil Hills

  • Consultant to Dramaturgy

    Manolis Tsipos

  • Line Production

    Despina Sifniadou, Irilena Tsami, Nikitas Vassilakis

  • Open Call evaluation

    Iliana Dimadi, Christos Carras, Christina Liata, Konstantinos Tzathas, Prodromos Tsiavos

  • Filming Curator

    Christos Sarris

  • Future N.O.W. Festival Commission & Production

    Onassis Stegi

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