Love Solidarity Death (L.S.D.) | The Callas

A band, an arts duo, and brothers of course (in life and on stage), the pair always work together, and always work with their friends, from Greece and beyond, as well as with their relatives. Weaving and embroidering their “flying carpets” are none other than their mother and aunt. And the Callasettes are none other than the women by their sides – their partners, associates, and friends. Their wide-ranging, multiform oeuvre has been presented in New York, London and Paris, as well as in Athens, on Hydra, and in their village – Thermissia – which lies across from the island, on the Peloponnesian coast. It’s there, at their family farm, that they host bacchanalian, communal arts gigs, like their recent 24-hour art event held on June 21, 2022 with the support of Onassis Culture, in anticipation of this Onassis Stegi exhibition.

Twenty years after first appearing on stage, The Callas (Aris and Lakis Ionas) encapsulate their polymorphic presence in the arts scene with “L.S.D.”: a retrospective exhibition/event series, taking place in the future and defined, conceptually and affectively, by the title “Love Solidarity Death (L.S.D.)”.

Founding figures of the Greek DIY scene, musicians, visual artists, performers, publishers, organizers of urban and rural festivals, filmmakers and video creators, welcoming hosts at their own spaces and restless explorers of other places and approaches, ever ingenious and versatilely faithful to a de-developmental artistic experience, standing in solidarity with counter-hegemonic collective practices, The Callas delve into the source materials of their co-animating actions.

At the installations, events, mixes, and happenings of “L.S.D.” we will find, among other things, a largely unregistered archive of collective practices in Greece, as well as the kind of improvised communitarianism that emerged quietly and sensuously in the work of Ionas brothers. Thus, “L.S.D.” puts forth not only an open ecosystem of self-sufficiency, osmotic revisions, and ecstatic knowledge, but mostly a therapeutic, yet uneasy, speculative reality of cosmopolitics.

It’s dawn, you are walking, hugging each other, hungover, over the slabs of Pikionis’ paths, and you sense fragments, thirst, ancient marbles, and Korai coexisting with plastic sewage pipes, cats and oleanders, and the sun always rising behind the crazy old Hymettus (you softly shut your eyes).

Love, Solidarity & Death

-The Callas / Lakis and Aris Ionas, November 2022

Main Lobby Foyer, Exhibition Hall –1, 18:00 – 23:00

18:00 Opening

21:00 Performance Catwalk (20΄)

The Callas performance

The Callasettes, namely Philippa Dimitriadi, Dionysia Bosmi, Anita Polychroni, Lina Rokou, and Daphne Kyriakidou, along with dancers Martha Pasakopoulou, Christina Karagianni, and Angeliki Hatzi, choreographed by Angeliki Hatzi and directed by The Callas, use the exhibition’s facilities as a stage presenting a hybrid catwalk.

Main Lobby Foyer, Exhibition Hall –1, 18:00 – 23:00

Film screenings, Upper Stage, 19:00 – 23:15

The Callas and their friends/ collaborators/ partners, acting as a cinematic guerilla collective, have been presenting handmade, existential, direct, and emotional films for the last ten years, always ending with a comma rather than a full stop.

(All films with subtitles in English)

19:00 | Marble is cut with water (or the crying game), a hi8 film for the Callas by Jackie Lentzou (premiere) (suitable for ages 16 and up)

Runtime: 6´

Written & Directed by Jackie Lentzou

Cast: Sofia Kokkali, Nikolas Papadomichelakis

Cinematography: Konstandinos Koukoulios

Editing & Title Designer: Despina Alexopoulou

Produced by Faye Minopetrou-Kasimati, Nikolas Kouloglou

Lustlands, 2013 (suitable for ages 16 and up)

Runtime: 73´

Written & Directed by The Callas / Lakis and Aris Ionas

Cast: Angeliki Hatzi, Terpsihore Savvala, Anita Polychroni, Aphrodite Psarra, Kostas Varotsos, Ilias Papazaharias, Anastasia Drouza, Dimitris Kotselis

Cinematography: Dimitris Kotselis

Editing: Dimitris Kotselis

Produced by The Studio Art Projects / Velvet Room Projects – Haos film

A film noir under the hot Mediterranean sun.

During midsummer, four female friends leave the city and unemployment behind and find shelter on a seaside farm. Far from tension and trouble the four young friends let themselves free to summer laziness and lust. Male friends from the past invade the girls' lives, teen romances are rekindled, friendships are tested, and long-forgotten secrets resurface as threats.

15’ Break

20:30 | The Great Eastern, 2017 (suitable for ages 16 and up)

Runtime: 83´

Written & Directed by The Callas / Lakis and Aris Ionas

Cast: Iro Sofoulaki, Dimitris Politakis, Katia Dimopoulou, Valisia Odell, Elias Papazacharias

Cinematography: Dimitris Kotselis

Editing: Dimitris Kotselis

Executive Producer: Venia Vergou

Produced by The Studio Art Projects / Velvet Room Projects

Isolation, hope, lust, and darkness. Five people standing like trees are waiting on an isolated island for the ocean liner “The Great Eastern” to pick them up for a journey towards some kind of hope. A tiny butterfly flies between them and everything turns shit.

15’ Break

22:00 | Sick, 2021 (suitable for ages 16 and up)

Runtime: 73´

Written & Directed by The Callas / Lakis and Aris Ionas

Cast: Melia Kreiling, Nikos Zeginoglou

Cinematography: Lakis and Aris Ionas

Editing: Lakis and Aris Ionas, Melina Tavoulari

Produced by The Studio Art Projects / Velvet Room Projects

Main Lobby Foyer, Exhibition Hall –1, 18:00 – 23:00

Admission is free with entrance tickets. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

20:00 | Escape-ism (Ian F. Svenonius), live (30’)

21:30 | The Callas, live and performance with The Callasettes (40΄)

Three new songs by The Callas accompanying the performance

The Callas band members: Aris Ionas, Lakis Ionas, Chrysanthi Tsoukala, Chris Bekiris

The Callas guest members: Marilena Petridou, Kostas Stergiou

Music: The Callas

Performance

Direction: The Callas / Lakis and Aris Ionas

Choreography: Angeliki Hatzi

Dancers: Martha Pasakopoulou, Christina Karagianni, Angeliki Hatzi

Performers: Philippa Dimitriadi, Dionysia Bosmi, Anita Polychroni, Lina Rokou, Daphne Kyriakidou

Sound Engineer: Nikos Triantafyllou

Sound Mix: Iraklis Vlachakis

Main Lobby Foyer, Exhibition Hall –1, 18:00 – 23:00

Admission is free with entrance tickets. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

20:00 | Ian F. Svenonius, talk (30΄)

Talk will be conducted in English, with no Greek translation

21:00 | PapithedogTV, live (30΄)

22:00 | The Callas, live and performance with The Callasettes (40΄)

Three new songs by The Callas accompanying the performance

The Callas performance

The Callas present three new songs and their new collection of handmade knitwear/visual artworks. The Callasettes, namely Philippa Dimitriadi, Dionysia Bosmi, Anita Polychroni, Lina Rokou, and Daphne Kyriakidou, along with dancers Martha Pasakopoulou, Christina Karagianni, and Angeliki Hatzi, choreographed by Angeliki Hatzi and directed by The Callas, use the exhibition’s facilities as a stage presenting a hybrid catwalk.

Ian F. Svenonius (Escape-ism)

Ian Svenonius, through his Radical Elite multifaceted journey in music and books, presents his latest book "Against the Written Word" and talks about the text he has written for the publication "The Callas – Notes on L. S. D." taking the work ‘Punkthenon’ by The Callas as a reference point.

PapithedogTV