On the road to Colonus | School Visits

Having previously represented Greece in the 59th Venice Biennale, Loukia Alavanou creates a virtual reality installation in which the viewer encounters residents of the Nea Zoi settlement in Aspropyrgos enacting roles from the famous work by Sophocles in a digital projection that seamlessly weaves past, present, and future together.

Following the route of Oedipus from Thebes to Colonus, the artist traces common elements between the course of the tragic hero and the Roma community, which re-settled in the said area during the 1980s. Thebes as a starting point, the effort to be incorporated and integrated within society, and the toponym of the Nea Zoi settlement (i.e., “New Life”) are a few of the parallels annotated during the film, inviting the viewer to reflect on contemporary issues.

Notions of human dignity, universal freedom, aging, and death are being probed within Loukia Alavanou’s installation and engage the audience in broader queries around displacement, immigration, and human rights.

Through the theatrical atmosphere of the exhibition space, virtual reality technology, and the ergonomic posture chairs designed by Takis Zenetos, the students will witness a singular viewing experience. The 360-degree spectrum of the film is further enhanced by directional sound sources and the unrestrained movement of the specially designed chairs, offering an adventurous journey within a digital composition of fiction and reality.

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Conditions of participation

Priority order is followed.
All participating students must be over 13 years of age.
Up to 32 people (students and accompanying teachers) may participate in each visit.
Accompanying teachers need to present the students' consent forms in paper form, signed by the students' legal guardians.
Accompanying teachers will be given a separate form, which they must present in printed form.
The consent forms and any additional information will be given to the interested parties via electronic mail.