Onassis AiR Open Day #8

19:00-22:00 [presenting throughout the event]: Natasha Blatsiou [Galaxy Lobby], Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos [Galaxy Corner], Sofia Dona [Galaxy Studio], Pink House Press (Ersi Varveri & Gijs Waterschoot) [Onassis AiR Leontiou], Endi Tupja with Klodiana Millona [Galaxy Space]

• 19:00-19:30 [Onassis AiR Leontiou]: Pink House Press (Ersi Varveri & Gijs Waterschoot) | Discussion with Evita Tsokanta
• 19:30-20:00 [Onassis AiR Atrium]: Panos Fourtoulakis | Live readings
• 20:30-21:00 [Onassis AiR Atrium]: Peter Miller | Live readings
• 21:15-22:00 [Galaxy Corner]: Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos | Presentation

Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos - Margaroni Residency: The Story

Looking back at the history of Margaroni Residency: its initiation, how it was implemented and its prospects. Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos will present audio material, image, and narration to create the outline of their experiences as Onassis AiR fellows.

Natasha Blatsiou - unwritten land

Blatsiou presents excerpts of her ongoing research project unwritten land. An installation of tactile media with digital elements, visuals and sound, shape an intimate portrait of the highlands of Agrafa. Blatsiou’s research explores the relationship of three generations to their land over time and the collective struggle against nature industrialization.

Sofia Dona - Retire

A series of a first collection containing songs, videos, and images about the Athenian ‘retire’ will be presented. The material will include a digitized mini dv from 2007 that shows the deconstruction of a retire – Dona’s studio at the time – located in the commercial triangle of Athens. In the video, the illegal structure of the balcony is being demolished and becomes a stage for concerts.

Open Call: Lift me up from the basements of the heart to the ‘retire’ (penthouse)*
*lyrics from the song ’Στο Ρετιρέ’ (To the Retire) by Fotini Velesiotou

'Retire' project invites you to share visual material (videos, photographs, slides etc.), including personal reminiscences, about Retire (penthouse) flats in Athens! If you would like to contribute with archival material for the research purposes of this project, bring your own visual material (of any format) to the event!

Panos Fourtoulakis - A Time to Remember

Through re-enactment and printed material, Panos Fourtoulakis presents personal testimonies, articles, and fiction written and published by artists, poets and journalists at the time of the AIDS crisis in Greece.

Peter Miller - The Black Ordinary

British-Barbadian writer Peter Miller will be hosting a poetry reading as a part of his ongoing project ‘The Black Ordinary’. Peter will perform works inspired by his research into Afrofuturism. The reading will also include performances from the Athens-based writers Peter has collaborated with during his residency.

Pink House Press (Ersi Varveri & Gijs Waterschoot) - I think I should stay here: Jam session

Pink House press is setting up a temporary kitchen in the atrium of Onassis AiR, where they will be cooking jam on the spot. As a backdrop, they created a tent that will provide shade and serve as an outdoor gathering space. The jam will be distributed during the open day.

Endi Tupja with Klodiana Millona | I had white cotton in my yard, I fed it, I watered it: A polyphony on femaleness and border geographies

Through polyphonic singing sessions, interviews and the transcription and translation of text songs of a group of women singers of the Greek minority in Dervican, a village in the south of Albania bordered with Greece, the project explores how language and music are connected to the territory, to practices of migration and (un)mobility. Bodies are both archives and medium, trajectories interrupted but yet ongoing of preservation and activation.

*Endi Tupja is an Onassis AiR Fellow within the framework of the European Media Art Platform, that is co-funded by the European Union.

A series of events that take place throughout the year, open to the general public. Open Days by Onassis AiR is an opportunity to meet the creators and Onassis AiR Fellows and learn more about their artistic research through short talks, presentations, performances, or screenings that opt to shed light on their projects’ courses. The various Open Days events are formulated according to the artistic practice of the fellows participating every time, making each Open Day utterly unique. At the Onassis AiR Open Days events for the 2023-24 season, artists from all over the world participating in the program will present their work to the public.