LANDSCAPE | Elena Antoniou

Poet Charles Wright characteristically notes, “All landscapes are autobiographical.” In “LANDSCAPE,” Elena Antoniou treats her body as a landscape.

In his notes to the performer, dramaturge Odysseas I. Konstantinou writes: “You stick your butt out, you deliver your most erotic moves, you breathe, you get tired. And you are being seen and observed. And you want to be seen. And you want to be observed. And you expose yourself. And you have asked to be exposed. And that’s how you give what you got, your body, primarily as something sexual. You have conceived this performance and you are going through it. You think you are the one completing it, but you are not.”

Indeed, the gaze of each viewer/observer and, respectively, the proximity or distance from which they choose to observe the body/spectacle of Elena Antoniou are the elements that complete the work. She unapologetically offers herself towards the disclosure of personal experience as a collective landscape. She joyously overexposes the female body and challenges the outer limits of spectacle by skillfully inviting and provoking the viewer’s gaze. She instigates the space for the political body to present itself as deeply traumatized but also unabashedly sexual.

• Just as “all landscapes are autobiographical,” so is “LANDSCAPE,” Elena Antoniou’s third in a row work, following “MAINSTAGE” (Onassis Stegi, 2019) and “WISH” (Nicosia International Dance Festival, 2021), where she tauntingly reflects as a female-creator on the interaction with the patriarchic culture of 21st century.
• “Our body is a wounded and grieving landscape. History has shown that grief begets revolution. And revolution begets change. Let our grieving bodies and hollow gazes become a locus of revolution.” Νotes by Odysseas I. Konstantinou (aka ody icons), dramaturge of “LANDSCAPE,” who has appeared as a creator-performer at the Onassis New Choreographers Festival in the past with the digital project “YES HALLO HI” (2021).
• In addition to being a choreographer and dancer, Elena Antoniou also offers expertise in movement direction for many theatrical productions, most recently the Cyprus Theatre Organisation ’s production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” by Tennessee Williams, directed by Paris Erotokritou.