Memory as a form of wandering: The multimedia exhibition titled terri(s)tories attempts to narrate the recent history of dance in Athens, the past 15 years (2005-2020), through some examples of artistic spaces, ultimately highlighting nomadism as the dominant element of the dance community.
The advent of the economic crisis in 2008, the December 2008 uprising, the Indignant movement (Aganaktismenoi) in public squares Indignant, the occupation of Embros Theater, the demolition of cultural sites or their commercial exploitation and transformation ―by ironic coincidence― into places of consumption, were only some of the successive and necessary “awakenings” of a society that was about to refute the general climate after the successful organization of the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. At the same time, new spaces emerged despite the aforementioned cracks. These were cultural spaces that renewed that (presumably) necessary turn to a promising future.
A key issue in this research was the “redesign” of the map of the center of Athens, in the context of a review of recent, artistic and non-artistic events; a matter that also led to the investigation of the relationship between urban space and memory. A garage in the heart of Metaxourgeio, a shop in Koukaki and a basement in Vathi square are beingjuxtaposed with landmarks of Dance, such as the Piraeus 260 space of the Athens Festival or the Onassis Stegi, revealing not only the particularities of the era and its cultural manifestations, but mainly the intensity and extent of the artistic practices and contrasts.
From the historically constituted memory to the scattered traces of memory; to the materiality of the spaces that hosted dance actions/performances, the multiple physical and emotional registrations that potentially create a collective experience through which the dance community is formed and rises. In this unique exhibition co-organised by htmylh and the Onassis Foundation Scholars Association, the “exhibits” take the form of maps and oral testimonies, conversing with snapshots of current events, with publications and posters, in a multilayered and open archive of the history of spaces in Athens and, by extension, the history of contemporary Greek dance.
The aim is to imagine the spatial depictions of community as an act of empowerment, against the spirit of our era, that of urban renewal and gentrification which erase our traces.
Co-Organisers: htmylh and the Onassis Foundation Scholars Association
Hosted by: Flux Laboratory Athens
The team:
Anastasios Koukoutas, Dance Theorist / Dramaturgist
Dimitris Mytilinaios, dancer / choreographer / Onassis Foundation scholar
Marina Skoutela, Architect
The exhibition is implemented with the support of Flux Laboratory Athens.
The research on terri(s)stories was funded by the Ministry of Culture and Sports in 2021.
Special thanks to the interviewees:
Katia Arfara, Christiana Galanopoulou, Maria Gorgia, Antigoni Gyra, Penelope Iliaskou, Stathis Livathinos, Kiki Baka, Mariela Nestora, Vassilis Noulas, Margo Perdiki, Costas Tzimoulis, Frosso Trousa, Steriani Tsintziloni
as well as: Athina Delyannis, Hara Syrou, Yannis Nikolaidis, Christina Souyoultzi, Sealed Earth, Rebecca Stamou, EPILOGOS magazine
*Dimitris Mytilinaios is a dance SNF ARTWORKS Fellow
**Anastasio Koukouta was a member for our dance selection committee for the 2nd SNF Artist Fellowship Program