A site specific performance by the Kinitiras Youth group in the Erasmus+ program HERE AND THERE (H.A.T.), performing ecologies

Saturday, October 22 – 17.30

Tositsa and Patision (Pedestrian Street)

In the last months, the program Here and There (H.A.T.), performing ecologies “runs” in Greece and Ireland, with the participation of a total of 22 young people (18-30 years old) from the two countries. It is an original and inclusive Erasmus+ program for the ecology and the climate change, designed and implemented by Kinitiras, with the aim to raise awareness through the performing arts.

The program explores the role of ecology in our lives and empowers the participants through dance and theatre to take action against climate change. Since the beginning of May, the two groups are in full creative process and through experiential workshops from the whole range of performing arts, discussions and research, they create their own performances, which will be presented in Athens and Dublin!

Creating the Greek performance

For H.A.T., Kinitiras is collaborating with the Irish Crooked House Theater Company, based in Newbridge, Ireland. In the week of August 27 to September 4, the artistic exchange of the two groups took place, with the visit of Crooked House in Athens. The participants attended joint workshops, which culminated in a site specific performance in Avyssinia Square, under the guidance of choreographer Aria Boumpaki. The goal of the two groups was from the beginning to raise public awareness on the issues of ecology.

The site specific performance in the streets of the two cities (Athens and Dublin) was from the beginning considered as the best way for the groups to reach the wider public in order to convey their message and to highlight the role of the performing arts in raising awareness and mobilizing the audience. Thus, on October 22nd, the Kinitiras Youth group invites us to the pedestrian street of Tositsa and Patision, in the center of Athens, to present us “PARENTHESIS”, the performance  they created with their own strengths and ideas.

The coordinator of the group, Lia Chamilothori, explains the process followed: “Kinitiras Youth, which constantly renews its members, consists currently, for the Erasmus+ Here and There (H.A.T.) Performing Ecologies program, of ten young people full of concerns and impulse. They met exactly five months ago. This coexistence brought connections, conflicts and fermentations similar to those of another micro-ecosystem. Through sharing and research, these ten young people developed their own micro-ecology within which they observed, inspired and influenced each other. Each and every one brought their own unique characteristics to the group and enthusiastically welcomed those of the others. With a common basis of mutual respect and sharing, Kinitiras Youth investigated sometimes through movement, sometimes theoretically, sometimes playfully and sometimes “seriously” the issue of ecology, which in recent years has caused intense reflection in society as a whole. Coming to the end of this cycle of meetings, the group will present a performance in a well-known street of Athens, to share moments, images and thoughts, with passers-by and friends. We aim to have people from politics and decision-making centers among the public”.

PARENTHESIS in the words of the participants

Welcome to the urban abyss. In the real state of our existence imprisoned between hollow edifices, it despairs at the hearing of future destruction, but a spring is calling. We live (in) consecutive parentheses. In vain (?) we invest in a world whose economic and industrial system poisons every form of life every day. Sometimes with small choices and sometimes with more courageous steps, our relationship with the rescue of the natural works only parenthetically, fragmentarily and faintly.

-The world is being destroyed, what are you going to do?

Parenthetically we build our expectations, we continue to produce, we continue to lead lives with goals and dreams, to use, to discard. What are we waiting for? What are we missing from the big picture? Our parentheses unite repetitively, become vicious circles of experience, distorting filters of our perception: Don’t we see how our way of living destroys life itself?

We want a moment to listen. We are tormented by a simple question: Why do we build monstrous cities? Why are we hysterically consuming natural resources? Why is the balance of supply and use of the natural environment always negative? WE ARE looking for a place.

A place in our attitude towards the impending collapse. We are sure that something has to change. We suffocate at the thought that this may not be enough anymore. We ask you to take a stand. The world will be destroyed, what will you do? The water will run low. The ice will melt. The balance of the weather will be lost. Small organisms that potentially harm humans will become invulnerable, due to the evolutionary advantage offered by the industrial environment. The atmosphere will become too polluted to breathe without a filter. Forests will continue to decrease, mountains will be “eaten” to become building material. We declare to you that the above does not constitute a parenthesis in a biology or environmental study book.

They have already begun to be established/positioned as key elements of the new living framework.

We ask you to move with us. We ask you to get out of the parenthesis. Take a stand.

The H.A.T. program doesn’t end here

The H.A.T. program doesn’t end with this performance. An extensive evaluation process follows through online meetings of the two groups, which will last from November 2022 until the end of April 2023, the results of which will be announced through its official channels. The program aims, through the dissemination of the process and its results, to be a source of inspiration for artistic and educational actions that want to awaken the community regarding the so critical issue of climate change and ecology.

PARENTHESIS

Saturday 22 October 2022 at 17.30 on the pedestrian street of Tositsa and Patision

Participants in the performance (alphabetically): Dafni Douvika Argyropoulou, Stelios Dimopoulos, Katerina Georgakopoulou, Anna Kontogianni, Lydia Kourou, Anastasia Mitropoulou, Makis Nanos, Antonia Orfanou, Despina Papadouli,  Lila Papageorgiou
Group coordination: Lia Chamilothori
Artistic direction of the program: Antigone Gyra, Dimitris Agoras
Photos: Christos Vasakakis
Video: Stefanos Kosmidis / ORKI

Free entrance

You can watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/wSrZaHfNOTo