Invisible Cities | Performance installation

Mariza Pagkaki

Lydia Kontogiorgi

Uncanny installation | Small worlds made out of collage

Collage, urban landscape of the immigrants and the Uncanny theory are the three basic elements of this project. My team and I, proposed the idea of the "experiential collage" as a picture that comes from the composition of fragmentary realities that we located in the modern urban environment of Athens. The significance of experiential collage results from the experiential relation of the flaneur, with multicultural Athens and the sentiments that one feels that are relevant to the Uncanny theory of Freud. Confusion, disorientation and loss of personal identity are some characteristics that one could feel as he/she walks in Athens.

Our purpose was to create an installation in the first work-site of Attic underground in Gazi, a multicultural neighbourhood of Athens. We were inspired by the phenomenon of multiculturalism in Athens 2008.

Demi Arpatzi
Mariza Galani
Lydia Kontogiorgi
Mariza Pagkaki

Tracking Shot | Cinematic Theatrical Performance

The Tracking Shot (2010) is a cinematic theatre piece that took place in Polverigi, Italy. The story is about an Italian actress who is dying and meets with an old friend, which is the director, and asks him as her last wish to reedit the final scene and change the end of a movie that they had done in the past. The play is their journey through the actress’ career and her collaborations with all those famous directors (Bertolucci, Fellini, Bergman, Godard, Lynch, and Hitchcock) that she worked with. This visual venture is a literal journey through her memories as the viewers are in a moving auditorium. More specifically, only six people can experience this journey because they are in a moving truck. The truck is completely dark and only at the front side there is a hole which is the frame through they can watch the performance.

(David Lynch scene)

Αgain | Short film

“Again” is a short experimental film, influenced by Dadaism and based on ordinary people’s everyday life. This film is actually a description of people’s microcosm who although they have plenty of choices they choose to be trapped in their own routine. In other words, people nowadays instead of living, choosing, deciding and doing whatever they want, they daily keep choosing to do the same movements, to have the same thoughts, to say the same words, to use the same meaningless-materialistic objects and to walk on the same roads.

In order to emphasize on people’s choices we use the element of the road. More specifically, in this film the road that a person walks on symbolize the choice that he makes. Most of the scenes of the film are taking place in a house which is transformed into an installation of roads. The set gives the sense of a labyrinth where 5 performers are wandering in it as they are doing the same, everyday actions, like robots. In order to emphasize on those habits that people have, some of the objects that the performers use are not real objects but a surreal, exaggerated simulation of them.

Εμιγκρέδες

"Εμιγκρέδες", σε σκηνοθεσία Μαρίας Βαρδάκα

Βοηθός σκηνογράφου (Σοφία Παντουβάκη)

Απόψε αυτοσχεδιάζουμε

"Απόψε αυτοσχεδιάζουμε", σε σκηνοθεσία Περικλή Μουστάκη

Βοηθός σκηνογράφου (Άγγελος Αγγελή)

Rue Madame

Directed by Lydia Kontogiorgi and Mariza Pagkaki

Flaneur

Site specific project

This site specific installation was placed on the exterior staircases of the building by Rosebery Avenue at number 20-24 in central London, EC1. The building used to be a printing company from 1877 till early 20th century. Later on part of the building was used as offices by an architectural company. In 2006, the landlord decided to renovate it but the architectural plans were never realized as he went bankrupted and the building is abandoned since then. The exterior staircases are the only part of the building which still have the same use and structure as many people use them to go from Warner Street to Rosebery Avenue and vice versa.

Inspired from the history of the building and more specifically the staircases themselves, we constructed fake additional staircases made out of cardboard so as to create an illusive, Escher inspired, exaggeration of the real staircases. In order to emphasize on the fact that the building was a printing company, we decided to use the most common sentence in the printing process, the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

The actual site specific project was consisted of the fake staircases, four live performers and sound. The performers were silent and were doing non-complex rigid movements. They were identical looking so as to emphasize on the illusive element. They were all dressed in black (top, trousers and shoes) and they were all sharing the same hairstyle.

The sound was relevant to the aspects of the history of the building such as typewriter, printing machines and footsteps. The performers were carrying small devices that were reproducing those sounds and whenever the audience was passing by them, they could hear them.

This project was a collaboration of five students of (in alphabetical order):
Nicole Hoesli
Maria Kelesidi
Lydia Kontogiorgi
ShunYo Mo
Mariza Pagkaki

Athens' congestion