The Chorus never pretends

The Athens Epidaurus Festival presents the exhibition Chorus/Chōros, opening on 3 July 2026 at the Festival Exhibition Space of the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.

On 6 August 1879, the inhabitants of Lygourio in Argolis ceded their land to the Archaeological Society at Athens for the purpose of uncovering the archaeological site of the Sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus (Notarial Deed No. 250).

This gathered community of citizens coalesced into a Chorus that would, in time, invite countless other Choruses to the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus.

A long table, chairs, a refrigerator stocked with cold drinking water, and a circular seating arrangement beneath the shade of a tree. The exhibition space is transformed into a welcoming environment, from which new sites of gathering and acts of Chorus emerge.

Moments drawn from circular dances, whether in the village square or within the orchestra of the Ancient Theatre. Community groups in carnival costumes, construction crews building sets for the Epidaurus productions. Videos and photographs, together with archival sound recordings documenting the Chorus in performance, are presented alongside contemporary artworks that reveal another manifestation of the Chorus – one that is living, collective, and profoundly real.

A Chorus of young artists from the Athens School of Fine Arts travels to Epidaurus. They wander through the landscape, meet members of the local community, converse, and listen. Gathered around the communal table, they read, probe, and trace the many functions of the Chorus.

Elders from Susa, Pherae, Thebes, and Athens. Women from Troy, Maenads on Mount Cithaeron, attendants of Creusa, sailors from Salamis, farmers. Assemblies of people – Choruses – who take to the orchestra of Epidaurus this summer become the subject of the exhibition’s communal table: a place for reading, discussion, and exchange with local associations, community groups, and theatre ensembles from the Municipality of Epidaurus.

An exhibition conceived as a generator of hospitality (philoxenia) – a locus for conversation and open dialogue. A living framework, a mechanism where Chorus is continually pollinated.

And let us not forget: everywhere, the Chorus dances.

Credits

Exhibition curator and visual direction Yorgos Sapountzis

Concept Michail Marmarinos, Yorgos Sapountzis

Participating artists
(a group of students from the Athens School of Fine Arts under the supervision of Georgia Sagri, Director of the School’s Performance Art Laboratory) Dioni Arida, Markos Xenarios, Gabriella Elli Roussos, Eva Chileti, Vasileia Argeiti, Nikos Chionidis, Lefteris Xydias, Vasiliki Founda

Editor-in-Chief, Publication and Exhibition Material Despoina Paloglou

Graphic design Thodoris Dimitropoulos Em Kei

Production management – Executive producer Delta Pi

Athens Epidaurus Festival Production Team

Sound archive research Eva Georgousopoulou

Photographic and audiovisual archive research Konstantina Nikolopoulou

Assistant to the curator Sonia Myridou

Production manager Katerina Berdeka

Production Athens Epidaurus Festival

Within the framework of the International Network of Ancient Drama.

Opening Hours

The exhibition follows its own opening schedule, independent of the Festival’s performance calendar.

Tuesday–Thursday: 18:00–21:00
Friday & Saturday: 18:00–01:00

Free admission