Athens & Epidaurus Festival
Open Plan
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This year, for the first time in its history, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival expands its activities throughout the autumn and winter season, introducing a series of research initiatives and collaborations, named after the well-known architectural term Open Plan; a term carrying connotations of open space, flow, freedom of thought and movement. As with open plan spaces, this set of initiatives launched by the Festival suggests a new way of being together, of breaking down boundaries and barriers.
The Festival events under the Open Plan umbrella – workshops, masterclasses, performances, webinars and original artistic works – are addressed both to professional artists and to the public at large, regardless of age.
True to the flexible character of this new project, the majority of the Open Plan events are specially designed to be conducted online, digitally bridging the physical distance that separates us all due to the ongoing pandemic and bringing us all together in a virtual, open space, a terrain of creativity and exchange of ideas.
The Open Plan programme, which is free of charge, fulfils three basic goals that pervade our entire programming. First of all, it gives us a foretaste of the Festival programme that will be realised in the summer of 2021, in the form of two thematic sections that had already been announced in the original 2020 programme, focusing on experimental and electronic music (Chronotopia, held in collaboration with the Berlin-based CTM Festival and Goethe-Institut Athen) and hip hop and street dance culture (Layers of Street). Secondly, the programme brings attention to ancient drama, connecting it with contemporary art and daily practice. Thirdly, Open Plan caters for artists (directors, dancers, actors, choreographers, musicians, dramaturges etc.) and their longing to be active again and hone their tools amid this year’s difficult circumstances. Last but not least, Open Plan is also targeted at a broader audience of all ages, encouraging them to create their own works of art. By eliminating the distance between artists and audiences, by foregrounding creativity and artistic research as fields of expression accessible by everyone, the programme aspires to foster a creatively engaged audience that will jointly shape the Festival’s artistic identity.
These events will be held at Hall B of Peiraios 260, in the process reanimating a venue that has been inactive this year – a largely symbolic gesture for culture professionals, who have been dealt a heavy blow by the pandemic.
Για την υλοποίηση των δράσεων αυτών, ενεργοποιείται ο Χώρος Β της Πειραιώς 260, μια κίνηση συμβολική για τον κόσμο του Πολιτισμού, που έχει πληγεί σοβαρά από την πανδημία.
The Athens & Epidaurus Festival is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Grand Sponsor
Οpen Plan for Artists
Long weekends
Featuring international theatre and dance artists
One of the Festival’s main pursuits is to serve as a model hub of creativity, encouraging Greek theatre and dance artists, regardless of age, to engage with the international stage. This winter, a first, important step in this direction will be taken thanks to a series of intensive masterclasses at Peiraios 260, aimed at Greek performing arts professionals and run by major artists. An individual open call will be published for each of these three-day masterclasses.
Each invited guest will shape the masterclass according to his/her modus operandi and artistic priorities, sharing key aspects of his/her method in regards to the artistic process or facets of his/her research on ongoing artistic projects with the workshop participants (professional actors, directors, choreographers, dramaturges etc.). An invaluable programme for the Greek artistic community, giving theatre and dance professionals the opportunity to meet in person and creatively interact with prestigious international artists.
Long Weekends is due to start in November. The names of the invited guests will be gradually revealed when the individual open calls are published.
Οpen Plan for Artists
Layers of Street
Layers of Street was originally announced last March. A highly original set of events bringing hip hop and street dance culture to the Athens & Epidaurus Festival, Layers of Street aims to familiarise audiences with distinguished dancers in these genres, as well as bringing a whole milieu of artists into dialogue with contemporary theatre and dance. “Layers” refers to the various features of hip hop dance culture, including: Battles, the most fundamental expression of hip hop dance (Athens Festival Urban Dance Contest); live street events in squares and outdoor spaces; and onstage expression through contemporary dance performances at Peiraios 260. In the summer of 2021, spectators will have the opportunity to enjoy these events as part of an enriched, expanded programme that will hopefully appeal to younger audiences especially.
Dance workshop by Kader Attou and Cie Accrorap
A dance workshop led by pioneering French choreographer Kader Attou kicks off Layers of Street. The celebrated choreographer, currently serving as director of Le Centre Chorégraphique National de La Rochelle, will run a five-day technique, improvisation and performance workshop for professional dancers.
A ground-breaking artist, who has popularised hip hop culture in France and around the world, Kader Attou choreographs a one-of-a-kind universe in constant motion, at the crossroads of contemporary dance, hip hop and circus art. Attou, who started out as a dance artist in 1989, represents a new generation of French choreographers who have given hip hop dance an aesthetic dimension, connecting it with the contemporary stage.
In constant search of new encounters, Kader Attou – notably the first director of a French state institution, whose origins are in hip hop culture – has been promoting this choreographic style in France and internationally. His works have been presented around the world, namely in Palestine, Algeria, Lebanon, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba and India.
During the workshop, Kader Attou will be accompanied by Erwan Godard, a dancer of Compagnie Accrorap. Together, the two artists will raise awareness among Greek contemporary dancers about this unique choreographic style, using influences from both hip hop and contemporary dance.
Number of participants: Up to 8
Location: Peiraios 260 – Hall B
Dates: 23 – 27 November 2020
Duration: 3 hours/day
Οpen Plan for Artists
Chronotopia
An Athens Festival collaboration with Berlin’s CTM Festival and Goethe-Institut Athen. Aiming to highlight contemporary experimental and electronic music, the world-famous CTM has been established for the past 21 years as one of the most pioneering Festivals of its kind. This year, CTM will take Peiraios 260 by storm, inviting artists and audiences to participate in workshops, networking events, lectures, concerts and club nights, fostering dialogue between various forms of art and media, and transcending boundaries across musical and aesthetic genres.
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Αντηχήσεις / Echoes
Electronic music composition artistic lab by Akis Sinos and Anke Eckardt
One of the projects originally announced as part of the 2020 Athens & Epidaurus Festival programme, Chronotopia is set to be included in the 2021 programme. Festival audiences will be given an online taste of things to come through an artistic lab aiming to highlight ‘echoes’, i.e. points of connection between past and present music via examinations of pre-modern musical forms and practices, focusing on media-archaeology research and archives. Participants will have the opportunity to conduct research at the Contemporary Music Research Center in Athens. Under the guidance of Greek artist and researcher Akis Sinos and German artist and researcher Anke Eckardt, each participant will be asked to compose an original work of electronic music drawing on archival pieces. The six original sound art pieces will be presented during the 2021 Athens Festival at Peiraios 260.
Number of participants: 6
Location: Online
Time frame: November – December 2020
Οpen Plan for All
Ancient Future Solo
Educational dance programme for adolescents
by Marianna Kavallieratos
What is the meaning of ‘transcendence’? Which actions can be considered heroic? How can faith in an idea and the decision to act affect the body? What is the meaning of ‘responsibility’ and ‘personal cost’? What does the resisting body look like? What does the rebelling body look like? Taking off from Euripides’ Helen and Sophocles’ Antigone, taught at the Gymnasium and Lyceum school curriculum respectively, choreographer Marianna
Kavallieratos will run an introductory workshop on choreography focusing on the creative style of contemporary dance and movement, exclusively addressed to adolescents, who may or may not have a background in dance. The research process and rehearsals, that will be carried out as part of the workshop, to be held at Hall H of Peiraios 260, will focus on the development of personal expression through movement. Adolescent participants will each create his/her own dance character and subsequently compose and perform a solo dance piece. Marianna Kavallieratos will work alongside a theatre researcher with respect to the dramaturgical approach to the texts. Moreover, composer Giorgos Mizithras will compose original music for the pieces that will emerge out of this process. The adolescent participants’ original choreographies will be filmed and presented to the public via the Festival’s official website and social media.
Number of participants: Up to 8
Age: 14 – 17
Place: Peiraios 260 – Hall B
Time frame: October – December 2020
Saturdays 11:00 – 15:00 from 24/10 to 19/12
The initiative is realised as part of the International Network of Ancient Drama of the Ministry of Culture & Sports.
Οpen Plan for All
«Morphés»
Fashion workshop inspired by the mythical form of Iphigenia
by Ioanna Kourbela
