Photo: Alina Lefa
Part of: Onassis New Choreographers Festival 8
Dance

ILISSOS / limbo eξótica

Natasha Sarantopoulou

Dates

Tickets

Free admission

Venue

Online, Onassis Stegi

Time & Date

Day
Time
Venue
Day
Saturday
Time
20:00–22:00
Venue
Online

Information

YouTube Premiere

Saturday 20 March

20:00–22:00 (Full program below)

For optimal viewing experience we strongly recommend the use of the YouTube app on mobile phone or tablet in full screen as well as the use of headphones

Introduction

A 3d 360-degree virtual experience along the course of the River Ilissos invites us to look anew at this forgotten waterway in the city of Athens that, though now out of sight, never did stop moving.

Photo: Alina Lefa

The River Ilissos, once a sacred river of Athens, takes the form of a wretched and grotesque deity rising to the surface at points around the city through which it once proudly flowed.

This natural feature of the city – one that has quite literally been driven underground, marginalized and repressed – announces its existence by means of a journey-cum-manifesto.

The Ilissos, described in Plato’s “Phaedrus” as winding through an idyllic landscape, today finds itself paved over, a sewer. On the pretext of public health concerns and the dangerous floods it once caused, the river today flows out of sight. Traces of its storied past still lie intertwined with its present-day state of dereliction. Much as its riverbed was “taken care of”, so too are other things considered “dirty” or “dangerous” in the city – societal groups, practices, habits, and desires that are by turns revealed or hidden away. But they continue to exist.

The stretch of riverbed that lies uncovered beside the Church of Aghia Photini Ilissos (also known as Santa Phopho) is the thread that connects its mystical past with the present.

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“ILISSOS / limbo eξótica” is presented in the form of a digital installation. By means of a pre-recorded 360-degree video journey on YouTube, visitors have the opportunity to wander around a three-dimensional depiction of the installation and enjoy a directed experience of the space. Visitors are able to view all 360 degrees of their surroundings at all times – every second of the video.

The installation consists of an exhibition of photographs and videos depicting the course of the River Ilissos through modern-day Athens and the points where it rises to the surface, as well as a hypothetical depiction of its chthonic, underground existence.
Program

"Axel’s just dreaming", 16’

"YES HALLO HI", 4’

"All she likes is popping bubble wrap", 17’ 37’’

"yaGrid", 10’ 18’’

The Diving Horse and Other Mythologies”, 34’ 54’’

“ILISSOS / limbo eξótica”, 10’ 17’’

Credits

Concept & Performance
Natasha Sarantopoulou
Dramaturgy Consultant
Alexandros Mistriotis
VFX/3D Artist
Aias Kokkalis
Photographer
Alina Lefa
Costume Designers
Dimitra Liakoura, Periklis Pravitas
Wig Construction
Pierre Magendie
Sound Designer
Pavlos Katsivelis
Special thanks
Valina Geropanta, Konstantinos Alketas Ouggrinis, Alexandros Laskaratos, Folia Mpaletou, Christina Marampoutaki, Corto
Production
Cultόpια
All rights related to the monuments visible courtesy of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (law 3028/2002).

The Panathenaic Stadium monument is under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of Modern Cultural and Intangible Cultural Heritage.