MIR FESTIVAL

περιπέτειες σκηνής / εικόνας

performance / live media / image adventures

greek

PROGRAMME

  • Friday 12/09

    20:00 Exhibition opening
    22:00 Yann Leguay (FR) CuTTer _oFF Sound performance • 45'
    21:00 Angeliki Avgitidou (GR) Recitation Performance • 5'
  • Saturday 13/09

    17:00-22:00 Exhibition
    17:00-22:00 MIRfestival meeting point
    20:00-22:00 Filmscreenings
    19:30 pedestrian (GR) Man[o]euvre Site specific performance • 40'
    21:00 Cristian Chironi (IT) Poster Performance • 25'
    22:00 Free Piece of Tape (GR) Sound performance • 45'
  • Sunday 14/09

    17:00-22:00 Exhibition
    17:00-22:00 MIRfestival meeting point
    20:00-22:00 Filmscreenings
    21:00 Cristian Chironi (IT) Poster Performance • 25'
    21:45 Milena Urgen Koulas (SR/CY) Nothing Performance • 20'
    22:30 MiniMaxiMuM ΙmproVision(GR) Sound performance • 45'
  • Monday 15/09

    17:00-22:00 Exhibition
    17:00-22:00 MIRfestival meeting point
    20:00-22:00 Filmscreenings
    21:00 Milena Urgen Koulas (SR/CY) While walking Performance • 20'
    21:45 Jessica Hénou (FR/GR) Exile 2008 Performance • 35'
    22:30 Marinos Koutsomichalis - Giorgos Poulios (GR) Sound performance • 45'
  • Tuesday 16/09

    17:00-22:00 Exhibition
    17:00-22:00 MIRfestival meeting point
    20:00-22:00 Filmscreenings
    21:45 Jessica Hénou (FR/GR) Exile 2008 Performance • 35'
    22:00 Christos Papakonstantinou (GR) M Sound performance • 20'
    22:30 Mecha/Orga (GR) Sound performance • 40'
  • Wednesday 17/09

    17:00-22:00 Exhibition
    17:00-22:00 MIRfestival meeting point
    20:00-22:00 Filmscreenings
    20:00 eekuipoiz (FR/GR) & Motus Terrae (GR) [non++] Site specific performance • 50'
    21:30 The Spectors (GR) Music performance • 50'
  • Thursday 18/09

    17:00-22:00 Exhibition
    17:00-22:00 MIRfestival meeting point
    20:00-22:00 Filmscreenings
    21:00 21:00 Mala Kline (SI) Début: In memory of coming Performance • 60'
    22:30 Novi_Sad (GR) Sound performance • 45'
  • Friday 19/09

    17:00-22:00 Exhibition
    17:00-22:00 MIRfestival meeting point
    20:00-22:00 Filmscreenings
    21:00 fingersix - Sofia Mavragani (GR) The silence of the parrot Performance • 40'
    22:00 Absent without leave (GR) Misty recollections Sound & video performance • 60'
  • Saturday 20/09

    17:00-22:00 Exhibition
    17:00-22:00 MIRfestival meeting point
    20:00-22:00 Filmscreenings
    20:00 Me of curse (GR) Music performance • 45'
    21:00 Palindrom (GR) Music performance • 45'
    21:00fingersix - Sofia Mavragani (GR) The silence of the parrot Performance • 40'
    22:00 KINE & Queen Makita (GR) Europevessel Afrika Sound & image performance • 40'
Performance/

Cristian Chironi (IT) > Poster
Akis Davis Theatre, 13 & 14.09.2008, 21:00
Football, history and chewing gum: A journey backwards in time through the image. To turn oneself into an image. Poster plays along the border line which covers the relations between body and image, reality and fiction, present and past time, movement and stillness, mass recreation and politics, personal passion and collective memory.
Graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti of Bologna, Cristian Chironi is one of the most important rising visual artists of his city, with a substantial exhibition activity in Italy and abroad. He is engaged in photography, digital imaging, visual performance and video art. His works are characterised by a sarcastic mood and in recent years he often refers to the historical and social aspects of football.
http://cristianchironi.googlepages.com/

Nothing & While walking > Milena Urgen Koulas (SR/CY)
Two kinetic performances by Milena Urgen Koulas (SR/CY), a young dynamic performer who sets on stage the shadows of herself or attempts total exposure.

Milena Urgen Koulas (SR/CY) > Nothing
Akis Davis Theatre, 14.09.2008, 21:45
A dark, inventive performance in the doom light, designed on
a magnificent music piece by Luboš Fišer. Awarded at the Prague New Europe Dance Festival.
Supported by the Ministry of Education of Cyprus.

Milena Urgen Koulas (SR/CY) > While walking
Akis Davis Theatre, 15.09.2008, 21:00

“Disgraced but proud. Vulnerable but powerful. Naked but warm.
Lonely above all”. MU
Supported by the Ministry of Education of Cyprus.

Mala Kline (SI) > Début: In Memory of Coming
Akis Davis Theatre, 18.09.2008, 21:00
Performed by Mala Kline (SI) & Rob M. Hayden (BE)

Νot Mala Kline’s actual “début”, Début is rather the creation of a unique artist, well known as a performer in works by distinguished artists. In a Lynch-like atmosphere with references to Alice in wonderland, a strange happily ending story takes place. Kline takes us on a pathway between worlds and guides us through it, as if through a labyrinth. Live music is performed by Rob M. Hayden, one of Wim Vandekeybus’s closest collaborators.
Mala Kline has worked with Iztok Kovač and Wim Vandekeybus, among others, and, parallel to her career as a performer and choreographer, is finishing her PhD in Philosophy.

Jessica Hénou (FR/GR) > Ages of the world: Exile 2008
Akis Davis Theatre, 15.09.2008, 21:45 & 16.09.2008, 21:00
A narration of five travels becomes a quest of one’s identity.
“My solo performance is a traveller’s journal. France, Portugal, Morocco, Greece: countries in which I lived. Countries in which I liked being a foreigner”. JH

At times moving, at times disruptive, Jessica Hénou’s account can never be indifferent. The narration of five journeys becomes a quest for identity.
A multifaceted personality, Jessica Hénou, who never sits still in one country, besides having danced with important international artists, such s Susan Buirge, and besides teaching contemporary dance, has been the chief editor of a magazine for the performance arts in Lisbon and has realized five distinct projects with her personal creative vehicle, Choroergotaxia.


fingersix - Sofia Mavragani (GR) > The silence of the parrot*
Akis Davis Theatre, 19 & 20.09.2008, 21:00
performed by Pavlina Andriopoulou, Nikoletta Xenariou, Drossos Skotis

An open investigation of the boundaries between human and animal, silence and babbling, aphasia and speech, through a dangerously naive story.
Following her studies at the Dance Academy of Arnhem, Holland, Sofia Mavragani established the international artist network fingersix and came to Greece in order to realize her plans. She has choreographed three performances, of which M, in 2007-8 made the best impression.

The performance The Silence of the Parrot was conceived especially for MIRfestival.


Site specific performances in the pedestrian street/
pedestrian (GR) > Man[o]euvre*
Thessalonikis Pedestrian Walkway, 13.09.2008, 19:30 (Entrance free)

Evening's fall colors
the rainbow in the valley
fades away

Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828)

Director, Choreographer: Marilena Petridou
Music: Nikos Veliotis
Costumes: pedestrian/ Marilena Petridou
Makeup: Sissy Petropoulou
Performers: Iris Karayan, Ioanna Toumbakari
Production: pedestrian

Man[o]euvre is a site-specific performance. It uses movement and the visual element in order to mark a linear journey along the Thessalonikis Pedestrian Street at a specific time of day, the dusk. During the performance, two characters-beings come face to face with their transformations, the immaterial world and themselves.
A linear manoeuvre which borrows images, movements and feelings from the ‘Orient’ as well as the distinctive ambiance of the Kerameikos area, where today’s urban life meets the ancient past.

pedestrian / Marilena Petridou (ZHTA group, YELP) focuses on site-specific projects. Her research field is the perception of space and time, the real/imaginary and metaphysical, and also the humorous aspect of things. She uses movement-voice, sound-music and image in equal proportions. The performers are multifaceted, and their roles-qualities change in response to the requirements.
www.myspace.com/pedestrian_m
www.visualpedestrian.blogspot.com


This work was conceived especially for MIRfestival 2008 and the specific location.


eekuipoiz (FR/GR) & Motus Terrae (GR) > [non++]*
Thessalonikis Pedestrian Walkway, 17.09.2008, 21:00 (Entrance free)
A performance/installation about dialogue opens up into the city in order to observe dialogue from a geographical point of view. The site is Thessalonikis pedestrian street: next to Pireos St., next to the Electric Railway, Keramikos, Petralona, ex-Korean market, Gazi area etc. Like a communication channel or like a junction connecting different city areas. Circus and urban theatre techniques in the contemporary urban landscape.
Eekuipoiz (Christos Kaoukis & Marion Renard) is a Greek-French contemporary circus group, which has developed its own choreographic vocabulary, using dance, theatre, joggler techniques and a virtuosic display.
Motus Terrae has chosen to operate as a core for artistic exploration and production, focusing on artistic expression in urban spaces.
The cooperation of eekuipoiz and Motus Terrae and the urban version of [non++] has been conceived especially for MIRfestival.
Performance with video and experimental sound/
Yann Leguay (FR) < CuTTer oFF
Mir Opening
Melina Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Athens - 12.09.2008, 22:00

Yann Leguay operates on LP’s… He mixes while playing vinyl on two decks, on which he makes cuts by surgical tools connected to sound sensors. An almost acoustic electronica, its sound first building on beats and scratch and then getting lost in the noise of the vinyl destruction.
French Yann Leguay, who has studied sound and performance at the famous National Contemporary Art studio Le Fresnoy and other major educational institutions, and with participations in group shows and festivals in France, Holland, Belgium, Hong Kong, impresses with his bold sound and weird, almost industrial images.

Absent without leave (GR) < Misty recollections
Akis Davis Theatre, 19.09.2008, 22:00

Absent without leave is the personal musical ensemble of Yorgos Mastrokostas, whose sound covers a wide range of post-rock and shoegaze sounds through to ambient and electronica. He has already made a large number of official productions and soon to arrive circulations in several international independent labels. He has participated in many projects in Greece and other countries.
In Misty recollections, Absent without leave attempt to complement sonically and visually the melancholy feeling of dim recollections of abandoned countryside. Misty recollections will be presented at MIRfestival for the first time. Part of the project is a movie by Yorgos Mastrokostas and Eftychia Ramantza, which is integral to the sound.
www.myspace.com/geezertek

KINE&QUEEN MAKITA (GR) < Europevessel Afrika
Akis Davis Theatre, 20.09.2008, 22:00

Since Africa is a vast land, we decide to create a caravan to cross it. The caravan is made up of a series of an heterogeneous mixture: refugees and tourists, merchandise and camels, creoles and Bedouins. From a distance, though, it looks like an uninterrupted unity moving slowly in the desert trying to find its orientation.
Of course nothing is true. In fact we never set off. Moving is always impossible (frustrating). Everything is an invention that feeds our need to listen to the animal buzz, to falsify our origin. Perhaps what we are is rather a crowd wearing blue animal masks, banging pieces of wood on carton boxes, just making noise.

Through this combination of means and materials KINE & QUEEN MAKITA are developing their plans, which they always present in audiovisual performances. Recordings, film, sculpture, computers and analogue projectors, text and music are some of the structural elements selected to support the frame of their constructions, which is supported by the constant repetition of its separate parts.

Europevessel Afrika project takes its new form for MIR and closes this year’s festival.

Sound performances/

Free Piece of Tape (GR)
Akis Davis Theatre, 13.09.2008, 22:00

Free Piece Of Tape were formed in Athens in 2001 by Giorgos Axiotis and Efthimis Theodosis. Their music is based on free improvisation as much as in real-time composition. Their audio arsenal is mainly dominated by analog and electroacoustic instruments, some of them constructed by the group itself. Their primary interest lies in exploring the boundaries of real-time audio performance and at the same time articulating a musical language ranging from freeform drone compositions to dense multi-layered cut-ups. Apart from live performances and the occasional CD-R giveaways, FPOT’s activities also involve an affection for the moving image. These activities range from audio-visual performances/installations/workshops (Synch Festival, Videodance Festival, Strange Screen Festival) to live audio soundtracks for experimental film and dance (Dziga Vertov / Man with a Movie Camera, Stan Brakhage / Dog Star Man, Zita Dance Co / Going Under).
www.freepieceoftape.blogspot.com


MiniMaxiMuM ImproVision (GR)
Akis Davis Theatre, 14.09.2008, 22:30

MiniMaxiMuM is a flexible group of experimentation with natural and electric instruments, prerecorded sounds, objects and images in order to create a cinema-like ambiance. They stage improvisations and produce alternating soundscapes in a narrative flow of sounds and music themes.
Since their inception in 2005, they have appeared under different line-ups with Steve Reid and Κieran Ηebden at House of Art (Athens), the 5th strange screen festival at the Thessaloniki Cinema Museum, at the Βoheme del mar in Ermoupoli, the Yuria festival at the Vinyl Microstore (Athens) and the 5th avant-garde film festival at Cine TRIANON (Athens).
http://www.myspace.com/minimaximumimpro


Marinos Koutsomichalis - Yorgos Poulios (GR)
Akis Davis Theatre, 15.09.2008, 22:00

Marinos Koutsomichalis composes music since 1999. Since then, he has been experimenting constantly in various music styles and genres, from songs to ambient recordings and noise. He works in both improvisation and scored music. He writes for electronic media and acoustic instruments and ensembles. His research mostly focuses on tonal harmony and psychoacoustics. His objective is to achieve expression without formalistic limitations. Besides his music research, he has also worked in photogrpaphy, the cinema, computer graphics and VJing, poetry and literature as well as conceptual art.
www.marinoskoutsomichalis.com

Yorgos Poulios was born in 1984. He lives and works in Athens as assistant tailor. He began his music research in 2003 as a member of various short-lived ensembles, in which he programmed music and played the synthesizers. Seeking a more personal sound, he moved down a more experimental path, working on his own. His work is characterized by vivid textures, noise outbreaks, and grainy clouds, often in a romantic mood. He has also worked for the theatre as a composer and sound designer.
www.myspace.com/amniakosakos

Christos Papakonstantinou (GR)
Akis Davis Theatre, 16.09.2008, 22:00

Christos Papakonstantinou (b. 1966) is a self-taught electric guitarist. He has been working with experimentation and improvisation since 1996. He uses the guitar and everyday objects in different ways in order to create sonic ambiances.
The wind, the fan, kitchen and bathroom appliances, hammers, metal objects are among the tools he uses in combination with his guitar in a playful mood, since it is often fun to use something in a different way than the one in which it was designed to be used, or even to destroy it, abandoning functionality. His influences include rock music, the Aeolian harp, the Fluxus movement, sound art, conceptual art.
He has performed at the Mikro Mousiko Theatro (2002, -3, -4, -5) and Platformes in 2008.

Mecha/Orga (GR)
Akis Davis Theatre, 16.09.2008, 22:30

A project of electronic music… without image! In total darkness, we give our eyes a chance to “rest” from the constant alternation of images and at the same time make Sound an independent protagonist in harmony with the environment. The concept of a stage is discarded and virtuosity becomes secondary so that performers and audience may experience an intense personal experience, free from aesthetic and ideological preconceptions.
“mecha/orga” is a project by Yorgis Sakellariou. In the last five years, he has produced 5 CD’s and performed in concerts and festivals in Greece, Holland, the UK, France, Belgium and Germany.
He has established the experimental music lable Echo Music.
He is member of the Contemporary Music Research Centre and contributes to the magazine Highlights.
www.mecha-orga.com

Novi_Sad (GR)
Akis Davis Theatre, 18.09.2008, 22:30

Novi_sad (Thanasis Kaproulias, b. 1980) is a graduate student from the Economic University of Piraeus. He lives and works in Athens, Greece. Influenced by the pioneers of audio assault, he began generating sounds in 2005. Amplified environmental recordings, drone manipulations, structured ambient soundscapes, microtones vs overtones, all come together in a hyper structure of iconoclastic form. Every sound that occurs is treated with a sculptural integrity and his sonic power operates on a level in which the audience participates as transcendental listeners.
Some of his projects are primarily focused in architectural acoustics and the relationship between architecture and sound.
His debut album “Misguided heart pulses, a hammer, she and the clock” has been critically acclaimed, worldwide. Recently, Novi_sad did a recording session at the prestigious VPRO studios in Amsterdam, for the Dutch National Radio. This work, will be released from Staalplaat [NL] in the “Mort Aux Vaches” series. This is exactly the project Novi_sad will be presenting at MIRfestival. It is an immersive and intense set in absolute darkness, based in source recordings from 3 different continents.
Novi_sad is currently working on a project based on various methods of audio analysis in extremely unique recordings, called “Sirens”. In this project, he explores the aesthetics of information on sound by using quantitative data from major stockmarket crashes in history.



The Spectors (GR)
Thessalonikis pedestrian walkway, 17.09.2008, 21:30

Because of The Spectors’ wish to preserve anonymity, it is difficult if not impossible to compile a bio that is complete and accurate as far as hard facts are concerned. This, together with the obscure nature of the band, makes The Spectors' history more a question of myth than biography.

The Spectors help deal with the confusion of jobs, girls and they make music to come home to and listen to after Stammheim.



Me of Curse (GR)
Thessalonikis pedestrian walkway, 20.09.2008, 20:00

Me of Curse (guitarist and composer in post punk group Victory Collapse) composes and records his songs at home (although he has not released any of the material yet) and is influenced by 60s psychedelia, folk and blues. In MIR Festival he is presenting his songs in an acoustic performance.
www.myspace.com/meofcurse

Palindrom (GR)
Thessalonikis pedestrian walkway, 20.09.2008, 21:00

Palindrom is the project of Dimitris Aronis (guitarist in post rock band modrec) located in Athens.
He started performing in 2006, even though his first songs and recordings are much older. He creates pop songs, singing and playing classic guitar usually mixed with glocks and pianos so sometimes he performs with a little help from Evangelie (piano, vox, glockenspiels) and other friends. Some of the most important gigs took place at small music theatre (Burnt Fest), AN club (supporting Gruff Rhys), European Music Day 2008 (Kinky Kong) and theatre "Roes". Palindrom prepares the recordings of his debut album which is expected in 2009.
www.myspace.com/palindroms

Melina Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Athens


12-20.09 17:00-22:00
Exhibition: Magic moving image

Video installations and interactive works by
Angeliki Avgitidou (GR) *
Bruno Elisabeth (FR)
Yaron Lapid (IL)
Alexandros Mistriotis (GR) *
Kostas Beveratos (GR)
Eleni Panouklia (GR) *
Benjamin Sabatier (FR)
Jacki Storey (UK)
Devis Venturelli (IT)
Personal Cinema & The Erasers (GR)
and Web 2.0 Wants u, a group of online projects proposed
by Daphne Dragona and Ilias Marmaras. Project by:
Second front (Second Life), Nils Andres (DE),
Ubermorgen (ΑΤ/ CH/ US) Alessandro Ludovico (IΤ),
Paolo Cirio (IΤ), Wayne Clements (UK)

Curated by Christiana Galanopoulou

Utopia is for each and every one of us a magic moving image toy.
Although we know they are illusionary, we get trapped in Utopias
like our eyesight gets trapped by these toys. Personal or collective,
Utopias express our hope for something better and at the same
time our awareness of reality.

* Works conceived especially for MIRfestival 2008

Exhibition opening 12.09 20:00

21:00 Visual performance
Recitation < Angeliki Avgitidou (GR)
What is our country?

22:00 Sound & video performance
CuTTer oFF < Yann Leguay (FR)
(more info at the sound performances section)

Opening party @ K44 12.09 23:30

_

Experimental film screenings/

13-20.09 20:00-22:00
Melina Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Athens


Saturday 13.09 & Thursday 18.09

Imprint • 25'

P.O.B. • 2004, 3’, Christopher Steel (UK)
The Market • 2007, 10’, Ana Husman (HR)
I Won’t Let You Down • 2003, 2’, Lea Petrou (GR)
Winning Story • 2008, 3’, Yiorgos Vaviloussakis (GR)
Essay about Wall • 2007, 5’, Castor and Ana Reis (BR)
If I’m scared in the dark, why do my legs turn back to lights which
are blinding me? • 2007, 2’, Joacelio Batista (BR)

Image without mercy • 29'

Over Det Hele • 2008, 6’, Stefan Mylleager (DK)
Live photo II • 2007,15’, Crispin Gurholt (NO)
Unlith • 2007, 8’, Mihai Grecu (FR)

Something bonding us! • 13'

Homage to Leo the Lion • 2007, 2’, Marianne Heske (NO)
Tanakh The Bible Al-Quran • 2007, 4’, Ole Mads Sirks Vevle (NO)
acro-poli / acro-ligo, 10 Cartes Postales • 2007, 7’, Lea Petrou (GR)

Fairytales and nightmares • 45'

Techniques de survie en solitaire • 2008, 7’, Antonin De Bemels (BE)
Slowsand • 2005, 2’, Christophe Beaucourt (FR)
SX80rj • 2007, 5’, Ricardo Mehedff (BR)
Broken Spell • 2007, 4’, Magda Matwiejew (AU)
Inter-est • 2006, 2’, Raffie Davtian (AM)
My doll plays Alice • 2007, 18’, Akrivi Simeonidi (GR)
Body Donation • 2007, 7’, Tassos Langis (GR)

Sunday 14.09 & Saturday 20.09

Like a road movie • 85'

Body • 2006, 4’, Carol Gehring (US)
Cattle Call • 2008, 3’, Matthew Rankin, Michael Maryniuk (CA)
Routes • 2007, 48’, Alex Reuben (UK)
Full Moon • 2000, 2’, Christos Hassapis (GR/ US)
The distance to the sun • 2007, 28, Andrea Dojmi (IT)

Portraits • 37'

Sur La Volonté de Travailler • 2006, 8’, Frederik Jan Depickere (BE)
Chronicles # 1: Wojtek Kotowicz • 2006, 10’, Frederik Jan Depickere (BE)
Avoandar • 2008, 9’, Ricardo Mehedff (BR)
Chalklines • 2007, 10’, Javier Guerra Gómez (GR)

Monday 15.09 & Wednesday 17.09

Special screening • 28'

So you can dance! • 2008, 28’ Stelios Apostolopoulos, Nikos Dagiantas (GR)

Painting by the body • 36'

Entre un œil et l’autre • 2007, 12’, Laetitia Legros (FR)
It’s Me • 2007, 3’, Yu-Chen Chiu (US/TW)
After Dürer • 2007, 7’, Daniel Belton (NZ)
Dis-Oriental • 2008, 6’, Sean O’Brien (AU)
Work in progress • 2005, 2’, Sofi Papadopoulou (GR)
RUSH • 2008, 2’, Anna Dubrovska (LV)
Diva • 2007, 4’, Liz Aggiss (UK)

Body and pain 26'

Home • 2007, 7’, Ronald Chase (US)
Reincrnation • 2008, 5’, Takeshi Kushida (JP)
Impossibilty of living • 2007, 1’, Gerardo Bricout (FR)
Kinderspiele • 2007, 5’, Theodoros Theodoropoulos (GR)
Dada Dum • 2007, 8’, Britt Randle (CA)

Something bonding us! 2 • 16'

The Lunch • 2008, 16, Ana Husman (HR)

Tuesday 16.09 & Friday 19.09

"Le regard" or else "reality" • 69'

Still • 2007, 3’, Yu-Chen Chiu (US/TW)
August • 2004-2007, 15’, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor (RO)
Try Hard Johnny! • 2007, 4’, Valentina Besegher (IT)
The Storehouse • 2007, 24’, Kostas Fakos (GR)
Skull and Blackberries • 2006, 4’, Eric Ostrowski (US)
ON/OFF • 2007, 19’, Irena Skoric (HR)

Shelter • 55'

Star • 2007, 8’, Choi Sai Ho (HK)
Promenade • 2007, 9’, Jun'ichiro Ishii (FR)
Under construction • 2007,10’, Zhenchen Liu (FR)
Untitled • 2008, 2’, Vassilis Kiriakis (GR)
Leaving you • 2007, 5’, Tamara Kapp (DE)
Labyrinth i 471.065 • 2006, 13’, Anna Varouha (GR)
Aeolian Windbag op.75 • 2008, 8’, Nickos Harizanos (GR)