ΕΜΣΤ | The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, in collaboration with the Athens Conservatoire and the Contemporary Music Research Centre (CMRC/KSYME), presents a two-day public programme that coincides with the double exhibition tribute to Iannis Xenakis. Through talks, screenings, concerts, dance performances, discussions and workshops, the programme aims to present the multiple aspects of Xenakis’s work and explore his impact on the diverse disciplines he engaged with.
The event is dedicated to the memory of the composer Haris Xanthoudakis (1950-2023), who collaborated closely with ΕΜΣΤ during the preparation of the exhibitions and who was invited to participate in the present programme.
During the two days, the Museum will operate with extended hours from 11.00 to 22.00, while entry to all exhibitions and events will be free.
The exhibitions for both days will be open from 11.00 to 22.00 (last entry for the public will be at 21.00).
Participation in all events will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
For the workshops, it is necessary to register at learning@emst.gr
Guided tours will be held for a limited number of participants on a first-come, first-served basis.
Coordination: Stamatis Schizakis-Mathilde Skiloyannis
PROGRAMME
SATURDAY 2 DECEMBER
Guided Tour
Makis Solomos
Exhibition Space
Duration: 60’
12:00
Makis Solomos, Professor of Musicology at the University of Paris 8, gives a guided tour of the exhibition Iannis Xenakis: Sonic Odysseys. Through references to images, original scores and the other objects in the exhibition, known and unknown aspects of the life and work of Iannis Xenakis are revealed by a leading expert on his work.
Installation
Presentation of The Hermit by Viron Erol Vert and curator Ioli Tzanetaki
13.00
Project Room 1, 3rd floor
Duration 15’
The Hermit is an immersive, interactive gathering space and listening experience with a nightclub-inspired aesthetic created especially for the museum and is inspired by the work of Iannis Xenakis and the exhibitions at EMΣΤ. Vert’s installation brings together different elements that Xenakis also deployed in his practice, such as architectural models, mathematics, geometric shapes or, the Fibonacci sequence.
Lecture
Katerina Gregos
Iannis Xenakis: A Renaissance man from the future
Auditorium, Mezzanine
Duration: 30’
15.00
Katerina Gregos will position the work and the importance of Xenakis in a wider cultural context proposing an unconventional reading of the creator through an art historical viewpoint.
Book presentation
Theophilos Tramboulis
Polyphonic Rhapsodies and Sonic Odysseys
Auditorium, Mezzanine
Duration 30’
15:30
Theophilos Tramboulis launches the EMΣT publication for the double exhibition tribute to Iannis Xenakis, edited by Katerina Gregos and himself with the scientific contribution of Makis Solomos. The participating authors include Pavlos Antoniadis, Pierre Carré, Katerina Gregos, Dimitris Exarchos, Steven Feld, Benoît Gibson, James Harley, Elisavet Kiourtsoglou, Stella Kourmpana, Studio LABOUR, François-Bernard Mâche, Thierry Maniguet, Katerina Tsioukra, Haris Xanthoudakis, Makis Solomos, Stamatis Schizakis, Mâkhi Xenakis. The book design is by by Dimitra Chrona (Schema).
Dance performances
Lila Zafiropoulou & Corporis Miracula Ensemble
KraanergSpolia23
Various exhibition and public circulation areas
Duration 20’
16:00
Kraanerg (1968-1969) by Iannis Xenakis is a modernist ballet score composed in response to a commission for the inauguration of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada, in 1969. It consists of an electroacoustic composition for strings, woodwinds, and brass instruments, along with a quadraphonic tape. The performance by the Corporis Miracula at EMΣT, choreographed by Lila Zafiropoulou, is an adaptation of the production presented at the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera in 2022. In different areas of the museum, the dancers move around performing fragments -spolia- creating a new composition.
Nefeli Anthidi, Yannis Varsos, Katerina Gerali, Irini Demogianni, Konstantina Kondyli, Vasiliki Koutsilianou, Maria Bosda, Eugenia Economou, Ioanna Ragia, Elli Tsitsipa, Katerina Psaroudaki, Dimitria Filippaki.
Lecture
Elisavet Kiourtsoglou
Iannis Xenakis: Musician or Architect?
Auditorium, Mezzanine
Duration 60’
17:00
Iannis Xenakis incorporated calculations, graphs and graphical representations of diverse mathematical theories in engineering and architecture into his music, opening new horizons in musical composition. At the same time, music entered his drawing board and changed the way he produced architectural forms. In her lecture, the architect Elisavet Kiourtsoglou attempts to refute the separation between architecture and music in the work of Iannis Xenakis.
Dance performances
Lila Zafiropoulou & Corporis Miracula Ensemble
KraanergSpolia23
Various exhibition and public circulation areas throughout the building
Duration 20’
18:00
Screening Programme
Sound, place, architecture. Audiovisual approaches to the work of Iannis Xenakis
Auditorium, Mezzanine
Duration: 90 minutes
19:30
Costas Ferris
Mycenae Polytope by Iannis Xenakis, 1978
16 mm digitized film, colour, with sound
Duration: 32′
Archive of ERT S.A.
The film Mycenae Polytope is one of the few existing recordings of this special Polytope which was a milestone in the career of Iannis Xenakis as well as in the reception of contemporary musical practices in Greece. With shots from the rehearsals, preparations and realisation, as well as commentary by Iannis Xenakis himself, Costas Ferris’ film is an attempt to transfer the Polytope to cinematic time and place.
Stéphane Ghez
The Xenakis Revolution: The Architect of Sound (Xenakis Revolution: Le bâtisseur du son), 2022
Video, color, with sound
Duration: 52′
A Cinétévé production
With the substantial contribution of the composer’s daughter Mâkhi Xenakis, along with the participation of the experts Makis Solomos and Elisavet Kiourtsoglou, as well as of music personalities such as Georges Aperghis, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Michel Tabachnik, this documentary illuminates different aspects of Xenakis’ personality.
SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER
Dance performances
Lila Zafiropoulou & Corporis Miracula Ensemble
KraanergSpolia23
Various exhibition and public circulation areas
Duration 20’
13:30
Guided Tour
Hosted by Makis Solomos
Exhibition Space
Duration: 60’
14:00
Screening
Kraanerg – A tribute to Iannis Xenakis
High resolution digital video, with sound
Duration: 80′
15:00
Lila Zafiropoulou (Choreography), Ensemble Corporis Miracula, Ajtony Csaba (Conductor), Alekos Yannaros (Lighting), Vicki Betsou (Video)
The video is a recording of the tribute to Iannis Xenakis that took place in May 2022 on the alternative stage of the Greek National Opera. Lila Zafiropoulou in collaboration with the Corporis Miracula Ensemble, the Black Page Orchestra, and students of the GNO Professional Dance School and the Athens Conservatoire Professional Dance School, propose a new approach of Xenakis’ modernist ballet score Kraanerg (1968-1969). Conceived in part as a response to the late 1960s student movements, this composition is one of the composer’s rare attempts to combine live music with electroacoustic tape. Its title, Kraanerg, is a composite of two Greek roots (“kraan”, probably deriving from the verb “kraino” that means to perfect, to accomplish sth” and “erg”), which jointly convey the concept of an “accomplished act”.
Discussion
The legacy of UPIC
Auditorium, Mezzanine
Duration: 90’
16:00
UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique Informatique CEMAMu), was a computer system for sound creation and music composition invented by Iannis Xenakis based on the graphic representation of the sound signal. With the UPIC, Xenakis put technology at the service of musical composition through a universal visual language. In the discussion The Legacy of UPIC, users, teachers and historical researchers of UPIC present aspects of its operation, its importance for Greek music composition, the place of UPIC in Iannis Xenakis’s oeuvre, and the current echo of its many years of operation at KSYME (Contemporary Music Research Centre). With the participation of Dimitris Kamarotos, Petros Stergiopoulos, Katerina Tsioukra and Stella Kourmpana.
Book presentation
Mâkhi Xenakis & Makis Solomos
Iannis Xenakis: a moving father (Iannis Xenakis: Un père bouleversant)
Auditorium, Mezzanine
Duration 60’
18:00
Mâkhi Xenakis presents her book Iannis Xenakis: Un père bouleversant. Recently translated into Greek by Alexandria Publications, this book reveals unique information about the life, music and architectural work of Iannis Xenakis. During this presentation, Mâkhi Xenakis, author, daughter of the composer and co-curator of the exhibition Sonic Odysseys will discuss the book with the musicologist Makis Solomos.
Dance performances
Lila Zafiropoulou & Corporis Miracula Ensemble
KraanergSpolia23
Various exhibition and public circulation areas
Duration 20’
19:30
Installation
Presentation of Viron Erol Vert’s The Hermit by curator Ioli Tzanetaki
20.00
Project Room 1, 3rd floor
The Hermit is an immersive, interactive gathering space and listening experience with a nightclub-inspired aesthetic created especially for the museum and is inspired by the work of Iannis Xenakis and the exhibitions at EMΣΤ. Vert’s installation brings together different elements that Xenakis also deployed in his practice, such as architectural models, mathematics, geometric shapes or, the Fibonacci sequence.
Music
Dimitris Kamarotos
Multiconduction-Forms of the dream
Duration: 60’
20:30
Café
Dimitris Kamarotos presents a selection of electronic music compositions that were created with the UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique Informatique CEMAMu) in the workshop of KSYME (Contemporary Music Research Centre), which operated for years in the basement of the house of composer Stefanos Vassiliadis. The presentation includes compositions by Iannis Xenakis, Akis Daoutis, Dimitris Kamarotos, Vassilis Riziotis, Thaurstein Hauksson, Dimitris Karagiorgos, Panagiotis Velianitis, Panagiotis Stamopoulos, Argyris Stamopoulos, Haris Xanthoudakis.
WORKSHOPS
Studio LABOUR
Towards a Contemporary Listening Practice
Duration: 180’
12:00
The workshop is realised in the context of Sonic Activation by Studio LABOUR (Farahnaz Hatam & Colin Hacklander), a project through which the duo investigates and engages architectural spaces through sound. The participants of the workshop create their own sounds with small percussion instruments in a series of exercises introducing them into acoustic space and the already-occurring sounds in the building of EMΣT. The outcome of the workshop is to develop active listening & spatial listening skills in order to enhance daily perceptual experience and foster critical listening skills for sound-related art. The workshop is open to non-musicians and musicians alike, in English. Registration at: learning@emst.gr
Petros Stergiopoulos
From UPIC to modern educational technologies
Duration: 2 hours with a 10 minute break
Education Laboratory – Mezzanine
11:00
A wide range of digital applications owe their origins to UPIC, the computerised musical compositional tool Iannis Xenakis invented. This workshop focuses on selected web applications based on UPIC and highlights its relationship with modern forms of interaction and sound analysis as well as with the educational vision of Iannis Xenakis. Following the presentation, participants will have the opportunity to test digital applications by listening to their experiments on their own devices or on a museum computer. The workshop is open to all – professional musicians and non-musicians alike – with a special focus on educators who would like to explore the role of multimedia in informal learning environments. To attend, registration is required at learning@emst.gr
BIOGRAPHIES
Corporis Miracula Dance Ensemble
Corporis Miracula Dance Ensemble, resident of the Athens Conservatoire, was founded in 2002 by Lila Zafiropoulou and Dimitris Nalbantis as Eldor dance group. They have organized many productions in Greek and international Festivals and have co-produced performances with the Greek National Opera, Theatro Technis, KETOA, the Goethe Institute, Athens School of fine Arts, the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, etc. In the group’s performances, the focus is on live music performance as well as research in the choreographic process.
Katerina Gregos
Katerina Gregos is an art historian, curator and educator. She is currently artistic director of EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens. She has curated numerous large-scale international exhibitions and biennials in several countries including, among others, the 1st Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (LV, 2018); the 5th Thessaloniki Biennial (GR, 2015); the Göteborg International Biennial (SE, 2013), Manifesta 9 (BE, 2012), the 4. Fotofestival Manheim Ludwigshafen Heidelberg (DE, 2011). She has also curated three critically acclaimed national pavilions at the Venice Biennale: Croatia (2019), Belgium (2015) and Denmark (2011). She regularly contributes texts to books, exhibition catalogues, periodicals and artist’s monographs and her work has been published by several major publishers including Yale University Press, Duke University Press, Hatje Cantz, J R Ringier, Phaidon, Mousse and Distanz, among others.
Dimitris Kamarotos
Dimitris Kamarotos is a composer and a musicologist. He studied music in Greece and France, with Emile Damais, Marc Battier, Maurice Jarre, where he attended lectures and met Iannis Xenakis. Worked at IRCAM and the Centre for Contemporary Music Research (KSYME). Became familiar with Polyagogy system (UPIC) in France and participated in the founding of the Centre for Contemporary Music Research as responsible of educational and research programs with UPIC. His music creation expands from electronic, mixed, to instrumental and vocal. He is participating in the development of theatrical dramaturgy through music and sound design. He has collaborated with many Greek and foreign directors in performances presented at the National Theatre, Epidaurus, and international festivals.
Elisavet Kiourtsoglou
Elisavet Kiourtsoglou is an architect. Her Architecture Thesis (Université Paris 8) on the relationship between music and architecture in Xenakis’s work received the Prix de la recherche de l’Académie d’architecture, 2017. She is co-editor, with Angeliki Sioli (TU Delft), of the collective volume The Sound of Architecture: Acoustic Atmospheres in Place (Leuven University Press, 2021), and her study on rhythm and architecture on Xenakis was recently published (Nefeli Editions, 2022). She has taught at a number of French architecture schools and is currently a lecturer in the Department of Culture, Creative Media and Industries at the University of Thessaly (Greece).
Stella Kourmpana
Stella Kourmpana is a Musicologist and curator of the Historical archive of the Athens Conservatoire. She has studied Theatrology and Musicology at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Ionian University (in which she undertook her doctoral thesis titled Aspects of Wagnerism in 19th century Greece). She has published articles on music, opera, theatre and literature in modern Greece. She has taught at the Ionian University (2014-2017) and the University of Ioannina (2019-2021). She is chief editor of Neos Mousikos Hellenomnemon, a periodical dedicated to the research of Art Music in Greece and co-editor of the three-volume History of Music in Modern Greece (Athens Conservatoire, 2022-24). She has curated exhibitions on personalities and events of Greek music history. She is the Vice President of the Greek Branch of IAML (International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres Since April 2023 she is a member of the Administrative Board of KSYME.
Stamatis Schizakis
Stamatis Schizakis is an art historian and a curator. He studied history and theory of art and photography at the University of Derby and art history at Goldsmiths College. He completed his PhD at the University of Sunderland, on the subject of the introduction of new technologies in art in Greece. He has curated the exhibitions Bia Davou, Retrospective (2008) (co-curated with Tina Pandi), George Drivas, (un)documented (2009), Angelo Plessas, The Angelo Foundation: School of Music (2011), Rena Papaspyrou, Photocopies straight through matter (2011), Phoebe Giannisi – TETTIX (2012), PLEXUS Petros Moris – Bia Davou – Efi Spyrou (2015) (co-curated with Tina Pandi), Mikhail Karikis – Because we are together (2023), as well as numerous screening programs. Since 2017, he realises the First and Last and Always Psiloritis Biennale. He is employed at EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens as curator of Photography and New Media.
Mathilde Skiloyannis
Mathilde Skiloyannis is an art historian. She has studied Art History at the Institut Catholique de Paris and holds a research master’s degree in contemporary Art (École Pratique des Hautes Études of the University of Paris Sciences Lettres, 2020) as well as a second master’s degree in Cultural Heritage Management (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2022). She has worked at the Louvre Museum in the mediation and cultural programming department, as well as at the Embassy of Greece in Paris in the Office of Public Diplomacy. She is currently assistant curator at EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens.
Makis Solomos
Makis Solomos, professor of musicology at Paris 8 University and director of the MUSIDANSE research unit, is a specialist in the music of Xenakis. He has published numerous books and articles, organised several colloquia and given lectures around the world, and is vice-president of the Friends of Xenakis. He is also a specialist in contemporary music and is currently working on the ecology of music. His book De la musique au son: l’émergence du son dans la musique des XXe-XXIe siècles has been translated into English (Routledge). Forthcoming from Routledge: Exploring the Ecologies of Music and Sound: The Living World, the Mental and the Social in Today’s Music, Sound Art and Artivisms.
Petros Stergiopoulos
Petros Stergiopoulos is a concert artist and flute professor flute professor. He has designed teaching scenarios, music metadata vocabularies and community building strategies in (ODS 2011, CREATIT 2013, CREATIONS 2015). He has substantially contributed in the design and foundation of the Global Science Opera initiative (GSO 2015). His research is focused in Music through STEAM methodology, enhanced by virtual 3D environments, gesture recognition and multimodal interaction as a means for musical instrument performance and design (iMuSciCA 2019).
Theophilos Tramboulis
Theophilos Tramboulis is a publication editor and a writer. He is serving as a publication advisor at EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens. He has worked as a translator and editor, for exhibition catalogues such as Outlook (2003), the 1st and 2nd Athens Biennale (2007 and 2009), of the Greek participation in Venice Biennale Maria Papadimitriou: AGRIMIKÁ (2015) and others. He has curated and co-curated exhibitions such as Hypnos Project (2016), at the Onassis Stegi, Εncore. New Greek Painting at the Municipal Gallery of Athens (2023). His texts have been published in Greek and international journals.
Katerina Tsioukra
Katerina Tsioukra is a musicologist. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Ionian University and her research interests lie primarily in the area of the post-war music history in Greece. Since 2018 she is collaborating with the Center of Research and Documentation of the Athens Conservatoire. She is a “Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation” scholar.
Haris Xanthoudakis
Haris Xanthoudakis was a composer and a musicologist. He was born in Piraeus in 1950 and died in Athens 2023. He studied composition in Athens (with John A. Papaioannou and Michalis Adamis) and in Paris (with I. Xenakis). He attended courses in linguistics at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (with Andre Martinet), semiotics at the University of Paris 7 (with Julia Kristeva) and Art Theory and History of Art at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (with Hubert Damish); also the seminars in music informatics at the I.N.A./G.R.M. and at the CEMAMu. He studied Greek and English Literature, Music and Aesthetics of the Musical Arts (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Music and Musicology (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and Art History (École du Louvre). He was co-founder, professor and chairman of the Department of Music Studies of the Ionian University (where he also served as Dean and Vice-Rector) and author of studies published in Greek, French, English, German and Russian. His works have been performed on Greek and foreign radio stations and festivals. He was the founder and Director of the Research and Documentation Centre of the Athens Conservatoire.
Mâkhi Xenakis
Mâkhi Xenakis is an illustrator, sculptor and author. In 1988, she received a scholarship to the Villa Médicis in New York, where she had a decisive encounter with the artist Louise Bourgeois. Since then, her work has been regularly exhibited and features in public collections such as the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Manufacture de Sèvres, the Gobelins and the FNAC. Her books are published by Actes Sud. Alongside her own work, she is responsible for disseminating her father’s archives. Her book Iannis Xenakis: un père bouleversant, published in 2015, was recently translated in Greek and published by Alexandria Publications, Athens.
Lila Zafiropoulou
Lila Zafiropoulou is a dancer, choreographer and director of the school of dance at the Athens Conservatoire. She studied in the State School of Dance and the National Conservatory. She continued her studies with a scholarship from the Greek ministry of Culture and the S.S.D. at the Laban Centre in London, where she received her Diploma in Dance Theatre. She has studied with Daniel Lommel, Steve Paxton, Haris Mandafounis, Zouzou Nikoloudi among others. She has received awards as a dancer and choreographer and has toured important dance centres all over the world. She was vice president of the Greek Choreographers Association and member of the Ministry of Culture jury for the professional dance school entrance and diploma exams. She is a member of the International Dance Council and the Athens Conservatoire Musical Society.
Studio LABOUR
Studio LABOUR is the duo of Farahnaz Hatam and Colin Hacklander who create works based on sound. The name LABOUR is inspired in part by an early definition by Marx that gives ontological significance to the realm of work, as articulated by the philosopher Christopher J. Arthurs, defining labour as “the ontologically fundamental productive activity in and through which one becomes what one is.” studio LABOUR is the duo’s creative studio, an extension of their artistic practice for special projects including artistic direction, curation, project coordination, releases and more.
ACCESS
During the two days, the Museum will operate with extended hours from 11.00 to 22.00, while entry to all exhibitions and events will be free.
The exhibitions for both days will be open from 11.00 to 22.00 (last entry for the public will be at 21.00).
For the workshops, it is necessary to register at learning@emst.gr
Guided tours will be held for a limited number of participants on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Museum’s shop will be open on Saturday until 19.00 and on Sunday until 20.00.
COLLABORATION
