Argyro Chioti
VASISTAS theatre group
“No man is an island entire of itself”
Five rooms | A wander
May 22, 23, 24 online live streaming performance in the website of EMST, in the framework of the International Museum Day 2020
End of June at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST), as a live-art piece.
Online live streaming performance
22-23-24 May, through the website of EMST
Time: 21.00 (duration 60 minutes)
Ticket price: 6€
“No man is an island entire of itself”, a new work by Argyro Chioti and VASISTAS theatre group, is a performance-invitation to a mental wandering and an imaginary stimulation, that will be presented at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST) in two formats. The first version will be presented online and live streaming at the museum’s website on 22, 23, 24 May, in the framework of the International Museum Day 2020. An unusual and uncharted theatrical experience that draws on material from the digital world, which imposes its own distinct logic and an uncanny scenic experience. The second version, at the end of June, as a live-art performance in the museum’s building with the actors present, if the circumstances allow so, one of the first events after its highly anticipated reopening.
Five rooms. A wander. During the online performance, five actors are in their own space and communicate with each other through a digital platform. The spectators in front of their screens are guided by a woman’s voice and follow instructions and exhortations through their headphones, entering deeper and deeper in their mental wandering, in a series of absurd, dream-like rooms. Through the poetic encounters with these five people, in their course from one room to another, they are invited to join in a personal, transcendental and meditative experience.
With light creating the setting and architecture, with intense audiovisual stimulation, with highly poetic text, a composition of literature excerpts and material devised during the rehearsals, the spectators observe the reality getting distorted and their perception gradually broadening. Each one will experience a lone journey towards a personal utopia.
* The title of the performance comes from the poem Meditation XVII (1624), by John Donne.
Director’s note
“Last March, we started working on a new performance about isolation and life in an innermost world. An experiential installation-performance, each time for limited spectators, in a non-theatrical space. At the beginning of our rehearsals, the rapid events led us to an actual isolation. We decided to keep working, confined in our houses, with a daily encounter in front of our computer screens.
We composed, in this way, a wandering performance, which functions as a personal meditative journey. A song that leads the spectators to a mental elusion and reconnection, beyond the borders of physical confinement.
We do not believe that a digital performance can be compared or replace a live spectacle and its direct communication between actors and the audience. It suggests, though, a new scenic experience that can only add to the performance in the actual space that will follow. We invite the spectators to attend both the digital and the live performance, and take note of the distinct nature of these two experiences”.
Directed by: Argyro Chioti
Dramaturgy: Efthimis Theou, Argyro Chioti
Music/Sound design: Jan Van de Engel
Visual associate: Babis Makridis
Lighting design: Tasos Palaioroutas
Assistant director: Katerina Kotsou
Production: Stefanos Skoulikaris
Technical support: Manos Melissotis – AVolution AUDIOVISUAL
Performers: Georgina Chryskioti, Eirini Koubarouli, Ektoras Liatsos, Rita Litou, Kostas Sevdalis
No man is an island entire of itself
Online live streaming performance
22-23-24 May, through the website of EMST
Time: 21.00 (duration 60 minutes)
Ticket price: 6€
Ticket purchase: https://www.viva.gr/tickets/theater/online/no-man-is-an-island-entire-of-itself/
Note: The spectators can buy their tickets through the Viva website. Then, on the day of the performance, they will receive an email with a link they can use to watch the play.
In case of technical problems or questions, please send an email to: Vasistas.tech.supp@gmail.com
We advise the spectators to watch the performance in an environment that supports the meditative submersion the play attempts: in a dark silent room, on a large screen (and not a cell phone), and using headphones that will enhance its elaborate soundscape.
The piece will be performed in Greek. In its future presentations, English subtitles will also be available.
More information about the performance No man is an island entire of itself at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens in June will soon be announced, in accordance with all safety precautions and new relevant regulations.
Photograph: Babis Makridis
www.vas.eu.com | info@vas.eu.com
https://www.facebook.com/vasistastheatregroup/
Argyro Chioti and VASISTAS theatre group
Argyro was born in Athens. She works in Greece and France as stage director and actress. In 2005 she cofounded VASISTAS theatre group. She searches for scenic forms that look towards poetry, with intense chorality and physicality. Searching for dramaturgies that are not defined by a text-based logic or in a linear story-telling, she orchestrates «moving images» in detail, creating a rhythm for an experience, something like a music choreography in present time. The general thematic field of most of her creations is the human being and his leaving into a specific social frame. She graduated as an actress from drama school “Morfes” of theatre Embros (2000) in Athens. She has a master on stage directing and dramaturgy and a bachelors degree of theatrical studies in Provence University in France (2006). In 2013 she was awarded with “Eleftheria Sapoutzi” award for her artistic work. VASISTAS theatre group received for Spectacle the honors distinction of National Association of Critics of theatre and music, (for innovating theatre play) (December 2011).
Argyro Chioti is teaching acting and stage directing in many workshops and/or drama schools (ERAC – Cannes/Marseille, Kalamata International Summer School, Bios Athens, Provence University, Piraikos sindesmos, Akropoditi dance festival…).
Stage directions of Argyro Chioti:
Eau de Cologne, by Efthimis Filippou, National Theatre in Greece, premiere on the 29th November 2019 (till 12 January 2020)
The Libation Bearers, 2018
(Athens & Epidaurus Festival in co-production with Kavala’s Municipality theatre)
Premiere in Epidaurus small theatre -6&7 July
Ancient theatre of Filippoi, 14 July 2018
Rematia theatre/Athens 10 September 2018
Vrahon theatre Athens 17 September 2018
Petras theatre Athens 23 September 2018
Lavrio, attiki, 28 September 2018
The Divine Comedy, 2017 Onassis Cultrual Centre production (Athens) in co-production with Gymnase-Bernardines theatre (Marseille)
Onassis Cultural Cetre (April 2017)
Dimitria Festival, Thessaloniki, (Sept.2017)
Festival Les Vagamondes – Mulhouse (Jan. 2018)
Festival Parallèle 08 Festival, Marseille (Feb. 2018)
Apologies 4&5, 2016 (Athens & Epidaurus festival)
Festival of Athens, (June 2016)
Parallele -7 Festival, Bernardines th. Marseille (Jan 2017)
Comedie de Reims, Reims, (Feb.2017)
Theatre de la Bastille, Paris (May 2017)
SKG Bridges Festival, Museum of modern art, Thessaloniki (May 2018)
St.Paul’s Anglican Church, Sintagma, Athens (February 2019)
BLOODS (Emata), 2014 (Onassis Cultural Centre production)
Onassis Cultural Centre (October 2014)
Patras municipal theatre (April 2015)
Theatre de la Ville, Paris (June 2015)
Dimitria Festival, Thessaloniki (September 2015)
Parallele -6 Festival, Jeu de Paume th., Aix en Provence (Jan. 2016)
Comedie de Reims, France (February 2016)
Domino, 2013 –on tour–
Premiere on the roof of the French institute in Greece (Sept.2013)
First version presented in MIRfestival, Athens (December 2012)
Festival Parallele 04, Theatre de la Jolliette, Marseille (Jan. 2014)
Latitudes Contemporaines, Lille (July 2014)
Elaiourgeio, Eleusina (July 2014)
Le Phenix, Valenciennes (November 2014)
La Villette, Paris (March 2015)
Les scenes du Jura, France (May 2015)
Culture O Centre, Abbay de Noirlac, France (Oct. 2015)
Theatre Roes, Res Ratio Network, Athens (Nov. 2015)
Comedie de Reims, France (Feb.2016)
Spectacle, 2011
Premiere in Athens Festival 2011 in the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST, June 2011)
IETM meeting in Greece, Romantso (November 2013)
Bios, Athens (November 2011)
Theatre of Bernardines, Marseille (December 2011)
Résidence of création in La Caldera, Barcelona (May 2011)
Vasistas received for “Spectacle” the honors distinction of National Association of Critics of theatre and music, (for innovating theatre play). (December 2011).
Phobia: a spectacle, 2010
Co-production with the National Theatre of Athens.
Creation steps: Phobia: 1 in Berlin, Phobia: 2 in Santorini, Greece, Phobia: 3 in Marseille, in the space L’ Eolienne and in collaboration with Les Bernardines Theatre.
Contemporary Theatre of Athens (National Theatre), Athens, (May 2010)
Silence, 2008-09
104 Center of Art, Athens, (December 2008 and October 2009)
L’Eolienne, Marseille (December 2008)
Croatia (Dubrovnic, Split, Zadar) (June 2009)
Santorini, Boutari’s amphitheater, Greece (February 2010)
Les Bernardines Theater, Marseille (March 2010)
Little Red Riding Hood-me and my wolf, 2007-08
Bios, Athens (April 2008)
Le Point de Bascule, Marseille (June 2007)
‘Informelles’ of ‘Les Bernardines’, Marseille (October 2007)
‘Amore Theatre’, Athens (May 2007)
Get over it (Faedras), 2006-07
Theatre Comedia, Aubagne (January 2008)
Le point de bascule, Marseille (June 2007)
La Distillerie, Aubagne (February 2006)
Bios, Athens (June 2006)
Le Point de Bascule, Marseille (October 2006)
Festival //01, Vitez Theatre, Aix en Provence (November 2006)
Other collaborations:
Faust by Goethe (for the National Theatre of Greece, experimental project of collective direction – Blitz, A.Xafis, V.Mavrogeorgiou, G.Gallos and Argyro Chioti) (2008-2009)
Kassandra by Benedetto Marcello (cantata with the ensemble Latinitas Nostra – Markellos Chrysikopoulos) (2009)
“ARPAGI” Performance in situ: as part of the exhibition of Stefanos Tsivopoulos “Future starts here” in Eleusina (June 2012)
Faethon of Dimitris Dimitriadis | stage reading in the Onassis Cultural Center (October 2013)
This! multimedia performance in collaboration with Via Negativa (Ljubljana, October 2013) Bios cultural center (Athens, 2014).
Different Choises Petros – by Efhtimis Filippou (monologue with piano in Theatre Technis Karolos Koun, October 2016)
Prometheus Desmotes – University production in la Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, with students of the theatre department of Provence University (April 2018)
SPONSORS
The performance is financially supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports
With the support of NEON Organization for Culture and Development
Supporting Creativity