ATHENS
weekly
George Lappas Happy Birthday
One of the 20th century’s most important Greek sculptors, George Lappas, who died this year, is remembered in an arresting exhibition of his ouvre, titled “Happy Birthday”, (from Sept 22-Nov 20), and including recent and largely unknown works at the Benaki Museum in collaboration with the DESTE Foundation. Tickets: €7, (€5 reduced), Vas. Sofias & Koubari 1, tel: 210.367.1000, benaki.gr
Weekly supplement by Insider Publications • www.insider-publications.com • No 116 • Friday, September 23, 2016 The Departed
Orlando
The Threepenny Opera
A tribute to 28 contemporary European artists who are no longer with us. By reconstructing the creative schemes of their social, political, ideological and artistic pursuits, the Departed shows us that their artworks are still very much alive. Entrance €6. Frissiras Museum, Monis Asteriou 3, 210.323.4678, frissirasmuseum.com
Virginia Woolf’s gender-blurring fantasy Orlando is staged from Sept 30-Dec 4 at Skrow Theater. Orlando is a creature without human limitations of old age and death, who begins life as an Elizabethan nobleman and becomes an emancipated modern woman. Tickets €12. Archelaou 5, Pangrati, 210.723.5842, skrowtheater.com
A snarling, sexy beast of a show beamed live to Athens Sept 29 at 9pm from London’s Olivier Theatre, The Threepenny Opera is a vigorous re-boot of avant-garde dramatist Brecht’s darkly comic ballad opera. Athens Concert Hall, Vass. Sophias & Kokkali, megaron.gr (tickets from €15).
Crossing the Human Divide
ART & CULTURE
TV THIS WEEK Hooten & the Lady
We often see pain in images but we cannot feel it, writes Katerina Gregos, in this passionate essay about her new international exhibition “A World Not Ours,” and how it seeks to make the refugee plight more palpable for “the rest of us”. A World Not Ours focuses on the refugee crisis and forced migration by bringing together a group of artists, photographers, filmmakers and activists (such as Pulitzerwinning Reuters’ photographer Yannis Behrakis, Tania Boukal, Róza El-Hassan, Ninar Esber, Mahdi Fleifel and Marina Gioti) who offer different reactions, reflections, and analyses on the subject. The exhibition takes place in a location at the heart of the refugee crisis, largely as a result of the war in Syria. Samos (together with Lesbos and Kos) lies closest to the Turkish coast, and has been at the crux of this humanitarian tragedy that has been played out on the region’s shores. Given the highly-charged location, it is vital that an art exhibition here should address this situation, which has been an unremitting reality on the island, and a pressing, unresolved issue for the whole of Europe. Bringing together diverse practices from installation, performance, photography, film, video and photojournalism, the exhibitors largely transcend one-sided and standardised media representations of the crisis (mostly consisting of rickety boats and images related to the perilous sea crossing) and look into the before and after this dramatic moment. The work on view provides deeper insight into the plight of the refugees, from a humanitarian point of view, acknowledges the complex roots of one of the most pressing issues of our time, while contex-
UPCOMING EVENTS
Music
A World Not Ours runs until October 15 at the Art Space Pythagorion, a new contemporary gallery created by Munich-based Schwarz Foundation. For more information, visit www. schwarzfoundation.com.
A new action adventure drama, starring Michael Landes and Ophelia Lovibond, who travel the world in search for hidden treasures. Saturday at 22.00 on OTE Cinema4.
Wynonna Earp
On the night of her 27th birthday, Wynonna Earp-descendent of the great gunslinger Wyatt Earp-reluctantly returns to her hometown to face her family’s legendary curse. Saturday at 23.00 on OTE Cinema4 Watch FOX and FoxLife on NOVA, OTE TV, Vodafone, CYTA
CINEMA THIS WEEK
Kubo and the Two Strings
A young boy named Kubo must locate a magical suit of armor worn by his late father in order to defeat a vengeful spirit from the past. With Charlize Theron, and Matthew McConaughey.
I.T.
Mike Regan has everything he could ever want, until the relationship with his closest colleague turns nasty, and now his family is under attack via every technological facet of their lives. With Anna Friel and Pierce Brosnan.
Exhibition Giles @ Gagosian Self-reflection and dark humour are to be found in “Giles”: a group exhibition (from Sept 22-Nov 26), inspired by John Barth’s “Giles Goat-Boy,” a 1966 nihilistic comic novel. Gagosian Gallery, Merlin 3, 210.364.0215, gagosian.com
Vinyl is Back Vol. 8 Vinyl fans of all ages can rejoice as one of the capital’s favourite annual festivals returns with Vinyl is Back Vol.8, Sept 23-25, at the Hellenic Motor Museum, Ioulianou 33, 210.940.8717, vinylisback.gr
ART & CULTURE
Encore PIAF!
Missed out on tickets to see the “sold-out” Edith Piaf show? With another new date now added, there’s one more chance to hear the haunting anthems of France’s “Little Sparrow”.
More than five decades after her death, French national treasure Edith Piaf is still selling out concert venues. This time, Piaf, who appeared at Carnegie Hall twice to sold-out crowds during her epic career, is being immortalized in the world-acclaimed tribute concert Piaf! Le Spectacle – fronted by chanteuse Anne Carrere – at Athens’ Herodion Atticus Theater. After strong demand saw the September 28 performance quickly sold out, organ-
ric, prejudice, increasing xenophobia and racism to Europe once again. The question of refugees may be highlypoliticised but it is first and foremost a humanitarian issue. Why, might one ask, should an exhibition address such an unresolved critical issue, which is so highly sensitive and difficult to represent? The answer is that artists and cultural practitioners have a different way of looking into socio and geopolitical catastrophes. Artists not only reveal the predicament, but also point out the myriad subjectivities that get lost in the mainstream narratives. They steer clear of polarising notions of ‘them’ and ‘us’, make us aware of our own predispositions, biases, preconceptions and hopefully guide us to become more open-minded, and less self-contained and secluded. They bring untold stories to life and reveal hidden experiences, subjectivities and narratives. Through their work, we can raise public awareness of the different and less familiar aspects of this humanitarian disaster – the worst since the Second World War – especially as it is experienced today in Greece. As migration will remain one of the pressing issues of our time, with more and more people forced into flight and nomadism for political, economic or environmental reasons, we need to re-consider what it means to co-habit this spherical, increasingly inter-connected planet in terms of mutual hospitality and generosity. The solution cannot be the divisive politics of exclusion. What is needed, ultimately, is empathy: the ability to consider the question ‘what if this were me? How would I react then?’
handicrafts
Comedy
Katerina Vrana: About Sex See Greece’s wickedly funny Queen of Stand-up Katerina Vrana go below the belt in her raunchy English show, “About Sex” on Wednesdays and Sundays at 9.15pm from Sept 28 to Nov 6. Tickets €10, Theatro 104, Evmolpidon 41, Gazi, 210.345.5020, 104.gr
tualising it into the larger global picture. A key idea underlying the exhibition is also that of engendering empathy –perhaps one of the things than can spur us to action. It considers what Susan Sontag has said: that we often see pain in images but we cannot feel it. Therefore it aims to make the whole issue more palpable and tangible for the public. Through their work, the exhibitors provide a reflection on the issues of forced displacement and the experience of homelessness, perpetual insecurity, diasporic identity and existential limbo. The work that is on view is the result of in-depth, long-term research, on-the-ground engagement and first-hand experience. The pieces offer genuine empathy and sincere motivation, as opposed to what has been called ‘poor-nography’: the use of images of poverty and precariousness to create sensational images in the media as well as in art. Many of the exhibition’s participants come from the Middle East or southeastern Europe, from countries that have experienced war, trauma, exodus and perilousness first hand. The controversial deal between the European Union and Turkey that was put into place in March this year (whereby for every Syrian returned to Turkey, the EU will resettle one from a refugee camp there) has seen the numbers of refugees subside. However, this does not mean that the crisis has been resolved, nor that the refugees have stopped crossing to Europe. There may be fewer boats landing on the shores of the Greek islands, but as long as there is war going on, people will continue to risk their lives to leave danger zones and seek out a better and safer future for their families. The refugee crisis has thus become one of the most fundamental political and existential issues of Europe, testing the continent’s attitudes towards human rights, notions of tolerance and peaceful coexistence. The crisis has brought political polarisation, a rise in nationalist rheto-
isers have now added a new date: October 10, at 9.30pm. Piaf! Le Spectacle takes the audience on a rags to riches audio-visual tour of Piaf’s often turbulent and tragic life, starting with her busking for pennies in Montmartre bars and ending with her headlining at Carnegie Hall, New York. Since 2015, the show has toured the world extensively and Carrere has garnered consistently glowing praise for her
confident and ebullient translation of Piaf’s most memorable powerhouses, such as , “Padam, Padam,” “La Foule,” “Non, Je Ne Regrette Rein,” and “Mon Dieu.” The concert cleaves Piaf’s poignant life into two 45-minute acts: The first segment showcases the singer’s bohemian origins during the vivid time of “La Vie en Rose”; while the second half has Carrere dressed in Piaf’s signature black dress to signify her stellar trajectory at this juncture. During the show’s London season earlier this year, The Guardian Newspaper described how Carrere’s soaring performance grows stronger, particularly in the second half. “Carrere’s voice starts to replicate Piaf’s gurgling, growling consonants and hits those thrilling, trilling higher registers,” wrote the reviewer. Any jealous types might want to think twice about taking their men along for the ride though. Carrere, by several accounts, plays Piaf as a man-hungry vamp, wandering around the audience, grabbing men from their seats to dance, and even inviting women to their feet only to leap into their vacant chairs to cuddle up with their husbands. You have been warned! Piaf! Le Spectacle appears October 6 at 21.30 at Herodion Atticus Theater , Dionysiou Areopagitou Tickets range from €2070 (€15 reduced) and can be purchased at www.viva.gr or by calling 13855.
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Poetry in Wood Holley Martlew profiles Nikos Siragas, a craftsman who is keeping Crete’s rich artistic heritage in wood-carving alive. He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and his head is an artisan.He who works with his hands, his head and his heart is an artist. Nikos Siragas, who chisels and coaxes wood into objects large and small, all beautiful and some very clever, is one such artisan whose workshop in the Venetian quarter of Rethymnon is a treasure-trove of hand-carved wooden objects. Mainly self-taught, he inherited a love of wood and working with wood from his grandfather who was a carpenter. At 7, Nikos began to try his hand at woodcarving with his mother’s kitchen knife but only took to wood turning professionally as an adult. The timing was perfect because tourism had just arrived in Crete and he was fortunate that his family home was situated on the newly constructed promenade. His workshop and gallery were 10 metres from the beach and surrounded by hotels and bars. To drum up interest, he began to give evening demonstrations outside, and of course tourists crowded around. Nikos was in business! There is one important factor, however, without which Nikos would not be creating the practical and beautiful things he
does. His raw material is free! He lives on an island where his most important woods grow in the wild -- olive, carob with its reds, greys, whites and twisted grain, mastic root with its dramatic patches of yellow and orange, mulberry, tamarisk, eucalyptus, erica, poplar, pistachio, plane, ficus Benjamin, and fruit trees. I liked the pale white wood from the lemon tree the best. The range of things in his gallery is designed to suit the tourist who wants a pendant or a bottle stopper at a reasonable price and the art lover who is willing to pay for something truly collectable, unusual and beautiful. There are objects which will attract both types of customers. A sailboat. A small mouse with a leather tail. A penguin whose head can be turned up and down and sideways. An innovator, he designed a deep hollowing tool using the head of a ring spanner as a cutter and developed a way to make a wavy rim on a wooden vase. One of the ways he deals with a large crack in a piece of wood is to open it up and thread
leather cord through it. He makes vases from tree roots out of which he gouges the furry interior. This results in exotic spaces in surprising places. Nikos’ most striking vases are made from olive and erica roots which are irregular in shape and inspire him. One sculpture is made out of an olive root and is a satyr with a complete curving horn, a short jagged horn and a wide uneven and sinister mouth! A graceful lily vase is delightfully Art Nouveau. A giant upright snail shell has a man’s head rising out of it. These three pieces are the result of both turning and hand carving and they are truly amazing. His greatest influence? A lifelong study of Greek classical vases. Here’s to unsung craftsmen such as Nikos for reviving and re-interpreting the Cretan tradition of wood-turning. Wood Art - Nikos Siragas, 38 Varda Kallegi Street, Rethymnon Tel: 283.102.3010