DIONISIS KAVALLIERATOS
DISORIENTED DANCE / MISLED PLANET | NEON CITY PROJECT 2020

5 June – 3 July 2020

Curator | Polina Kosmadaki, Art Historian & Curator, Benaki Museum, Athens.

The world-renowned Odeon of Herodes Atticus dominates the western end of the south slope of the Acropolis. The construction of the monument during the 2nd century AD was sponsored by Tiberius Claudius Herod Atticus, in memory of his wife Aspasia Annia Regilla. It hosted mainly musical festivals, seating up to 5,000 spectators. The monument was restored during 1952-1953 using marble from the Dionysus area, and since 1957 it has been the stage for artistic festivals of music, performances of ancient Greek drama, and more. It is the Athens & Epidaurus Festival’s oldest and main performance venue, which, over the years has welcomed some of the world’s greatest stars, boasting names such as Luciano Pavarotti, Frank Sinatra, Nana Mouskouri, Liza Minnelli and Maria Callas among those who have performed there.

More information about the Odeon of Herodes Atticus here.

NEON and the Athens & Epidaurus Festival present the newly commissioned site-specific installation by Greek artist Dionisis Kavallieratos at the Odeon of Herod Atticus, Athens. The exhibition Disoriented dance / Misled planet is part of NEON City Project 2020 and is the first ever contemporary art exhibition to be staged in this ancient venue situated below the Acropolis.

Dionisis Kavallieratos works essentially and systematically as a sculptor. His art describes a harsh and disrupted world of amusing conventions, theatrical absurdity and indifference infused with doses of irony, sarcasm and self-reflexion.

Starting with the religious, physical and socio-political connotations of the circular dance – a ritual but also a motif that is already encountered in prehistoric times – Kavallieratos comments on the importance of community, companionship, friendship, laughter, gestures and physical expression.

Staged in the emblematic Odeon of Herodes Atticus theatre, the exhibition Disoriented dance / Misled planet, curated by Art Historian and Benaki Museum curator, Polina Kosmadaki, is an in-situ installation of a circular dance of statues that develops on the main stage at different heights and scales. The installation of about 40 sculptures made of various materials (copper, clay, resin, wood, mirrors etc.), features a wide range of visual styles. Iconographically, these works are assemblages of formal elements that refer to different eras and cultures, referencing forms from prehistory and antiquity, modern art, dance, mass culture, folk art and more. We come across elements and objects (the Sphinx, Cycladic figurines, animals, fruits and everyday objects) that represent and reinvent characters from the western world such as the vagabond, the slave, the homeless man and the drunkard, while in others the autobiographical references are obvious.

More information about the installation Disoriented dance / Misled planet here.

Installation Views | Photographs © Natalia Tsoukala | Courtesy NEON

KATERINA EVANGELATOS

“This year, the Athens & Epidaurus Festival collaborates with NEON, to create a daring visual and curatorial project. It highlights connections between performing arts and visual arts, while also painting the iconic Odeon of Herodes Atticus in an entirely different, surprising light. It is with great joy that we contribute to this dialogue between contemporary Greek visual art and the Festival audiences through such a ground-breaking collaboration.”

KATERINA EVANGELATOS

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, ATHENS & EPIDAURUS FESTIVAL

ELINA KOUNTOURI

“The seventh City Project commission brings the exhibition of Dionisis Kavallieratos into this, now-millenia-old, landmark of Athenian public space. Disoriented dance / Misled planet introduces visitors to a walking experience that crosses the historic centre of the city, leading them to a preeminent monument of antiquity and an encounter with contemporary art. I am very pleased it takes place now, during the resumption of sociability in the midst of this unprecedented situation, giving us the opportunity to reconnect with our city, to revive citizens’ relationship with contemporary art, and to keep the dialogue with creators alive.”

ELINA KOUNTOURI

DIRECTOR, NEON

POLINA KOSMADAKI

“Set in motion by the installation in the Odeon, the sculptural process, study and ritual, dance and play, is transformed into a “sculptural performance”. The stage of the Odeon allows us not only to visually connect with the work from various vantage points up close and from a distance, but also to participate in it through our presence, among the works. The dialogue between the “classical” monument and the humorous sculptures intensifies the contrasts and the encounters between the ancient ruins and the contemporary fragments.”