Participatory performance, 2023
Duration: 20 min
Concept, directed by: VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis)
Performed by: Afroditi Afentaki, Eleni Tsigonia, Maria Triviza, VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis)
Texts by: Yannis Ritsos, folk songs and stories
It was no accident that Marpissa preferred Ida over Apollo…* Marpissa and other stories is a participatory performance that came as the result of a three-day workshop with members of the Women’s Association of Marpissa in Paros. During the workshop we collectively explored the intermediate narrative space between fiction and personal experience. The resulting hybrid material is organised as a representation, inspired also by the rich tradition of the “Performances” of Christ’s Passion, in order to attempt a public presentation-narrative. We revisit and retell the myth(s) of Marpissa, enriching the material with personal stories and narratives, as well as with rumours and gossip from stories that we have heard and want to share. We create hybrid stories, somewhere in the intermediate space between personal and public, using perhaps the myths of Marpissa as a mask. We are inspired with respect and love by the rich tradition of the “Performances”, and we structure our stories to give a quick and compelling public presentation-narrative.
* The line “It was no coincidence that Marpessa preferred Ida over Apollo” comes from Yannis Ritsos’ poem “Marpessa’s Choice”, 1968
Presented at the exhibition of contemporary art “What is born out of the ground? The stones are burning in July, my eyes are burning too”, curated by Despina Zefkili, in the framework of the festival Routes in Marpissa: In Between, Paros, Greece.
VASKOS 