good evening
Cyprus the island where I am from
in 2013 weren’t into a very big
financial crisis and the funds for the
Arts were seriously reduced as a
contemporary performance maker this was
a very difficult financial time for me
at a time where I remember myself going
up and down into the kitchen and
thinking what am I going to do what am I
going to do I didn’t know what to do
then I said you know what I’m going to
step out into the city and offer my
services as an artist to society if he
attended I would do what I knew how to
do best performances but then I was
thinking is there a need for my
performances or people want to
experience this is performance a
necessity or a luxury in today’s society
and even more on performances enough
important enough today so this give rise
to a whole artistic project there was a
rather ironic concept that would totally
look and point and focus on the value of
performance today and whether it was
worth anything I decided to create a
performance shop I chose the frame of a
shop as an accessible and familiar
structure recognizable by all and I was
also very attracted to this word shop
because I thought it could really
provoke discussions and open up debates
about different issues like for example
performance as a commodity or the
relationship between performance and
consumption and themes like that so I
was dreaming that we could be for
example practicing performance practices
from day to night in the middle of
everydayness and maybe this could answer
some of these questions so the
performance shop opened in the frame of
the pop-up festival in Nicosia where
they would give different kinds of shots
that were previously closing down by the
crisis two artists who make their art
available for
one month so we would have we were
situated in the middle of the city we
had all sorts of different performances
from performing arts and performance art
and live art in general and all these
performances were listed in the catalog
that looked like a menu so we had
performances as you can see from
different artists on display in the
window of the shop where passers-by
could see it for however long they
wanted to watch this performances that
were usually long durational and it
wasn’t like a theatre that they were sit
and wait for the performance to finish
so they were free to leave whenever we
had performances to order at home or in
our premises and we also had
participatory performances for one
spectator or two spectators or more now
there was a wonderful vibe going on
because people were wondering what is
this extraordinary things happening in
the middle of the ordinary as you can
see here the lovely you repeat is the
Alaska release is in the middle of the
street looking not very normal and then
yeah so people were watching outside
they were watching from inside the
different performances they were
listening more listening and
experiencing in general as well as
participating a lot of participating
somewhat sometimes too much
so this crowd generally it was not the
crowd you would usually have in a
Contemporary Art Gallery or in a theatre
and it was wonderful because some of
them did you know know what performance
is so for us to watch them experience a
whole world being revealed to them and
looking at them experiencing all these
kind of creative practices was wonderful
nevertheless there was a wonderful vibe
but there was a paradox going on we were
offering performances as a product and
at the same time nobody was taking
anything home with them so what exactly
were we offering and was it worth it or
valuable in any way I will show you a
few examples from our performances that
might answer that
question for example this performance
was for one spectator it was called hand
and she would sit on a chair there was a
hole and she would pass her hand through
the hole and reach another body the body
of the performer
now the performer would take this hand
on a journey through touch allowing the
participant to experience different
kinds of body parts and in the end the
participant really get lost like what
body part is what body part and
surrender to this stimulations coming
from the performer on the hand
now participants coming out of this
performance were literally and
emotionally touched and one of them even
confessed to us that he never had so
much concentrated attention given to him
at any time before there’s another one
and this performance skin was a
development of hand
again the participant was blindfolded
and he was taken on a journey this time
by three performers of touch and sound
things like the floor under his feet
would change texture and he would
indulge into playfulness and the joy of
laughing different stuff like that and
then when they were coming out they were
like they wanted to they wanted to meet
the performers because they went through
they shared all this journey but we were
like no you’re not gonna meet them if
you want you can live letters for them
and here’s one it was fun
intense time flew quickly and even time
disappeared or this one thank you I came
in tensed and I’m living happy and
intrigued or this one she describes the
journey and in the end she says thank
you for this present and then this one
it says I think I kept thinking either I
was on this journey I have faith in
humanity
so people were actually living with
something from the shop but this
something was intangible but it doesn’t
mean it wasn’t precious so what exactly
were they living with and
it valuable in anyway they were leaving
with time and space from the for
themselves we were giving them back
their stolen time and space that was
stolen from them from the everyday
intense way of living the hope that all
the performances were creating an
atmosphere a safe environment where
people could go deeper into experiencing
wonderful things like their
vulnerability or their sensitivity in a
protected and guided way also this
beautiful art form performance is all
about communication it’s all about
contact either that’s eye contact a
physical contact of verbal communication
between the spectator in the artwork or
the spectator in the artist now they
might have not taken anything home with
him that was tangible but they were
taking all these values that are very
rare in today’s way of thinking of
living if we look back performance in
engine times was all about rituals where
communities would come together and
celebrate life in nature it was part of
their everyday nest that they’d would
come together sing dance and experience
ecstasy through rhythm and music
actually the word ecstasy we all know
here comes from the Greek ecstasy’s
which means standing outside of oneself
transforming evolving finding a new
version of warm itself so in a sense in
ancient times art was all about
collective bonding and personal
development
Adam Krauss in his book artists politics
says art arose from the everyday
experience and should still be part of
that experience nowadays art has been
separated from life and it has been put
into special places like museums
galleries and it serves art industries
that very much determine each art forms
value trends and audience development in
an era of specialization and knowledge
art is also treated like some kind of
special science
only for the few who understand it but
what about the rest this disconnection
and isolation separates the others
making them feel that they’re not worthy
of the art form so what about making
connections instead of divisions and
allowing art to connect to everydayness
or art to connect to sciences or art to
connect to the artists and everyone
because we do have an artist in every
one either
as a creator or as an appreciator this
connection needs two things confidence
and action in the active spectator we
had a wonderful performance in the show
the actor spectator with 12 the
spectators and one actor Mario’s urinal
Mario’s wood project on the spectators
different kinds of characters to which
they naturally reacted to for example he
would tell them hi kids
did you finish from your break what did
you eat for lunch today so of course
they had to react as kids now there were
seven of those transformations and
people who are coming out of the show in
trance transformed because they stepped
out of their comfort zone and into
different embodiments that make them
broaden up their limits physically
mentally and emotionally and art
performance can do that it can make it
active as we are very often fast asleep
in systems that really make it their
business not to open up our creative
potential because that is often a very
big threat to power being active is also
about taking choices either these
choices are small or big breakthroughs
an art can do that also or help us do
that in the shop we had a show called
your funeral show this performance to
order came from my dad’s funeral I went
to my dad’s funeral and I was too
emotional to speak so this guy stands
and starts talking about my father in a
way that was not representative at all
of him and I was thinking when my dad
was here he would really not be happy
about this
so the funeral show was all about one
artist and one spectator to collaborate
so that somebody can have actually a say
in his last ritual his funeral they
could work together to for the
participant to maybe have a say about
the music or the aesthetic or even write
their own funeral speech why not so the
artist is very much also at service to
society helping people find their
creative potential one of my favorite
artists Alan Moore beautifully says that
the grand father of the artist was the
shaman and the shaman as an engine
magician you would use rituals that
would cure and help people have
breakthroughs and awakenings I say that
today the artist as ever is a wonderful
person very special that puts their soul
on display for use and consumption by
others specifically the performer will
sacrifice their socially accept itself
and embody different kinds of
embodiments and characters that are very
often perceived as slightly humiliating
by others but it is these embodiments
that will shock they will surprise and
that will make people want to copy avoid
or even have a chance to even imagine
their own creative potential
I call this notion of the artists in our
sophistic philanthropy because for me
it’s about the performers loving the
exhibiting part but also sharing that
with the world for their own use the
metric elite see was at service in our
shop and she placed the double bed in
the window of the shop and she made
herself available for people to come
down and lie down next to her now as you
can see there’s a guy there the sex
industry made
sure but any physical contact is
associated with guild fear and a bad use
of whatever sex can mean so they were
very often missing out on other forms of
physical contact outside our shop there
was a rock bar and people were queuing
and you could see some rough tough
looking boys and girls but as they were
stepping in this room they were becoming
cuddly beings rediscovering the joy of
caress enjoying being together breathing
together being not alone this year
actually is sorry going back to my
photographs performances service values
intimacy togetherness sensitivity
empathy rare qualities in today’s time
this year we opened up again our shop in
a geofence festival in Athens and apart
from performance as service performances
experience and performances action
performances spectacle was something
that really added to the value of
performance today the windows of the
shop suddenly became gates of
communication and platforms where people
could share their selves with the world
in the piece by vanassa spirit sake is
called exercising democracy he would sit
in the window for 24 hours listening to
people that could speak in a microphone
that was outside these people were
speaking in saying different things and
furnaces would not reply and I could see
people being totally aware because they
were listening to themselves of stating
and making statements and therefore
becoming adults in an instance tag a
company called tag this piece anybody
could step in the window see and be seen
hear and be heard
sharing themselves with the world and
lastly marina in idea ver
would sit for six hours and put on her
face glittery wrapping paper to create a
mask she then went around town as you
can see here in Athens and people were
watching or rather staring and laughing
at her and say things like why why is
she there why is she like this and I
want to answer this question with
another question why not why not why not
why not why not choose how we want to
carry ourselves in the world why not
choose everything about us it’s our body
it’s our existence why not choose our
clothes why not choose our genders why
not choose our environment our people
everything around us we have that right
and we need to take that right back an
art and performance are there to remind
us so performance our spectacle give us
the chance to form what one chooses to
be at anytime and share it with the
world
the pleasure of celebrating difference
and therefore celebrating life the space
to create communities of shared values
and the right again to ecstasy today’s
world has almost lost this chance for
survival and I believe it is now more
than ever that performance is absolutely
necessary since it can stand as a daily
reminder to humans that they do have a
choice they can be choosing creation
over destruction in everything they do
and that is not a luxury thank you for
listening
[Music]
you [Music]
Cyprus the island where I am from
in 2013 weren’t into a very big
financial crisis and the funds for the
Arts were seriously reduced as a
contemporary performance maker this was
a very difficult financial time for me
at a time where I remember myself going
up and down into the kitchen and
thinking what am I going to do what am I
going to do I didn’t know what to do
then I said you know what I’m going to
step out into the city and offer my
services as an artist to society if he
attended I would do what I knew how to
do best performances but then I was
thinking is there a need for my
performances or people want to
experience this is performance a
necessity or a luxury in today’s society
and even more on performances enough
important enough today so this give rise
to a whole artistic project there was a
rather ironic concept that would totally
look and point and focus on the value of
performance today and whether it was
worth anything I decided to create a
performance shop I chose the frame of a
shop as an accessible and familiar
structure recognizable by all and I was
also very attracted to this word shop
because I thought it could really
provoke discussions and open up debates
about different issues like for example
performance as a commodity or the
relationship between performance and
consumption and themes like that so I
was dreaming that we could be for
example practicing performance practices
from day to night in the middle of
everydayness and maybe this could answer
some of these questions so the
performance shop opened in the frame of
the pop-up festival in Nicosia where
they would give different kinds of shots
that were previously closing down by the
crisis two artists who make their art
available for
one month so we would have we were
situated in the middle of the city we
had all sorts of different performances
from performing arts and performance art
and live art in general and all these
performances were listed in the catalog
that looked like a menu so we had
performances as you can see from
different artists on display in the
window of the shop where passers-by
could see it for however long they
wanted to watch this performances that
were usually long durational and it
wasn’t like a theatre that they were sit
and wait for the performance to finish
so they were free to leave whenever we
had performances to order at home or in
our premises and we also had
participatory performances for one
spectator or two spectators or more now
there was a wonderful vibe going on
because people were wondering what is
this extraordinary things happening in
the middle of the ordinary as you can
see here the lovely you repeat is the
Alaska release is in the middle of the
street looking not very normal and then
yeah so people were watching outside
they were watching from inside the
different performances they were
listening more listening and
experiencing in general as well as
participating a lot of participating
somewhat sometimes too much
so this crowd generally it was not the
crowd you would usually have in a
Contemporary Art Gallery or in a theatre
and it was wonderful because some of
them did you know know what performance
is so for us to watch them experience a
whole world being revealed to them and
looking at them experiencing all these
kind of creative practices was wonderful
nevertheless there was a wonderful vibe
but there was a paradox going on we were
offering performances as a product and
at the same time nobody was taking
anything home with them so what exactly
were we offering and was it worth it or
valuable in any way I will show you a
few examples from our performances that
might answer that
question for example this performance
was for one spectator it was called hand
and she would sit on a chair there was a
hole and she would pass her hand through
the hole and reach another body the body
of the performer
now the performer would take this hand
on a journey through touch allowing the
participant to experience different
kinds of body parts and in the end the
participant really get lost like what
body part is what body part and
surrender to this stimulations coming
from the performer on the hand
now participants coming out of this
performance were literally and
emotionally touched and one of them even
confessed to us that he never had so
much concentrated attention given to him
at any time before there’s another one
and this performance skin was a
development of hand
again the participant was blindfolded
and he was taken on a journey this time
by three performers of touch and sound
things like the floor under his feet
would change texture and he would
indulge into playfulness and the joy of
laughing different stuff like that and
then when they were coming out they were
like they wanted to they wanted to meet
the performers because they went through
they shared all this journey but we were
like no you’re not gonna meet them if
you want you can live letters for them
and here’s one it was fun
intense time flew quickly and even time
disappeared or this one thank you I came
in tensed and I’m living happy and
intrigued or this one she describes the
journey and in the end she says thank
you for this present and then this one
it says I think I kept thinking either I
was on this journey I have faith in
humanity
so people were actually living with
something from the shop but this
something was intangible but it doesn’t
mean it wasn’t precious so what exactly
were they living with and
it valuable in anyway they were leaving
with time and space from the for
themselves we were giving them back
their stolen time and space that was
stolen from them from the everyday
intense way of living the hope that all
the performances were creating an
atmosphere a safe environment where
people could go deeper into experiencing
wonderful things like their
vulnerability or their sensitivity in a
protected and guided way also this
beautiful art form performance is all
about communication it’s all about
contact either that’s eye contact a
physical contact of verbal communication
between the spectator in the artwork or
the spectator in the artist now they
might have not taken anything home with
him that was tangible but they were
taking all these values that are very
rare in today’s way of thinking of
living if we look back performance in
engine times was all about rituals where
communities would come together and
celebrate life in nature it was part of
their everyday nest that they’d would
come together sing dance and experience
ecstasy through rhythm and music
actually the word ecstasy we all know
here comes from the Greek ecstasy’s
which means standing outside of oneself
transforming evolving finding a new
version of warm itself so in a sense in
ancient times art was all about
collective bonding and personal
development
Adam Krauss in his book artists politics
says art arose from the everyday
experience and should still be part of
that experience nowadays art has been
separated from life and it has been put
into special places like museums
galleries and it serves art industries
that very much determine each art forms
value trends and audience development in
an era of specialization and knowledge
art is also treated like some kind of
special science
only for the few who understand it but
what about the rest this disconnection
and isolation separates the others
making them feel that they’re not worthy
of the art form so what about making
connections instead of divisions and
allowing art to connect to everydayness
or art to connect to sciences or art to
connect to the artists and everyone
because we do have an artist in every
one either
as a creator or as an appreciator this
connection needs two things confidence
and action in the active spectator we
had a wonderful performance in the show
the actor spectator with 12 the
spectators and one actor Mario’s urinal
Mario’s wood project on the spectators
different kinds of characters to which
they naturally reacted to for example he
would tell them hi kids
did you finish from your break what did
you eat for lunch today so of course
they had to react as kids now there were
seven of those transformations and
people who are coming out of the show in
trance transformed because they stepped
out of their comfort zone and into
different embodiments that make them
broaden up their limits physically
mentally and emotionally and art
performance can do that it can make it
active as we are very often fast asleep
in systems that really make it their
business not to open up our creative
potential because that is often a very
big threat to power being active is also
about taking choices either these
choices are small or big breakthroughs
an art can do that also or help us do
that in the shop we had a show called
your funeral show this performance to
order came from my dad’s funeral I went
to my dad’s funeral and I was too
emotional to speak so this guy stands
and starts talking about my father in a
way that was not representative at all
of him and I was thinking when my dad
was here he would really not be happy
about this
so the funeral show was all about one
artist and one spectator to collaborate
so that somebody can have actually a say
in his last ritual his funeral they
could work together to for the
participant to maybe have a say about
the music or the aesthetic or even write
their own funeral speech why not so the
artist is very much also at service to
society helping people find their
creative potential one of my favorite
artists Alan Moore beautifully says that
the grand father of the artist was the
shaman and the shaman as an engine
magician you would use rituals that
would cure and help people have
breakthroughs and awakenings I say that
today the artist as ever is a wonderful
person very special that puts their soul
on display for use and consumption by
others specifically the performer will
sacrifice their socially accept itself
and embody different kinds of
embodiments and characters that are very
often perceived as slightly humiliating
by others but it is these embodiments
that will shock they will surprise and
that will make people want to copy avoid
or even have a chance to even imagine
their own creative potential
I call this notion of the artists in our
sophistic philanthropy because for me
it’s about the performers loving the
exhibiting part but also sharing that
with the world for their own use the
metric elite see was at service in our
shop and she placed the double bed in
the window of the shop and she made
herself available for people to come
down and lie down next to her now as you
can see there’s a guy there the sex
industry made
sure but any physical contact is
associated with guild fear and a bad use
of whatever sex can mean so they were
very often missing out on other forms of
physical contact outside our shop there
was a rock bar and people were queuing
and you could see some rough tough
looking boys and girls but as they were
stepping in this room they were becoming
cuddly beings rediscovering the joy of
caress enjoying being together breathing
together being not alone this year
actually is sorry going back to my
photographs performances service values
intimacy togetherness sensitivity
empathy rare qualities in today’s time
this year we opened up again our shop in
a geofence festival in Athens and apart
from performance as service performances
experience and performances action
performances spectacle was something
that really added to the value of
performance today the windows of the
shop suddenly became gates of
communication and platforms where people
could share their selves with the world
in the piece by vanassa spirit sake is
called exercising democracy he would sit
in the window for 24 hours listening to
people that could speak in a microphone
that was outside these people were
speaking in saying different things and
furnaces would not reply and I could see
people being totally aware because they
were listening to themselves of stating
and making statements and therefore
becoming adults in an instance tag a
company called tag this piece anybody
could step in the window see and be seen
hear and be heard
sharing themselves with the world and
lastly marina in idea ver
would sit for six hours and put on her
face glittery wrapping paper to create a
mask she then went around town as you
can see here in Athens and people were
watching or rather staring and laughing
at her and say things like why why is
she there why is she like this and I
want to answer this question with
another question why not why not why not
why not why not choose how we want to
carry ourselves in the world why not
choose everything about us it’s our body
it’s our existence why not choose our
clothes why not choose our genders why
not choose our environment our people
everything around us we have that right
and we need to take that right back an
art and performance are there to remind
us so performance our spectacle give us
the chance to form what one chooses to
be at anytime and share it with the
world
the pleasure of celebrating difference
and therefore celebrating life the space
to create communities of shared values
and the right again to ecstasy today’s
world has almost lost this chance for
survival and I believe it is now more
than ever that performance is absolutely
necessary since it can stand as a daily
reminder to humans that they do have a
choice they can be choosing creation
over destruction in everything they do
and that is not a luxury thank you for
listening
[Music]
you [Music]
Please follow and like us: