True stories, starring the people who actually lived them
26 – 29 May 2017
Athens’ new cultural festival, mind the fact, takes place between 26 and 29 May and will introduce us to real stories by people living around us. Theatre plays, performances, screenings and exhibitions will fill numerous parts of the city, featuring people who are not always noticeable.
The NPO amaka is a vital part of Mind the fact and will be facilitating and running workshops and activities within the festival. For details and information visit: www.mindthefact.gr
It all begun last year, when nine free art workshops for adults, young people and children were set-up with the objective of helping them examine their real-life experiences and the issues they are confronted with on a daily basis. At the end of the workshops, participants unveiled their creations – a documentation of real life and true events – inviting the public to discover their world.
The main donor of the first Mind the fact festival was the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, with the support of the Borough of Athens and with the contribution of Athens Culture Net.
Hassan, Reza, Khalil, Aydim, Reza and Ramzan travelled from far away and came to Athens to introduce themselves on the theatre stage. Like modern messengers, inspired by Aeschylus’ Persians, they carry six different stories of refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The pain of people who left their homeland behind is presented in the documentary-play We are the Persians!.
A few metres away, people who had previously been addicted to gambling are setting up a different game: the documentary-play Roulettenburg. Using Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Gambler as a vehicle, they reveal true stories about compulsive gambling, luck games, disaster but also about love, women, happiness and liberation from the whirlwind of passion.
During the same days, another group sends us an open invitation to a Dinner. The dinner table is set, the waiters are ready, glasses are filled and the hosts are people that live below the poverty line or in stagnation. A special dinner that will put ‘hot’ topics on the table, while the audience and hosts chat like old friends, sharing stories and getting to know each other better.
Five young boys, who live far from their families, take the floor in the Town Hall of the city and claim their place in the World of the grown-ups. Their adolescent dreams, their ambitions for tomorrow, their imagined future-selves become intertwined with reality and a point for discussion. The Athens City Hall opens its doors and hosts for the first time a teenagers’ performance, alongside a part of the photography exhibition photo_opPORTunity, while during the Nice to meet you social actions, the City of Athens allowed use of public spaces such as the National Garden, Kotzias Square and Avdi Square. In the basement of the ‘Greek Art Theatre’ Karolos Koun, mind the fact’s youngest friends, aged 8-11 years old, will star as real actors in the theatrical performance On the Island of Perfection.
At the same time, the Survival Handbook deals with the conditions of homelessness through a video installation. Young refugees present their journey by mapping their own path in the exhibition Art Emergency. Personal stories are woven into the Plektophone and entice the audience into a special soundscape, while music floods the Athens tram coaches, offering an unconventional musical experience to all those who find themselves in the carriage!
During the four days between 26-29 May something different is happening in Athens. Central, well-known spots are transformed into performance stages and pop-up galleries, changing the mood of passers-by and highlighting “the flip side of the coin”. Ultimately, a different side of the city is revealed through the first mind the fact festival.
Programme
The Grown-Ups World
26/5 | 19.00 – 19.45 – 20.30 | Athens City Hall, Athinas 63, Kotzia Square – City Hall Ceremonial Hall
Five young boys – living far from the family framework – invent their future selves and claim their own place in the wider society and the world of “grown-ups”.
Director: Eleni Efthymiou
Concept-dramaturgy: Eleni Efthymiou, Dimitris Zachos, Maria Makrynikola
Music / Sound Design: Odysseas Gallios
Artistic director: Zoe Molyvda Fameli
Participants: Guests of the Model Boys’ Home of the Athens Society for the Protection of Minors: Alexis, Abdul, Andreas, Vangelis, Christos
Supporters: Athens Society for the Protection of Minors, Athens Culture Net (Athens Culture Net).
* Entrance to the City Hall requires presenting an ID card or any other official identification document.
The Dinner
26, 28, 29/5 | 19.00 – 20.00 | Association of Greek Archaeologists
A participatory performance hosted by people living below the poverty line or in austerity conditions. Homeless people and audience members meet around an evening table and discuss ‘hot’ and ‘peppery’ topics.
Idea & Creation: Sophia Mavragani, Eleftheria Roussaki
Participants: Ioulia Simeonidou, Maria Gatou, Lambros Moustakis, Yannis Fokas, Maria Melexeni, Konstantinos Kapernaros
Supporters: Street Magazine ‘ΣΧΕΔΙΑ’, FINGERSIX, SYNERGIO
About the Body
26/5 | 20.00 | Melidoni Street
“My body became the beginning of a journey” Katerina Angelaki – Rouk
An open dialogue, with a view of Kerameikos, about the human body as creation and as a basis for creation. Important questions will emerge, such as the relationship with time (youth-age), love, pain, illness, mortality, exile, art, work,
Texts/Presentation: Yannis Dinos, Clinical Psychologist | Xanthi Charalambous, Clinical Psychologist
Participants: Valia Papakonstantinou, Yannis Yfantis
Supporter: K.Y.E.E.E.Ps.O. of the Hellenic Cancer Society
Roulettenburg
26,27,28/5 | 22.30 | Hotel Ermou
Based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel “The Gambler”, seven former gamblers gather around a theatre stage and reveal their own Roulettenburg. They put on a theatrical performance with accounts of pathological gambling, games of chance, disaster, but also of love, women, happiness and liberation from the whirlwind of passion.
Directors: Ioanna Valsamidou & Yolanda Markopoulou
Assistant Directors: Maria Makrynikola & Yuli Nasi
Stage Design – Costumes: Magda Plevraki
Editor & Sound Design: Lambros Pigounis
Lighting: Melina Masha
Production Assistant: Christina Botsou
Supporters: SYNERGIO, KETHEA ALFA, Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin
On the Island of Perfection
27,28/5 | 12.00 | Karolos Koun ‘Greek Art Theatre’, Basement
Based on the book “Lou and Lee on the Island of Perfection” by Maria Zavakou, this is an attempt to allow children to express their views on various questions regarding perfection! The answers are turned into a collaborative narration with light & shadow as the main tools and – finally – into the theatre performance “On the Island of Perfection”.
* The performance is addressed to adults and children 5 years or older.
Concept: Eleftheria Roussaki, Laura Maragoudaki, Yula Blesiou
Direction: Eleftheria Roussaki
Art Direction & Video: Laura Maragoudaki
Theatrical Adaptation: Maria Zavakou
Text adaptation for the performance: the whole group
Music: Angelos Angelou
Live Music: Spyros Pratilas
Performers: Alexis Giannakis , Athena Giannaki, Angela Muka, Anastasia Anosike, Yannis Bardanis, Gifte Anigbo, Leonidas Nikolentzos, Maria Pachy, Mohamed Lahzizi
Supporters: Center for Child and Family Support – Athens, SOS Children’s Villages, Together for the Child, Papadopoulos Publications, Paichnidagogio
On Paid Sex
27/5 | 15.00 | Karolos Koun ‘Greek Art Theatre’ | Basement
This ‘systemic constellation’ open event, entitled “On Paid Sex”, takes place for the first time in a theatre space and invites the audience to demonstrate and graph on stage, clearly and in a performative way, the connection of modern societies with the phenomenon of paid sex.
Research & Discussion Moderator : Ioanna Valsamidou
Coordinator of systemic reenactment: Ioanna Kostopoulou
Participants: a 12-member group of trainees in the method of systemic representation and the audience.
Support: The Apple – Systemic Representation and Systemic Therapy
We are the Persians!
27, 28, 29/5 | 21.30 | Old Rail Depot O.S.E.
An exchange with Aeschylus’s “Persians”, a documentary performance by the refugee theatre group ‘Station Athens’.
The premiere of the first version of the performance took place in the framework of the Athens Festival in June 2015.
Direction: Yolanda Markopoulou.
Dramaturgy: Margarita Papadopoulou, Yolanda Markopoulou
Scenography: Alexandra Siafkou, Aristotle Karananos
Movement: Pauline Huguet
Music: Lampros Pigounis
Lighting: Olympia Mytilineou
Assistant director: Viki Strataki
Assistant Set Designer: Dora Turva
Production Assistant: Jela Christopoulou
Participants: Team Station Athens – Chalil Ali Zada, Ramzan Mohammad, Hossain Amiri, Aidim Joyimal, Reza Mohammadi, Reza Muosevi
Support: amaka, SYNERGEIO
Doc Lab projects
28/5 | 22.00 | Association of Greek Archaeologists
Video and documentary screenings that highlight how cinema becomes a supportive process for people who feel excluded, anonymous and trapped.
Coordination – editing: Menelaos Karamagiolis, Panagiotis Papafragos, Stavros Triantos
Participants: George Gounezos – director, Michael Vlasis-Ziakas – visual artist, Michael Kallidonis – filmmaker, Konstantinos Karamagiolis – director, Sebastian Kizito – sociologist, Elena Livadhinou – director, Evita Dota – sociologist, Valantis Xagoraris – filmmaker
photo_opPORTunity
15 – 29/5 | Opening hours of the Athens Town Hall | Athinas 63, Kotzia Square, Ground Floor
26 – 29/5 | 18.00-21.00 | Old Rail Depot O.S.E.
A peculiar photographic walk in Piraeus! A series of unpretentious images that teenage photographers chose to capture through the lens of their camera.
Coordination: Chrysoula Plakioti, Viki Strataki
Curators: Chrysoula Plakioti, Viki Strataki, Dafni Kalafati
Supporters: AMAKA, Athens Culture Net
In cooperation with the Department of Juvenile Probation Officers of Piraeus, Juvenile and Social Welfare Service, Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights
* Entrance to the City Hall requires presenting an ID card or any other official identification document.
Survival Handbook
26-29/5 | 18.00-21.00 | Old Rail Depot O.S.E.
A video installation on the condition of homelessness. The meaning of life on the street, exclusion, the crossroads of life, the person who experiences the lack of a home. Personal and other types of stories unfold in the spaces of the installation – a shelter that symbolises safety and stability.
Coordination: Niovi Stavropoulou
Curators: Natalia Bazaiou, Anastasia Noukaki, Niovi Stavropoulou
Support: amaka, Street Magazine ‘ΣΧΕΔΙΑ’
Art Emergency
26-29/5 | 18.00-21.00 | Old Rail Depot O.S.E.
Young refugees document their journey through art, using subjective mapping techniques to represent their journey up to this point, through the prism of their personal beliefs, experiences and images. The exhibition includes multimedia works, original paintings and sculptures, video, animation and large artworks.
Curators : Daphne Kalafati, Aristotle Karananos, Alexandra Siafkou, Niovi Stavropoulou
Instructors: Andromachi Vrakatseli, Maya Gurchogianni, Daphne Kalafati, Ioanna Manousaki-Adamopoulou, Margarita Papadopoulou, Myrto Papadopoulou, Artemis Pamarinopoulou, Fotini Papachatzi, Chrysoula Plakioti, Niovi Stavropoulou, Erato Tzavara
The performers: Andromachi Vrakatseli, Maya Gurchogianni, Daphne Kalafati, Ioanna Manousaki-Adamopoulou, Margarita Papadopoulou, Myrto Papadopoulou, Artemis Pamarinopoulou, Fotini Papachatzi, Chrysoula Plakioti, Niovi Stavropoulou, Erato Tzavara
Support: amaka, Mercy Corps with funding from the European Union
Plektophono
26-29/5 | 18.00-22.00 | Association of Greek Archaeologists
An interactive installation, a musical soundscape with voices of the people of the city; testimonies from groups of homeless people, refugees and former gambling addicts. Stories that are woven creating narrative compositions that take us to different neighbourhoods presenting different portraits.
Idea – Coordination: Yannis Zannos
Programming & Sound Design: Vassilis Agiomyrgianakis, Christos Poulias
Visual design & Implementation: Magda Plevraki, Mandy Albani, Laura Kontis, Anastasia Triantafyllidou
The recordings were made in the framework of the mind the fact workshops.
Parallel Events
Tram tram tram!
26/5 | 14.30-16.30 | Tram line ‘Platonas’ : Syntagma – Asklipio Voulas
A special kind of route. Musicians gradually meet “randomly” on the same route and carriage. As the tram continues its course, the musical company grows transforming the soundscape!
Music Composition: Lefteris Veniadis
Violinist: Dimitris Brendas
Trombone: Spyros Vergis
Trumpet: Peter Jackes
Tuba: Menelaos Moraitis
I Owe You
28, 29/5 | 21.00 | Association of Greek Archaeologists
A performance in the form of an intergenerational accountability regarding debt, by Helena Waldmann and participants residents of Athens. People dance in pairs, exchanging questions and answers, on the topic of “debt” from one generation to the next.
Curation – Workshop Implementation: Helena Waldmann
Project Coordination: Ioanna Valsamidou
Production Assistant: Viki Strataki
Helena Waldmann is an award-winning choreographer based in Berlin. She studied in Giessen with teachers such as Heiner Müller, George Tabori and Gerhard Bohner. She has been directing since the 1990s and always focuses on sensitive social issues, creating artworks beyond traditional dance theatre. She has travelled as an artist and lecturer all over the world (Europe, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine, Kenya, South America, Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and others).
Info
You can find all the events details here: facebook | instagram
Admission to all performances is free, with an entrance coupon.
Reservation is required. Call: +30 6981 802544 or email: info@mindthefact.gr
For performances at the ‘Greek Art Theatre’ Karolos Koun, a reservations is required. Theatre box office tel. +30 210 3228706.
mind the fact team
Initiative Coordination & Art Curation: Yolanda Markopoulou, Ioanna Valsamidou
Artistic & Educational Team: Ioanna Valsamidou, Elina Younani, Antigoni Gyra, Eleni Efthymiou, Maria Zavakou, Dimitris Zachos, Daphne Kalafati, Menelaos Karamagiolis, Maria Makrynikola, Laura Maragoudaki, Yolanda Markopoulou, Georgia Mavragani, Sophia Mavragani, Youla Blesiou, Yuli Nasi, Margarita Papadopoulou, Panagiotis Papafragos, Chrysoula Plakioti, Magda Plevraki, Eleftheria Roussaki, Niovi Stavropoulou, Vicky Strataki, Pauline Huguet
Communication Consultant: Paris Mekis
Production Management: Maria Dourou
Social Media: FROG ON THE ROAD
Production: Polyplanity Productions
Major Donor: Stavros Niarchos Foundation
With the donation of: ‘Solidarity Now’
With the kind sponsorship of: National Bank of Greece, e-food, Papadopoulou biscuits, Cosmote, Papadopoulos printing, Doremi, Somersby
With the support of the Borough of Athens
With the contribution of the Cultural Network of the Borough of Athens – Athens Culture Net (exclusive donor Stavros Niarchos Foundation)
With the support of: : STASY – METRO, ‘Greek Art Theatre’ Karolos Koun, elculture
Communication sponsors: Cosmote tv, Kathimerini, Athens Voice, pepper 96.6, Athens 9.84, menta fm 88.0, ERT, Trito program, Kosmos 93.6, poplie.eu, monopoli.gr, click@life, in2life, onlytheatre, culturenow, skywalker.
