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Dance days in Athens

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©  Mehmet Kerem Özel, 24.02.2024 - Onassis Stegi, Athens On a late February Saturday afternoon, an early harbinger of spring in Athens, I spent five hours in the sterile foyer of the Onassis Stegi building, shuttling between floors -1 and +5, experiencing five performances from the 2024 edition of ODD - Onassis Dance Days, which was organized by the Onassis Foundation for the 11th time. This contemporary dance festival, which usually lasts for about 10 days, but focuses on a three-day period from the first Friday to Sunday, includes new pieces by Greek choreographers and at least one piece by a choreographer from outside Greece. Last year, Marina Otero, an up-and-coming Argentinian choreographer, was a guest at the festival. She presented her pieces, FUCK ME and LOVE ME . This year, the Belgian visual artist Miet Warlop, who gained much attention with her new piece One Song since its premiere at the Avignon Festival two years ago, performed in front of the Greek audience and left a l
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Transitions linking Death across centuries: Invisibili by Aurélien Bory

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Waiting for Invisibili , Les Abbesses - Paris  ©  Mehmet Kerem Özel, 15.01.2024 At the beginning of the piece, the thick black frame with three sides, which was lying on the floor of the stage, gradually rose backwards, lifted the cloth lying on the floor attached to it and gradually revealed the image printed on the cloth to us, the audience. When the frame was erected, the Triumph of Death stood before us in all its splendour, measuring 6 metres by 6.5 metres.  Originally exhibited in a museum in Palermo, the Triumph of Death , whose painter is unknown, dates from the 1440s and is one of the most impressive works of medieval art in terms of content, colour and composition. In the centre of the fresco, which probably depicts the plague known as the Black Death, which entered the ports of Sicily and ravaged the entire European continent about 100 years before it was painted, there is a gigantic Death in the form of a skeleton.  Death rides a galloping horse, also in the form of a skel
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A theatrical experience that visualises the layers of memory - Les Émigrants by Krystian Lupa

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Waiting for Les Émigrants , 13.01.2024 T héâtre l’Odeon, Paris Mehmet Kerem Özel The 80-year-old famous Polish theatre master Krystian Lupa's last play for the time being, Les Émigrants (The Emigrants), was finally premiered on 13 January 2024 at the Théâtre l'Odeon in Paris, after a painful process that has been reflected in public opinion since the second half of 2023. I would like to talk about the painful process of its creation, but first I would like to share my impressions of the play, which I had the chance to see at its world premiere. Lupa has adapted The Émigrants from the book of the same name by the Austrian writer W. G. Sebald. The book consists of four long narratives, which are biographical essays about the lives of four people whose paths are crossed by the narrator in the first person, somewhere between reality and fiction. The narrator has based the lives of these four people on his own encounters with them, their diaries, photo albums, conversations wit
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A performative look at Europe today - La Trilogie des contes immoraux (pour Europe) by Phia Ménard

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Waiting for  La Trilogie des contes immoraux (pour Europe) ©Mehmet Kerem Özel, April 7th 2024, Théâtre du Nord - Lille The stage floor is covered in thick cardboard, which has various cracks on its surface. It resembles the ready-made cut-and-fold paper houses for kids, but on a much larger scale.  A punk woman with distinctive hair, make-up, and clothing is sitting on the floor, leaning against the back wall of the stage. After the announcement and dimming of the theatre lights, she confidently walks around the cardboard, as if exploring the floor. She then retrieves a spear from a tall container behind the stage and uses it to remove and discard pieces of the cardboard. Her movements are deliberate and controlled. The show is about this woman constructing a structure using thick and heavy cardboard on the floor with the cut-fold-paste logic I mentioned. As an audience member, after a certain point, you can't help but identify with her. You'll feel joy when she overcomes diffi
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conversations in ten questions 79: Alexandros Stavropoulos

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What is the essence of performance in your opinion? The essence of dance and art, in my opinion, lies in their remarkable ability to unite people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Regardless of the challenges that may arise, art and dance persist, consistently propelling society forward. It’s striking to observe how even in times of adversity, such as natural disasters, floods, and fires, the world can be filled with turmoil, yet artists continue to create and inspire. This enduring spirit of artistic expression has transcended generations. A poignant example of this is how, during World War II from 1940 to 1945, Walt Disney released beloved films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , Dumbo , and Bambi in Europe. This unwavering passion and dedication to our craft deeply moves me. To me, the essence of dance is encapsulated within this resilience and unwavering love for what we do.  Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? Absolutely, I firmly believe in the trans
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conversations in ten questions 78: Kristofer Blindheim Grønskag

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What is the essence of good play/playwriting in your opinion? Good playwriting is ways of exploring different truths about the world. To find a truth and hold on to it, no matter which form or style. Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How? I do believe art has the ability to change people. And we are, for better or worse, the world. If I did not believe in this, I would find a different job.  When you are working on a text, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your works?   Although my academic background is very much inspired by both absurdism and surrealism, dreams are not that important to me. I always try to read a lot in periods of intensive writing. Often playwrights, but also other authors. From the assembled mass of inspiration and own thoughts, I often get these images stuck in my head. Images that won’t leave me. It could be the picture of someone sitting in an ice cream truck with blood on their hands, or perhaps someone slipping down into an op
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conversations in ten questions 77: Marie Bjørn

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The New Text Festival, organized by GalataPerform, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and which is Turkey's first and only playwriting festival, took place this year for the twelfth time between 24th November and 4th December 2023, focusing on the theme of "Real". At the festival, which creates an area where Turkish writers and directors meet with artists from abroad within the scope of Theater Beyond Borders, we continue from where we left off by publishing our conversations with international playwrights whose plays have been translated into Turkish and staged readings. Our next guest Marie Bjørn.  Marie Bjørn, who is interested in both theatre, film and prose writing, graduated from the Danish National Faculty of Performing Arts as a playwright in 2019 and from the alternative film school Super16 in Copenhagen as a screenwriter in 2022. Bjørn was nominated for the Reumert Playwright of the Year and Special Mention awards in 2020 for his first play, Apocal
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