A dance and video art performance exploring themes of identity, loyalty, and one’s place in the world.

"anti gone is a performance that explores the adversities Greek contemporary women face in their struggle to remain in their motherland during a period of deep financial and humanitarian crisis. Their fight to remain and the resilience needed to support their choice echoes the fight and resilience displayed by the tragic heroine Antigone. Their journey is one of personal discovery. It entails an inward quest, a coming of age: a process that requires freeing herself from the restrictions imposed by her 'gender' in order to discover her true identity. It is a journey from the present to the past, to a logical space where Antigone stands still. She renounces her house and city and stands in the light, a radiant everlasting presence that no power on earth can shake. She is never gone."

Director Tatou Dede

Background

The global financial crisis of 2008 resulted in a 20% drop in GDP in Greece in the period 2008-2010 and ushered in a time of government debt crisis, political uncertainty, and brutal austerity policies. Many young people who had the option to leave Greece chose to do so. When I first met director and performance artist Tatou Dede she was grappling with this issue for herself: Why had she chosen to stay in Greece, under what circumstances could (artistic) life there be more bearable, what does loyalty to a country mean as a woman in an often patriarchal culture? As someone who had faced similar questions and ultimately chosen to leave my country (Australia), I was drawn to her ideas and passion.

Prototype

Tatou and I met at Schmiede Media Arts Festival in Austria in 2014. Tatou was already working on the concept of using the story of Antigone to explore the struggles of contemporary Greek women. I was in the early stages of learning to work with media arts tools such as Processing and vvvv and keen for a challenge. We assembled a small team and over the 10 days of the festival developed a prototype performance. This was a solo dance work with an interactive set featuring textile sensors that controlled real time animated graphics.

Development

Tatou continued to develop anti gone over the next two years, bringing on board collaborators to work on the text, music, lighting, costume, and choreography for the performance.

In late 2016, I rejoined the project as set designer and video producer. We developed an idea for a sparse set with a large screen made up of stretched elastic ropes. This functioned both as a textured projection surface and an interactive stage element for the performers, who could stretch and hang from the ropes.

Production

In January 2017 I went to Thessaloniki to meet the anti gone team and develop the video components. It was an intense work week and a challenge to create the videos in the relatively short space of time available. That said, the opportunity to work with Tatou was wonderful. She was an open and committed collaborator, and we were able to explore and rapidly develop imagery to form the basis of the videos. Thessaloniki itself is a beautiful city and I was able to do quite a bit of filming in the location, which provided unique raw material for the videos.

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In the end the videos were developed into three distinctive styles: atmospheric depictions of water and fire; computer generated, abstract graphics; and storytelling using filmed footage. I particularly enjoyed working on the storytelling elements, drawing in influences from feminist performance artists and filmmakers such as Chantal Akerman.

The boundaries of the body became a central image for exploring the themes of the work, from a woman giving herself over to physical passions as she gorges on fruit to defiantly tearing out and eating the pages of Antigone, consuming and subsuming her culture.

Performance

anti gone premiered in February 2017 at the Amalia Theatre in Thessaloniki, Greece to a largely positive reception in the Greek press. A reworked version of the performance was presented at the Municipal Theater of Piraeus in December 2017.

Performance Premiere

February 2017
Amalia Theatre
Thessaloniki Greece

Role

Set Design
Video Art
Documentation

Collaborators

Tatou Dede (Concept/Director)
Anastasia Tzellou (Dramaturge)
Rodia Vomvolou (Actor)
Alexandra Rogovska (Dancer)
Minas Emmanouil (Composer)
Thomas Marias (Set Construction)
Athina Kyriakakou (Costume)
Alexandros Alexandrou (Lighting)

Tools and Technology

vvvv
Processing
After Effects
Premiere Pro
Media Encoder