Xirómero / Dryland, that will be representing Greece at the 60^th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, is an interdisciplinary collective work conceived by Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos, created along with the artists Elia Kalogianni, Yorgos Kyvernitis, Kostas Chaikalis and Fotis Sagonas. The Greek participation has been curated by Panos Giannikopoulos. The work consists of a piece of agricultural irrigation equipment which synchronizes the sound, video and lighting environments that make up the installation in real time. It investigates the experience of a village festival by following its course from the village square all the way to its outskirts, and to the surrounding land. More specifically, it draws upon the experience of the panighíria -local festivals- of mainland Greece, Thessaly and the area of Xirómero, in Western Greece, which lends the work its title.

The artists behind the work refer to water as a prism —a way of seeing and thinking with— focusing on its scarcity or abundance, on the need for it or waste of it, as well as on its social connotations. The exhaustion of resources is linked here to physical and financial exhaustion. The work navigates the political potential of sound and music and the impact of technology on rural landscapes and cultural diversity.

In between ritual and entertainment, the village festival conveys information and is charged with meaning. It is connected to agricultural work; it is born of —but also begets— the community’s internal time cycle which follows the pace of irrigation and other agricultural tasks. It helps the community form an image of itself. But at the same time contradictory notions coalesce: viewers become participants, on-stage becomes off-stage, the performative gives way to the everyday.

This incessant interaction between ‘representation’ and reality is reproduced within the work itself.

Xirómero / Dryland also utilizes the particular architectural features of the Pavilion of Greece to evoke by association images of agricultural warehouses or the religious architecture that is so often the backdrop of the panighíri. The watering equipment at the centre of the Pavilion delineates a circular perimeter that is the actual space of the installation. The work serves to transfer indoors the outdoor spot where the community comes together —the village square, the place of public assembly. As the watering system comes on, it sets a specific pace and marks the time like a clock or a cassette tape playing, suggesting specific routes for the viewers to follow, encouraging shifts in viewpoint along the way. Xirómero / Dryland steers clear of an aesthetic approach, emphasizing instead the emotional immediacy of the encounter with objects, sounds and images.

Observing gender relations in the context of the panighíri allows us to examine the various possibilities of presenting the self, the different versions of femininity and the manner in which the female body is either revealed or concealed, but also the ambivalent gesture of the subject who chooses to withdraw, opting for absence and its own exclusion from the festivities.

Xirómero / Dryland attempts to create associations between a geographically contextualized experience and the global condition; to facilitate shifts of perspective between dominant and marginalized cultural subjects which seem to open up a liminal space for the articulation of new meanings.

*Xirómero [ksirˈomero], a historic area of Aetolia-Acarnania, is known for its festivals. Today, it comprises one of the municipalities of the regional unit of Western Greece.

Research for the purposes of the installation Xirómero / Dryland that will be representing Greece at the 60^th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia was commissioned by the Onassis Foundation and conducted in the context of the Margaroni Residency by Onassis AiR Fellows interdisciplinary artist and composer Thanasis Deligiannis and dramaturg and philologist Yannis Michalopoulos. The two of them brought together a team which includes visual artist and filmmaker Elia Kalogianni, photographer and documentary filmmaker Yorgos Kyvernitis, sound engineer and designer Kostas Chaikalis and visual artist and architect Fotis Sagonas.

The project and its presentation in Venice have been funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. EMΣT | The National Museum of Contemporary Art is the commissioner of Greece’s national participation and in charge of planning, production and promotion. Panos Giannikopoulos is the curator of the Pavilion of Greece.

Greece’s participation in the 60th International Art Exhibition ‐ La Biennale di Venezia is powered by Onassis Culture. The project is also supported by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Athens-Epidaurus Festival and the Greek National Tourism Organization. Support from ARTWORKS was provided through a founding grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF). Additional support was made possible by NEON Culture and Development Organization, by Outset and the Qualco Foundation. AEGEAN is the official air carrier sponsor and the project has been placed under the auspices of the City of Xirómero.

*

Visual Communication: Vassiliki-Maria Plavou and Marios Stamatis

Design and Typesetting: Studio Precarity (Vassili- ki-Maria Plavou and Marios Stamatis), with assistance by Stephanos Koutroulis
Website Development: GENDY

Technical team

Lighting technician: Yiannis Lavvas

Installation technicians: Yannis Nikolakopoulos, Nikos Bila, Nikos Sarafoglou
Assistant technicians for mechanisms and special equip- ment construction:
Themis Istatiadis – architect
Ilias Kazais – automations
Dimitris Ovadias – automations
Plywacz Tomasz, Starowicz Krzysztof, Pavel Nowak, Piotre Nowak, Ali Lotfolahi – workers

Electrical installation: Ioannis Misaillis
Transportation to Venice: Transport Service Pesce M. & C. SRL
Equipment / artwork insurance: Allianz Greece

Greek translation: Maria Skamaga
Greek text editing: Yannis Bolis, Christina Petkopoulou, Maria Skamaga
English text editing: Eliza Jackson, Spyros Petrounakos, Natassa Sideri
Italian translation: Maurizio De Rosa

Songs

The music of the project includes the traditional song Yiannos (voice: Kiki Margaroni, clarinet: Kostas Zaf- eiropoulos) and the songs Travmatias stin agapi (mu- sic: Giorgos Koros, lyrics Lakis Tsolis, voices: Natasa Tsakiridou, Lina Alajidou, Dafni Nikolaou, Christina Kemanetzidou) and Vathia spilia mes ta vouna (music: Vassilis Soukas, lyrics: Yiannis Chalkiadakis, voice: Kiki Margaroni, clarinet Vangelis Soukas).

The song Travmatias stin agapi was recorded at Studio Praxis.

Performance

Song: Natasa Tsakiridou
Clarinet: Spyros Rakis Nikolaou

Catalog

Catalog edited by: Panos Giannikopoulos

Essays: Marios Chatziprokopiou, Alkisti Efthymi-
ou and Alexander Strecker, Ioanna Gerakidi, Anastasio Koukoutas, Ioanna Zouli, Panos Giannikopoulos

Publisher: EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

Biographical Notes

Artists

Thanasis Deligiannis

Thanasis Deligiannis (Larissa, 1983) grew up in rural surroundings, among folk musicians, dancers and farmers. He lives and works in Amsterdam and is active as an interdisciplinary artist and composer in Europe, Asia and North America. Since 2018 he taught composition and interdisciplinary art practice at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. His work has been presented by various ensembles including the Asko|Schoenberg Ensemble (NL), the Nieuw Ensemble (NL), the Atlas Ensemble (NL), the Ensemble Proton Bern (CH), the Ergon Ensemble (GR), the Tetttix (GR), the Riot Ensemble (UK), Ensemble Genesis (JP), the Ekmeles (US) among others. Deligiannis founded the I/O group, which focuses on an investigation of hybrid art forms situated in between representation and sound-centric installation and has produced works such as ALICE, re- and Prayers of Incompetence. He was one of the participating artists in Afresh, held at EMΣT | The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, and in Mediterranea 17 Young Artists Biennale, Milan. He is a graduate of the Department of Music Science and Art, University of Macedonia, Greece, and holds a postgraduate degree from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He was a Gaudeamus artist-in-residence (Utrecht, NL) with a subsidy from the Performing Arts Fund NL Nieuwe Makers program, and  also completed a residency at the New York Foundation for the Arts. He created ENA ENA (Onassis Culture, Gaudeamus & I/O) and was artistic director of the Margaroni Residency in his capacity as Onassis AiR Fellow. 

Yannis Michalopoulos

Yannis Michalopoulos (Athens, 1982) lives and works in Paris. He studied the classics, linguistics and art history at the University of Athens, the Sorbonne and the École du Louvre. Initially, his research focused on Hellenistic poetry and the history of text. He is currently Head of Regional Cooperation and Development at the National Library of France  (BnF), where he was also responsible for regional cooperation and development and is a member of its board of directors. He also served in the past as curator of 16th century collections and scientific coordinator of digitization. In his capacity as a representative of the employees of the French Ministry of Culture, he is an elected member of the Bureau National and Commission Exécutive of CGT Culture. Since 2015 he has taught History of Modern Greek Culture at the University of Nanterre. His research focuses on issues of cultural development of the periphery, local history, the performative aspect of folk songs, as well as the history and practices of the trade union movement. At the same time, he is active as an artist and playwright in France, Greece, Cyprus and the Netherlands. As an Onassis AiR Fellow he was coordinator of the artistic research into the development of the panigyri in Western Greece and Thessaly since 1970 in the context of the Margaroni Residency, commissioned by Onassis Culture.  

Elia Kalogianni

Elia Kalogianni (Athens, 1995) is a visual artist and filmmaker. Since 2014, she has lived and worked between Amsterdam and Athens. Her work combines (experimental) films, spacial audiovisual installations, moving-image essays and photographs, exploring the interchangeable qualities between reality and imagination. Kalogianni’s practice raises questions varying from tradition and its mnemonic representation to the application of power dynamics and surveillance in the current psychosocial schemes aiming to redefine the tools of cinematic language. Her work has been exhibited in various venues such as the Stedelijk Museum, Neverneverland, Galleria17, EYE Film Museum and the International Theater Amsterdam (ITA). Kalogianni’s films have been awarded and screened in multiple international film festivals, including the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), Athens International Film Festival (AIFF), Drama International Short Film Festival (DISFF), Balkan Panorama Film Festival, Nederlands Film Festival (NFF) and SSFF Melbourne. She was nominated for the Hellenic Film Academy Awards (Phélia, 2021) and received a Special Mention at the Eye on Art Research Lab organized by the Eye Film Museum (Soldier365, 2019). The Greek Ministry of Culture, the Greek Film Centre, the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, Amarte Fonds, Fonds Podiumkunsten (Netherlands) and Norma Startersfunds have supported her recent works. Kalogianni is a fellow of LAPS: Research Institute for Art and Public Space (Netherlands), and was awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (GR, 2022) and the Kunstenaar Start by Mondriaan Fonds (NL, 2023).

Yorgos Kyvernitis

Kyvernitis (Athens, 1988) is a photographer and documentary filmmaker who lives and works between Athens and Amsterdam. His practice balances photojournalism and observational cinema. Kyvernitis currently works as a filmmaker, cinematographer and creative live-camera operator in films, plays and multidisciplinary projects, which have been presented in several European festivals and foundations (IFFR Rotterdam Film Festival, Holland Festival, Onassis Foundation, Athens-Epidaurus Festival, etc.). His first documentary, The Canaries (2019), was nominated for an IRIS Award at the Hellenic Film Academy and won the Audience Award for Best Short Greek Production at the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. His new documentary Tonnage will be released this year with support from the Eleusis Capital of Culture 2023. Kyvernitis was awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2019). He studied Architecture at the University of Patras and holds a Master of Science in Culture and Documentary Filmmaking from the University of Aegean.

Kostas Chaikalis

Kostas Chaikalis (Athens, 1980) lives and works in Athens. He studied music and sound engineering and has pursued a career in culture since 2001 working as a sound designer and sound engineer. Chaikalis founded his first recording studio in 2005 and at the same time began his involvement in organizing and producing music festivals under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. Since 2019, he has used Praxis Recording Studio as a hub for his work in sound design for acoustic performances and short films, alongside field recordings for Greek and international productions. He is part of the artists’ group assembled by Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos in the context of the Margaroni Residency, Onassis AiR. He collaborated with Thanasis Deligiannis in the music performance ENA ENA (2021) and with Elia Kalogianni in her film Phélia (2020).

Fotis Sagonas

Fotis Sagonas (Thermo, 1983) is a visual artist and an architect who lives and works in Thessaloniki. His artistic research and practice are interdisciplinary, primarily based in the fields of painting and installations. He has had six solo exhibitions: ‘Into the Mass’ (DIFA Donopoulos International Fine Arts, 2023), ‘Matter Ich Bin Dumm’ (DIFA, 2020), ‘Fotis Sagonas: Recent Works’ (DIFA, 2016), ‘Landscapes of Vanity’ (Blanc Slate Space, 2012), ‘Ink & Blood/volume 1’ (Kalos & Klio showroom, 2010), ‘Inside the animal’s mind’ (ΔYNAMO, 2008). His works have been exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York, the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, et al. In 2012, he received a Fulbright Scholarship for Visual Arts at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York and was awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2018). From 2018 to 2022, he taught spatial representations, visual arts, and introduction to architectural design at the Department of Architecture of the University of Ioannina.

Curator 

Panos Giannikopoulos

Panos Giannikopoulos (1991, Athens, GR) is an Athens-based curator. He holds an MA in Gender, Society and Politics, following his studies in History, Archaeology & History of Art. His research navigates the intersections of contemporary art with queer/feminist theory and post-humanism. He coordinated the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship Program by ARTWORKS (2017-2023), while other previous roles include that of Curator & Researcher at the Contemporary Greek Art Institute (ISET) (2013-2016). He was one of the curators of the Mediterranea 19 Young Artists Biennale “School of Waters”, San Marino (2021). Recent exhibitions include A Rave Down Below, 2023 Eleusis Cultural Capital (2023-2024) and This Current Between Us at the PPC Historic Steam Electric Station of Neo Faliro (2022-2023). He has collaborated with museums, galleries and art organizations, including GAMeC in Bergamo, ACG Gallery, B. & M. Theocharakis Foundation, Eins Gallery (Limassol), The Breeder Gallery, Space52, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC),  Haus N Athen, Korai in Nicosia, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, SNEHTA Residency, the Institute of Contemporary Greek Art  (ISET) and the Athens Biennale. He curated  the Art Athina Performance Program (2023) and is currently curating the Art Athina Video Art section (2024). His texts have been published in newspapers, magazines, publications, and exhibition catalogs. In 2013, he participated in the NEON-Whitechapel Gallery Curatorial Exchange; in 2016, he served as a Curatorial Fellow at the Schwarz Foundation; and in 2021, he received the Curatorial Award Premio Lorenzo Bonaldi per l’Arte – EnterPrize.

Artistic collaborators

Studio Precarity

Studio Precarity was founded in 2019 by Vassiliki-Maria Plavou and Marios Stamatis. With a background in Architecture and Fine Arts, the studio operates in the field of graphic design and art direction. They focus on the visual inscription of diverse research narratives, while studying the dynamic and the limitations of design tools within their field of research. The starting point of their collaborative practice is the notion of precarity in contemporary labour as a design method. In 2022 they were awarded the Young Book Designers Award organized by the Goethe Institut. They have worked with institutions such as the OTE Group, Onassis Foundation (AiR), and Syros International Film Festival (SIFF) among others. 

Vassiliki-Maria Plavou

Vassiliki-Maria Plavou is an architect, who graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and completed her postgraduate studies in Architectural Design in the University of Thessaly. She works in the expanded field of design, practicing both graphic design and curating. She has designed award winning artists’ books such as Maria Papadimitriou – Why Look at Animals? Agrimikà, for the 56th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2015 and Maria Papadimitriou – Firma Gypsy Globales, Deste Publications, 2014. In 2019 she co-founded the graphic design studio “Studio Precarity”, along with Marios Stamatis. She has also curated exhibitions. Selected exhibitions include Please Please Me, the symptoms projects, Amfissa (2020), Cra(u)sh Or How You made Me Kiss the Pavement, Grace, Athens (2020), as well as the performances Anthology of Cracks by Christos Delidimos, Ephorate of Antiquities of Pireaus (2020), Genesis21 <3 by Marios Stamatis, St.George Lycabettus, Rooms2019, Athens (2019).  

Marios Stamatis

Marios Stamatis is an Athens-based artist, designer and educator. His practice includes sculpture, performance, video, sound and text. He is currently teaching at the Frances Rich School of Fine and Performing Arts of the American College of Greece, and is the co-founder, along with Vassiliki-Maria Plavou, of the creative practice Studio Precarity. His work explores the relationship between humans, nature and technology through the prism of technological singularity, a hypothetical point in time where technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible. More specifically, the work explores how this increasing influence and growing impact of new forms of intelligence affect the psyche, intellect, and the traces this transformative coexistence ultimately leave to the human body. He holds a BA in Graphic Design from Camberwell College of Art and an MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University of London. He was awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022), and was the recipient of the Startpoint Prize in 2018. He has participated in various artist residency programs and has presented his work internationally, in galleries and institutions such as Greek National Opera, Haus N Athen, Zabludowicz Collection, Gossamer Fog, Arebyte, Assembly Point, Beaconsfield, weekend, CAN, Outsight, Fotopub, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. 

Fotini Papachristopoulou

Fotini Papachristopoulou (Athens, 1973) is an actress and theater researcher living and working in Athens. She is a graduate of the Department of Theater Studies, National and Kapodistrian University, Athens, the Drama School of the New Hellenic Theater G. Armenis, Athens, and the École internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq, Paris. For several years, she worked as coordinator/stage director in various theater workshops and groups for individuals with mobility difficulties and founded a theater workshop aiming at inclusivity. Between 2006 and 2016, she worked with residents of the island of Milos to explore various forms of theater. She also worked as a drama teacher in public schools. As a performer/actress/artistic collaborator she has worked with Greek and international directors in cinema, state and private television productions, and the theatre, as well as collaborating with various festivals and institutions/organizations such as the Athens – Epidaurus Festival, the National Theatre of Greece and its Experimental Stage, Onassis Culture, the M. Kakogiannis Foundation, Art Athina, the International German Festival “Nach Athen!”, and Eleusis Cultural Capital 2023, among others. She is an artistic collaborator of Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos (ENA ENA, Margaroni Residency, etc.).