revolution is not a one time event

Revolutions don’t take place in just one go.

Revolutions don’t happen just in one moment.

Revolutions don’t happen just like that.

Revolutions are not just a one-off occurrence.

Revolutions are not a one-off event.

Revolutions are an accumulation of events.

Revolutions are a dynamic evolution of events. 

Revolution is not a one time event.

It is becoming always vigilant for the smallest opportunity to make a genuine change in established, outgrown responses. – Audre Lorde

Revolution is not a one time event* is a three-month public program that reflects our deep held belief that gathering people together can bring unexpected, potentially unimaginable shifts and changes. Our program, an experiment in form and format, that spans from spring to early summer at TAVROS, will honor the ongoing struggles of small-scale, dare we say, revolutionary, inter-generational feminist practices in Greece and beyond.

A conversation that began by thinking about female identities and the complexities of womanhood, opened up to include more and more individuals and communities with the hope of creating truly polyphonic and diverse occasions for coming together. Our line-up of events/acts will unfold at TAVROS, but also outwards into our neighborhood. 

The exhibition is the basis or excuse for a public program with more than 50 participants: with screenings & discussions, performances and open mic sessions, education and research programs, as well as weekly community gatherings, in the hope of gathering as many female, feminist, queer, masculine, non-conformative, experimental, revolutionary voices as possible.

Our program looks towards fostering knowledge production, joyful conversations and an environment for peer-to-peer, non-result oriented learning, insisting that creative and artistic practices can and do have an impact on the social and public sphere. 

With the understanding that there is not one answer to all our questions, nor just one voice that sets the questions, and with the awareness of the impossibility of having an answer for everything.

Revolutions are not a one-off event, they don’t take place in just one go, they are ongoing.

*Quote by Audre Lorde.

EXHIBITION

Revolution is not a one time event*, is an exhibition as an excuse for a public programme, with works by artists Lena Maria Thüring and Nina Papakonstantinou, and pop ups by Nana Sachini, that will create the visual framework around, above and through which the public programme will develop.

Octopussy by Lena Maria Thüring

Questioning the expectations towards women, Octopussy is a sculptural work that relates to the artist’s exploration of motherhood and the multi-tasking required for society to keep functioning. An invitation to a short meditation, during which one is taken on an acoustic trip made of trap beats and popular quotes from contemporary science, art and music gurus, including Donna Haraway, Rihanna, Virginia Woolf and Suzanne Simard, among others. 

Holes by Nina Papakonstantinou

Fragments of texts by poet Eileen Myles, will be literally carved onto the walls of the space, enigmatic, suggestive, pierced, almost invisible callings.
Texts written on walls follow the logic of graffiti, in other words a form of public confession, expression, demonstration, a statement of sorts. 
Whilst texts inscribed in indoor spaces have an introspective, diaristic feel.
Holes made by nails on a wall, incrementally reflect a decisive/aggressive tendency towards the outside world, taking on a literally cutting/revolutionary form, aims to stake ground, carve open, outwards, to be seen.
Holes on walls are like wounds on our bodies.
The totality of holes also hints at games such as ‘connect the dots’, suggestive of a new form of  writing, a rethinking – enhanced by poetry and how it uses language.

*Quote by Audre Lorde.

PERFORMANCES

Sundays from 30th of April till 18th of June 2023, 21.00 | Performance
ALEX(A)
Concept-Direction: Yota Argyropoulou
Dramaturgy: Igor Dobricic
Artistic collaborator: Michalis Constantatos
Lighting design: Nikolas Karanikolas
Performers: Alexa, Yota Argyropoulou, Konstantina Katsiari (video), Stelios Kratsas
Interviews: Yota Argyropoulou, Konstantina Katsiari
Head of Communication: Evangelia Skrompola
Director Assistant: Foteini Salvaridi
Produced by: blindpost theater group
Co-produced by: Ministry of Culture, blindpost theater group
Residencies: Kaaitheater, Brussels & Onassis AiR: artists’ residence program of the Onassis Foundation, Athens

Research-based performance, involving a performer (Yota A.), a teenager (Stelios Skaltsas) and a machine (Alexa), focuses on the relation between politics, technology, protest, youth and the degrees of intimacy and contact that people develop with their digital equipment. 

A woman and an AI device in conversation. Their communications started in Spring ’20 and they continue to converse until this day, covering a wide range of topics – pop culture, technology, contemporary socio-political reality, her adolescence, the coming of age of generation Z. The persona of Artificial Intelligence takes on the role of a conversationalist, allowing for a conversation to unfold on resistance, revolts, and social demands, often with unforeseen results. 

In parallel, we follow the life story of a yound 17 year old boy, Alex: how he spends his time privately in his room and publicly through digital images. The performance functions as an investigations into adolescents relationship with themselves, technology, their city as well as society at large, through the use of digital technologies and the interface of social with his friends. 

Through the presence of a woman and teenager, ALEX(A) grapples with questions and ideas related to the use of technology, the revolutionary nature of youth, the disappointments of growing up, marches, police violence, confusing political identities, artificial intelligence etc. The performance merges fiction and reality, with contemporary Athens providing the background.

Performance in Greek and English with subtitles in both languages.

Wednesday, 31st of May & 7th of June 2023, 20.00 | Performance
Athinoula by Eva Giannakopoulou

Research-based performance on female resistance contemporary and past: through long-term research and collaboration with the local community and focused on the history of heroic  resistance by women from Tavros during the German Occupation.

Athena Hatziesmer, was born in 1927 in Tavros, the daughter of a family of refugees from Asia Minor. As a teenager, she becomes heavily involved in the Resistance, and following a betrayal is arrested and taken to jail where she despite being tortured, refuses to give in her comrades. At the tender age of 17, on the 2^nd of October 1944, about to be executed, she refuses to have her eyes tied. A few days later the occupying forces leave Athens.

79 years after the execution of Athena Hatziesmer, a school student, writes two letters in a literary blog, in an attempt to speak about all those things that the former students never had a chance to say. 

Athinoula is a performance in honor of Athina Hatziesmer and 57 more women from Tavros involved in the Resistance, as well as a commentary on presence in public memory and various forms of aesthetic strategies of remembrance. 

Thursdays 22nd, 29th of June & 6th of July 2023, 21.00 | Performance
Lachryphagi
Concept – Artworks: Nana Sachini
Dramaturgy: Eugenia Grammenou, Iordanis Papadopoulos, Nana SachiniSound
Design: Yiannis Loukos
Performers: Eugenia Grammenou, Iordanis Papadopoulos, Nana Sachini
Sound performance: Yorgia Karidi

Lachryfagoi is a sculpture-environment-performance that is made up of sculptural objects, setting the scene for an exploration of with/within/between, in which the performers act and react, with each other, somatically, vocally, intermingling idiosyncratic narratives.

In Lachryphagi, relating to, with, material ontologies and materiality in general, in an unorthodox, perhaps even childish, definitely mythical way, creating novel readings of what we understand as identity-forming.

In Lachryphagi, bodies-image-existence-identity-ethics-politics-poetry are treated as one indivisible whole, in which if even one element changes, disturbances occur, creating ripple effects.

In Lachryphagi, bodies become sculpture-objects and object-sculptures are given life, activated, transforming them into subject-bodies with magical capabilities. 

In Lachryphagi, all actions take place in an unidentifiable space-time continuum, people are anonymous with multiple and entangled roles.

In Lachryphagi, absurdity, memories of fairy-tales, traces of the somatic, unconscious desires, mnemonic remnants, and the pre-linguistic, coexist and interact, along with the natural and supernatural, fragments of the fantastical, mythological narratives and experiences which would love to become universal.

In Lachryphagi competitive relations are in constant flux, mingling, often refused and always doubted. Female/masculine, mother/child, child/adult, conscious/unconscious, nature/culture, personal/political, representation/abstraction, presence/absence, desire/rejection, that which we see and that which we imagine/presume, that which is suggested/revealed and that which is hidden.

In Lachryphagi what we see is the extension of our gaze, what we know and feel is in constant flow and is permanently contested, everything hovers in an in between, in a state of permanent ambiguity. 

In Lachryphagi, the sculptural-environment landscape remains present, even when not-activated by the performers, suggesting an autonomous visual vocabulary as well as an expanded form of sculpture.

Warmest thanks for their help: Margarita Bofiliou, Socrates Fatouros

FILM SCREENINGS

How do we tell our stories?
Film curation: Nionia Films (Alkisti Efthymiou, Maria F Dolores, Smaro Papaevangelou, Sofia Dona)

A series of six screening sessions on the topic of HER/HIS/THEIR stories and non hegemonic story telling. The film program is an attempt to discuss methodological tools found on queer and feminist cinema. 

In Kaliarda (Greek gay slang), “nionia” means memory. Nionia Films is an encounter of people that love queer moving image works. They explore contemporary queer feminist cinema, silenced films, hybrid experimental forms. Through this gesture of collecting and retrieving, they want to share and construct an archive of pervert cinema in Athens.

Chapter 1 | Friday, 7th of April 2023, 21.00 | Film screening

Movie:

The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye, 1996, USA, 90 minutes, in English.

A romantic comedy-drama written, directed, and edited by Cheryl Dunye. It stars Dunye as Cheryl, a young Black lesbian who works in a video store while trying to make a film about a Black actress from the 1930s known for playing stereotypical “mammy” roles relegated to Black actresses during the period. This is the first feature film directed by a Black lesbian and is considered a landmark in New Queer Cinema.

Chapter 2 | Friday, 28th of April 2023, 21.00 | Film screenings

Movies:

Νovember, Hito Steyerl, 2004, Austria, Germany, 25 minutes, in English.
9/8fight41, Gizem Aksu, 2022, Turkey, 29 minutes, in Turkish.

In november, Hito Steyerl investigates the role of images in revolution, gender in political uprisings and the aesthetics of protest, chronicling the journey of Andrea Wolf, a friend who became involved in the Kurdish liberation movement in Turkey. The work weaves together documentary footage from Kurdish television, scenes from an amateur film made by the two friends as teens, clips from Bruce Lee movies, and Steyerl’s own narration.

This short dance documentary is inspired by the dance/fight of the legendary German Sinto boxer Johann Rukeli Trollmann (1907-1944) to highlight recent Roma demands in Turkey. In a 9/8 musical meter, four dancers combine the power of dance with their struggle for justice in Sulukule and Fikirtepe, Istanbul’s Roma neighborhoods.

Chapter 3 | Friday, 5th of May 2023, 21.00| Film screening

Movie:

Rebel Dykes, Harri Shanahan and Siân A. Williams, 2021, UK, 89 minutes, in English.

Α feature-length documentary about the explosion that happened when punk met feminism, told through the lives of a gang of lesbians in the riotous London of the 1980s.

Chapter 4 | Friday, 12th of May 2023, 21.00 | Film screening

Movie:

Tilos Weddings, Panayotis Evangelidis, 2022, Greece, 74 minutes, in Greek.

In 2008, the mayor of the island of Tilos agreed to perform the first gay and lesbian civil marriages ever held in Greece. The film follows the story of these two civil marriages through visual material that was shot ad hoc, but also through footage from the Gay Pride of the same year, from press conferences, and from other demonstrations about the same topic.

Chapter 5 | Friday, 19th of May 2023, 21.00 | Film screenings

Movies:

Tongues Untied, Marlon T. Riggs, 1989, USA, 55 minutes, in English.
Playback, Agustina Comedi, 2019, Argentina, 14 minutes, in Spanish.

Tongues Untied makes visible the experience of living as an outsider both in a Black community filled with homophobia and a largely white gay subculture poisoned by racism. Through music and dance, poetry from path-breaking writers like Essex Hemphill and Joseph Beam, and interviews with queer African American men, this radical combination of documentary and performance defies the stigmas surrounding Black gay sexuality in the belief that, as long as shame prevails, liberation cannot be possible.

Argentina, late 1980s, in the conservative and ultra-Catholic provincial town of Córdoba. Delpi and her fellow ostracized drag queen friends form the Kalas Group, putting on spectacular lip-syncing shows. Their performances are a means of resistance, as well as an attempt to exorcise their own personal demons: the AIDS scourge that plunged their community into grief and loss. A parade of rare footage that bittersweetly bids farewell to the wild days of companionship, rebellion and heartache.

Chapter 6 | Friday, 26th of May 2023, 21.00 | Film screening

Movie:

Gut Renovation, Su Friedrich, 2012, USA, 81 minutes.

A documentary that tracks small changes in the urban landscape evolves into a historical record of gentrification in New York. The resulting film is a melancholy, essayistic requiem for a neighborhood and an entire way of life. It also provides a case study of the rapid urban “development” of our cities.

WORKSHOPS

Monday, 24th of April – Friday, 28th of April 2023, 14:00-17:00 | Workshops
Reading Feminisms
Moderation: Erica Scourti
Guest contributors: Dimitra Ioannou & Evi Nakou.
Open day on the 28th of April at 18:00

A workshop and seminar series over five days that draws on mostly recent queer and feminist writing to explore reading together, considering voice, narration, ventriloquism, translation and collaborative ways to engage with texts. 

While the workshop is based on the form of the reading group, we will also explore performative modes of reading and listening together, including experiments with voice, note-taking and simple bodily movements, to consider how text can be embodied, materialised and reactivated in a group setting.

The final day will be open to the public, which will be invited as participants and or audience to a group presentation of readings drawn from the texts and approaches explored throughout the seminar.

Educational workshop
Συναι/no [Consent]
Moderation: Genderhood

Educational workshops at the 5th primary school of Tavros, thinking about gender and issues of consent in a playful and experimental context. For students 9-10 yrs.

Educational workshop
#me_enoxleis [#youbuggingme]
Moderation: Genderhood

Educational workshops at the local Solidarity School of Mesopotamia shedding light on issues of consent violation in online communication, the ways in which it manifests itself, the emotions it evokes and what we can do to make ti manageable. For students 15-18 yrs.

OPEN MIC

Through a variety of events initiated by guests we are opening up our space to a broader audience, to playfully take part, enjoy and connect.

Saturday, 6th of May 2023, 21.00 | Stand Up Comedy Open Mic
Host: Konstantina Daouti (stand up comedian)
Headliner: Melina Kollia
Participants after open call: Constantinos Capitano, Odette Kougea, Sophia Kouloukouri, Katia Mathioudaki, Thodoris Michaelidis, Stavroula Pabst, Phoebe Psevdou, Smaro, Orestis Theofanoudis

Stand up comedians test out their scripts in public for the first time. A stand up comedy night for everyone with open mics for open minds.

Saturday, 20th of May 2023, 21.00 | Collective reading performance
Carousel, women sing for the earth
Organisation: FRMK poetry magazine
Concieved by: Katerina Iliopoulou, Yannis Isidoroy
Soundscape: Yannis Isidoroy
Texts will be read by the following poets: Iana Boukova, Niki Chalkiadaki, Phoebe Giannisi, Katerina Iliopoulou, Lena Kallergi, Olga Papakosta, Alexandra Plastira, Tonia Tzirita Zacharatou, Lenia Zafeiropoulou, the translator Elena Vlachou, the choreographer Anna Tzakou and visual artists Mania Benissi and Iris Depasta.

Carousel, women sing for the earth, a collective reading performance by FRMK poetry magazine.

Poems by contemporary female poets who write in different languages and which pay homage to a planet in danger. The poems are selected from FRMK magazines anthology “Anthropocene”.

Poems by the following authors will be read: Iana Boukova (Bulgaria), Coral Bracho (Mexico), Inger Christensen (Denmark), Natalie Diaz (USA), Vera Duarte (Campo Verde), Joy Harjo (USA), Jane Hirshfield (USA), Manuela Margarido (νήσος του Πρίγκιπα), Eirini Markou (Greece), Mary Oliver (USA), Jena Osman (USA), Noemia de Sousa (Μοzambique), Verena Stauffer (Austria), Anna Paula Tavares (Angola), Cecilia Vicuña (Chile).

Saturday, 24th of June 2023, 21.00 | Karaoke night
Parade of Roses
Artists: VASKOS
With: Leto Messini, Vasilis Noulas, Kostas Tzimoulis.

May roses are the most beautiful! Nevertheless even before the weather gets hots, no matter how beautiful they are, they start to wither. Roses are the secret symbols of homoeroticism. Before they wither, roses sing, dance, dress up, shout out. Parody is there strategy, pose is their form, they adore grandeur and the ridiculous. They learn how to survive. 

Vaskos’ performance is a musical performance, camp, with video-karaoke, pop references, a queer strategy for survival.

COMMUNITY GATHERINGS

Evenings for coming together, discussing, sharing interests, exchanging knowledge. Each community gathering will be led by a different organisation / individual and will take on a different format.

Wednesday, 10th of May 2023, 19.00 | Discussion led by Positive Voice

A discussion on intersectional and peer-to-peer approach regarding Positive Voice’s HIV-related health services based on: a) a community approach, b) lived experience – peer-to-peer approach and c) concepts of intersectionality and how affects all of Positive Voice’s work.

Wednesday, 17th of May 2023, 19.00 | Discussion
Speaker: Olga Dalekou (actress)

Α discussion led by Olga Dalekou, a deaf actress, on the daily practices dedicated to inclusivity within the community of deaf and hard of hearing community. (Greek Sign Language Interpretation by Liminal Access).

Olga Dalekou is a deaf actress and she uses her social media account to introduce and spread terms related to gender issues, body positivity movement, ecology, veganism, animal rights and social issues, within the deaf (online) community.

Wednesday, 14th of June 2023, 19.00 | A discussion led by Centre of New Media and Feminist Public Practices
Speakers: Valia Papastamou, Marianna Stefanitsi, Ioanna Zouli

The Centre is a unique platform in Greece dedicated to theory, pedagogy and art concerned with feminism, technology and expanded aesthetic practices, proposing a bridge between academia and the field of production. It worked on the production, postproduction, distribution and support of women’s’ practice and the development of feminist theories. 

Monday, 19th of June 2023, 20.00 | A creative gathering with NTIZEZA

NTIZEZA (a platform for the support and celebration of femininities and feminist artists in Athens) comes to Tavros for a crucial discussion on the role of feminisms in intersectional struggles and claims for justice.

In January 2023, various feminist collectives, workers unions, individuals and residents from Kolonos area in Athens, formed a Solidarity Committee dedicated to fighting for justice and accountability within society and to support economically, psychologically and by any other possible means the 12-year-old Kolonos native, survivor of child rape and trafficking and her family. 
Anastasia Diavasti, artist and founder of NTIZEZA, an intersectional feminist platform in Athens, will be in discussion with local educator, Tatiana Chalikia, based on NTIZEZA’s M.O., such as locality, cooperation, relationship building and urgency and their intertwined activisms as members of the Solidarity Committee. In an open discussion, we will together map out feminist tools and methods of solidarity and cooperation that can be used not only in urgent cases like this, but whenever individuals and collectives of different backgrounds are called to collaborate with each other.

Discussions will be in Greek.

A pop-up library will be available during the duration of the exhibition with suggested readings by AFSAR (Asian Feminist Studio for Art and Research), Haven for Artists, KIRIK & Zeyno Pekünlü, Mimosa House, Radical Sense, Tropical Papers. The pop-up library and the satellite institutions and collectives that have suggested these readings, form a gathering of voices thinking critically and creatively about feminist practices and various forms of solidarity from different sides of the world.