EKON Festival proposes original approaches to Greek culture. It brings exclusively to London audiences some of the most interesting audio-visual productions emerging from the Greek-inspired world today with some of the finest and most innovative international artists of the 20th and 21st centuries who combine live art with current technologies to push the boundaries of artistic expression.

The festival is interested in exploring ways in which different art forms open a dialogue with one another across cultures. Its events range from dance theatre to multi-media performance, from cabaret to shadow theatre, from experimental sounds to popular instrumentals, from electronics to installation.

Ekon Festival is a non-profit cultural organisation which aims to promote:

• Awareness: To organise an annual festival with a diverse and multi-faceted programme of performances and other art-related events that offer an insight to contemporary Greek culture in a stimulating environment
• Cultural Interaction: To offer a platform for artists and performers of varied backgrounds to exchange ideas, socialise and share learning of their craft through active involvement in an artistic enterprise
• Development: To contribute to the dynamism of contemporary Greek culture by inviting original and creative approaches that reveal its rich potential for the world arts scene
• Inspiration: To endorse fresh talent and originality by commissioning new work, promoting opportunities for innovative quality projects and supporting progression in the arts. To engage the UK international audience and young arts patrons and to provide for them an enjoyable experience of the wealth and diversity of Greek culture

Its vision is to be one of the most exciting and innovative festivals of contemporary sound and performing arts in the UK, presenting arts of high standard to the widest possible audience, showcasing contemporary Greek culture within a broader international context, and encouraging public participation in the arts.

EKON 2011-2012

Historically, the Olympic Games united the ancient Greek world, promoting a spirit of peaceful co-existence. The 2012 London Olympics propose, no less ambitiously, to create an athletic and cultural legacy in a globalised climate of political, economic and social re-negotiation. The controversial French law on the veil and the Greek plans to erect a wall along the Turkish borders are two prominent examples of re-negotiated space, whether facial or geo-political, with significant cultural implications. At the same time, the implementation of spending cuts has driven the arts to re-negotiate their standing and justify their social relevance.

Taking up these challenges, EKON Festival will be presenting its 2012 Olympics programme, to begin in 2011 and centring around the theme

CROSSOVERS

Of new bodies and re-negotiated spaces

For 2011, the festival will be moving beyond binary distinctions, such as male/female, homosexual/heterosexual, fake/true, human/mechanical, to examine the notion of queerness and the assemblage of new bodies as reflected in gender and language. Some of the ideas to be explored are transgression, ambivalence or silence.

For 2012, we will be looking at ways in which the notion of ‘foreignness’ as the site for the (de)construction of identity informs cultural and geo-political approaches to the theme. A number of ideas to be explored are reception and interception, exile, movement of population, asylum, dissidence and the exercise of power, or new forms of war.

The provisional dates are: November 2011 and May 2012.

We are accepting applications for the Olympics EKON Festival 2012 in the fields of contemporary sound, dance and performance, multi-media/installation, and combined arts.

Applications are invited from individual artists and groups (a) of Greek background and (b) of other cultural or linguistic background whose work explores or reinterprets or is inspired by aspects of Greek culture in relation to the umbrella theme of ‘CROSSOVERS’. We are also interested in collaborative projects by Greek and non-Greek artists who meet the above criteria.

For more information about how to apply, please contact us at submissions@ekon.org.uk

19–20 November 2010, Riverside Studios, London

28 November 2010, Theatro Technis, London

EKON Festival presents its third and best yet international programme of contemporary productions emerging from the Greek world today: an electrifying journey through live art, dance theatre, multi-media performance, contemporary classical music, operatic staged performance, experimental and electronic music, sound installation and audio-visual experiences.

The 2010 EKON Festival brings a refreshingly new approach to Greek music and performing arts. Enjoy the diversity of contemporary Greek culture with some of the most innovative and prominent artists of the 20th and 21st centuries who have come together for this annual celebration; all driven by a desire to experiment, to create something new. This promises to be a riot of a festival where the word ‘greek’ takes on a whole new meaning.

We are sailing away to unchartered seas… at the heart of an urban landscape. We’ll be taking you on a journey of exploration amid the circuits of change and transformation; of disposable images and uncertain finales; even of what lies beyond ‘normality’. An electrifying journey through dance theatre, visual and live art, multi-media performance, contemporary classical music, operatic staged performance, alternative and electronic music, audio-visual experiences and musical improvisation.

Join us in for our after-Festival party, in the Riverside Studios Bar on 20th November and the foyer of Theatro Technis on 28th November, for a taste of Greek food and wine offered.

Photo copyright© Art-syndicate.org & The-Erasers

First Love Playback, 20.30

NOVEMBER 2010 RIVERSIDE STUDIOS LONDON

Photo copyright© Art-syndicate.org & The Erasers http://theerasers.blogspot.com/

Photo copyright© Art-syndicate.org & The Erasers

I know you are behind me but I’m not scared

Saturday 20 November 2010

Electronic Music, 19.45

Venue: Riverside Theatre, London http://www.riversidestudios.co.uk/

Greek avant-guard music from new generation Mohammad and Etten, plus special guest appearance,

in a programme that blends experimental sounds and electronics with visual elements and current technologies.

Music: Gyorgy Kurtag, Basil Athanasiadis

Choreographer: Sarah Fahie

Featuring: vocalist Shie Shoji and violinist Stelios Chatziiosifidis

A clock. A hammock. A violin. Inspired by the idea of ‘thought fragments’ conveyed via Kafka’s diaries and also prevalent in the Japanese haiku poem, ‘Music Iris’ explores the notion of impermanence that is implicit in birth and death. This fusion of opera and musical theatre is a staged performance of new works by Gyorgy Kurtag and Basil Athanasiadis that involves stage action, puppetry and dance, beautifully choreographed by Sarah Fahie.

Based on a cross-cultural foundation, Shonorities is a diverse group of performers and composers whose repertoire encompasses a wide spectrum of musical styles both traditional and contemporary. By blending a variety of musical cultures, the group explores east/west cultural connections. They often collaborate with choreographers, dancers and lighting designers to produce a vibrant musical experience combined with elements of theatrical presentation.