With the temperatures still remaining stubbornly warm, culturally curious visitors and art aficionados hesitantly leave the beaches to enjoy Greece’s packed autumn events calendar. After a summer jam-packed with concerts under the stars, historic theatres and impromptu galleries, Greece’s major cities now open their doors to a melting-pot of artistic creation.
Film | 19th Athens International Film Festival Opening Nights
September 18-29, 2013
The festival founded by the non-profit Athens Film Society
and supported by the staple Cinema magazine has become a meeting-point
for about 50,000 cinema-goers from Athens and beyond, swarming in the
wider city-centre to catch up with the latest trends in international
production. Opening Nights
aims to balance major cinematic releases and obscure independent gems —
and they have done so successfully, premiering the likes of Drive next to the Filipino sleeper-hit Graceland.
Retrospectives like 2011’s of the Dutch documentary pioneer Johan van
der Keuken rub shoulders with the popular International Competition and
the Music & Film sections — which will assume a decisively female
identity for 2013 with the poignant documentary Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer. Premieres this year include Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha and Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Abdellatif Kechiche’s Adele: Chapters 1 & 2, in the presence of the protagonist Adele Exarchopoulos.
Art | 4th Αthens Biennale AGORA
29 September – 1 December
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| AB4 team/© Takis Spiropoulos |
AB4
doesn’t just assemble a party of artists, curators and practitioners in
the creative industries in order to critique the rollercoaster
financial crisis, but it does so in divine irony, at the derelict
building of the former Athens Stock Exchange. Aptly named AGORA,
it opposes the idealistic model of the ancient ‘Agora’ (translating as
market, assembly, or assemblage) with a model of reiteration and modern
combat that ‘opts for the carnivalesque and the ambiguous, for the
significant as much as the insignificant’. All of the above, through a
succession of objects, collaborative events, performances, roundtable
discussions, film screenings, workshops and educational programs, will
seek an alternative to AB3’s Monodrome — from the origins of the crisis to a remodeled, hopeful future.
Art | ReMap Athens
September 8-30, 2013
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| ReMap 4 logo/© ReMap Athens |
ReMap4
is a biannual contemporary art platform by the not for profit
organization ReMapKM that stays true to its word: it ‘remaps’ the
capital within the confines of the historic Kerameikos-Metaxourgeio area
through some 60 art projects, exhibitions and events by up-and-coming
and established artists, curators, galleries and institutions from
Athens, Berlin, Zurich, Vienna, New York and beyond. The public can
navigate fluidly through the conceptual and the urban, the vague and the
specific, the creative and the socio-economical, the fancy galleries
and the eerie basements rediscovering the city — completely free of
charge. Let the likes of DaDa Da Academy and Psychonavigation lead you
to surprise locations for wonderfully absurdist concerts and
performances inspired by the motto ‘if sports is the brother of labor,
then art is the cousin of unemployment’.
Film | 54th Thessaloniki International Film Festival
November 1-10, 2013
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| Queue for festival tickets/© Thessaloniki International Film Festival |
Dedicated cinephiles pack their bags right after Opening
Nights and head up North for a festival with a far greater history — the
oldest one of its kind in the Balkans. Famous guests such as director
Oliver Stone have given one-off masterclasses here, next to tributes
from the Finnish Aki Kaurismäki to Greece’s own Theo Agelopoulos, the
Balkan Survey, the Youth Screen, the electrifying Night Views and, of
course, the International Competition for emerging directors and the
esteemed European Parliament’s LUX prize, for movies that deal with key
issues for the Euro-public. Hosted at the staple Olympion theatre, under
the bright lights of the main Aristotelous Square, Thessaloniki Film Festival’s heart unquestionably lies with independent production — and the results are seriously atmospheric.
Film | National & International Short Film Festival in Drama
September 16-21, 2013
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| Poster for the 2012 festival/© National & International Short Film Festival in Drama |
The scenic Northern town of Drama has since 1978 taken up a
more modest task, but only in appearances. Featuring complimentary
tributes, seminars, conferences, lectures, art exhibitions, gigs and
theatrical performances throughout the year, the Drama Short Film Festival
primarily aims to promote cinematic vision, reaching a both local and
foreign audience through various collaborations. Starting as an
ambitious initiative by the Drama Film Club and greeted with enthusiasm
from the get go, the festival has shown a remarkable increase in
popularity and dynamics. Resolving also to intervene in the atrophic
distribution of short films it has established, the last six years, The
Festival of Drama on the Road, taking its power-shorts to various cities
in Greece, Cyprus and as far as Egypt and Germany, in search of hungry film lovers amongst the Greek diaspora.
Music | Jazz Masters
October 21 & November 4, 2013
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| Joshua Redman/© Chris Hakkens/WikiCommons |
The historic Pallas theatre, in the commercial hub of the
cosmopolitan Voukourestiou street in the Athens city centre, has become
quite the artsy hot-spot ever since it was refurbished a few years ago. A
major point of cultural attraction for the city’s jazzophiles, the
series Jazz Masters has been consistently establishing a rhythmic link with the world’s classiest players. This fall, saxophonist and composer Joshua Redman is zooming in on his latest album Walking Shadows.
One of the biggest figures of the new jazz generation of the last two
decades, Redman counts among his collaborators Herbie Hancock, BB King,
all the way to classical maestro Simon Rattle. Next month, the sax is
passed on to the Grammy Award-winning veteran Pharoah Sanders, ‘probably the best tenor
player in the world’, according to jazz radical Ornette Coleman.
Bandmate of bebop giant John Coltrane in the ‘60s he is accompanied on
stage, five decades on, by top contemporary jazz organist and trumpeter Joey De Francesco.
Art | The System of Objects
until November 11, 2013
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| The System of Objects exhibition poster/© Deste Foundation |
The non-profit Deste Foundation
was established in 1983 by collector Dakis Joannou and it has since
played a key part in enhancing the experience of the contemporary
art-loving Greek
audience. The biannual Deste Prize has been awarding promising young
Greek artists since 1999 — you can check out this year’s contestants at
the gorgeous neoclassical building of the Museum of Cycladic Art, in the
Athens centre, until September 30th. But dare make a trip to the
foundation’s headquarters in the suburb of Nea Ionia for the exhibition System of Objects,
‘a dark, provocative, sexual, and uplifting’ journey across the spaces
of DESTE. Inspired by Jean Baudrillard’s seminal 1968 consumerist
manifesto of the same name, it makes for a chaotic voyage through
Cypriot antiquities, baroque figurines of Christ, photographs, videos,
installations, furniture and more by Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Helmut
Newton, Jenny Holzer all the way to American Apparel. Exhibition,
baroque garden or modern theme park? It remains to be seen...
Art | 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art
September 18, 2013-January 31, 2014
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| Work by Marina Abramovic/© 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art |
The 4th Thessaloniki Biennale
focuses once again, on the Mediterranean, as it is defined by its
traditions and strategic place in the contemporary world, between social
and cultural evolution. Entitled ‘Old Intersections-Make It New’, the
biennale encompasses a series of exhibitions, performances, workshops,
conferences and other events in museums and monuments, all revolving
around the main exhibition ‘Everywhere But Now’, curated by Αdelina von
Fürstenberg. Fifty artists from 25 countries, from Cuba to India via 14
participants from the hosting country of Greece
cover the full contemporary spectrum from paintings to installations. A
major part of the action is the ‘5 Museums’ Movement in Thessaloniki’,
with institutions like the State Museum of Contemporary Art shedding
light on the Russian avant-garde and the Archaeological Museum focusing
on ‘Mediterranean Palimpsests: Three Enigmas of Decay and Incorruption’.
Dance | Carmen & Bolero
September 15, 2013
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| View of the Odeon Herodes Atticus from the Acropolis/© WestportWiki/WikiCommons |
Renowned Spanish director Carlos Saura took the public and film festivals by storm, directing his own flamenco Carmen in 1983 for the big screen to great acclaim. The late Antonio Gades,
a truly immense figure in the Spanish flamenco scene as a dancer,
choreographer, co-founder and artistic director of the Spanish National
Ballet starred in the film along with Laura del Sol and flamenco guitar
master Paco de Lucia — and thanks to the rave revues decided to create,
with Saura, this revolutionary production that premiered in Paris 30
years ago. Bizet’s Carmen — flamenco style
will be presented by 4 soloists, 25 dancers, 5 singers and 2 guitarists
in the stunning ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus, under the night
lights of the Parthenon. Ravel’s Bolero, choreographed by P. Pozo and danced by the new award-winning international flamenco star Sergio Bernal will be adequately complementing the ambitious programme.
Music | Saxophone Summit
October 17, 2013
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| Dave Liebman/© Tom Marcello/WikiCommons |
Starting as the adventurous, forward-thinking jazz project of saxophone wizards Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano, Saxophone Summit
broke new boundaries in the ‘90s — boundaries which, despite the loss
of the late Brecker, Liebman and Lovano decided to challenge, ala John
Coltrane, with another promising candidate: Ravi Coltrane, son of the
colossal jazz experimentalist and still a newcomer in comparison. The
initial virtuosic trio’s acclaimed Gathering of Spirits was followed by the new formation’s Seraphic Light,
both honouring John Coltrane in their own way, but the latter also
trying to carve a fresh, singular identity. This daring alchemy of
sounds will elegantly fill the live hall of Gazarte arts & culture
multi-venue, in Athens, whose upper floor offers breathtaking urban
views, split between the Acropolis and the hip industrial area of Gazi.
By Danai Molocha
Published: The Culture Trip, 23/08/13.
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