Barbara's Dream

Performance presented in the context of V_IDEAS, ΕΠΙΤΕΛΕΣΕΙΣ V_IDEAS, PERFORMANCES

VIDEAS, PERFORMANCES 7-25 May 2014 at Beton 7  

Link

Curated by Dimosthenis Agrafiotis and Andreas Pashias

INFERNO arts, scènes, attitudes # 04 print edition, winter/spring 2015. Grèce: dans l'oeil du Cyclone, le feu secret des artistes grecs, p.127 https://inferno-magazine.com/2014/12/19/inferno-six-monthly-04-le-numero-hiverprintemps-2015-sort-le-15-janvier/

I was invited to perform at Beton 7 https://www.beton7.com/ art space located in Votanikos an area in Athens between Iera Odos (Sacred Way: In ancient Greece, it was the road from Athens to Eleusis, the route taken by a procession celebrating the Eleusinian Mysteries) and Gazi. A historically industrial area ( The gas light factory was founded there in 1857), many prostitute houses and low-income factory worker families. Since 2000s it is gentrified. Airbnb uprised the rents and the warehouses became nightclubs. Votanikos in between, was always a moretraditional neighbourhood with open diy cinemas, jugglers and street gatherings. There while researching, I met randomly a horse inside a garden. I was led to the owner Nikos, an old hospitable and isolated man who was living there with his family in a detachable house, collecting scrap metals, creating sometimes small sculptures from them and taking care of his three horses. Nikos owned tis garden and he shared with me some stories from the past when his father had wealth and later the Nazis executed a man in his garden. His dream was to create a canteen and a park for children and horses in there. My idea was to connect Nikos and the horse with the people of Beton7 through a ritualistic procession. They came to the gallery and me riding the horse with the help of Nikos, we guided everybody to the garden where we shared some drinks and talks.