Download www.vas.eu.com

Towards the research of a non identified scenic form
Contacts:
0030 6944222684 (Argyro Chioti)
0030 6944982804 (Alexandros Vrettos)
www.vas.eu.com
[email protected]
Created in 2005 by artists of different nationalities (France, Greece, Mexico), we
share experiences of life abroad. The association itself is established between
Athens and Marseille, searching to develop an international cultural and artistic
network. We work for the research and experimentation on stage’s action.
Some axes of our working method:
There is little use of technical means, placing the emphasis on the actor/actress.
The performances are made to adapt to all sorts of unusual places (garages, roof
terraces, interior courtyards, caves), as well as stage theatres. They are conceived
with an international public in mind: we organize the space in a way that favours
intimate proximity with the public, through the use of several spoken languages, by
exploring live instantaneous translation, and with the use of several disciplines
(music, dance, theatre, performing).
We compose our original polyphonic songs, we use our mother tongues and
personal experiences, orchestrating «moving images» in detail, creating a rhythm
for our story, like a choreography in present time. We long for a stage language
that we call «sensitive body language» arbitrarily.
Vasistas projects, directed by Argyro Chioti:
Get over it (Phaedras), 2006-07
Little Red Riding Hood-me and my wolf, 2007-08
Silence, 2008-09
Phobia: a spectacle, 2010
Spectacle, 2011
Vasistas collaborations:
Faust by Goethe (for the National Theatre of Greece, experimental project of
collective direction – Blitz, A.Xafis, V.Mavrogeorgiou, G.Gallos and A.Chioti)
Kassandra by Benedetto Marcello (cantata with the ensemble Latinitas Nostra)
“Spectacle”
Creation 2011
In Spectacle, we deal with learning mechanisms in everyday life. Exploring different,
architecturally particular spaces, we create a plastic, human and mobile installation.
An illogic circuit of action were people try to train and educate the others. The
controllers become controlled, the researchers become subjects of research and the
instinctive sight of people becomes spectacle and mean of manipulation. We create
on stage a network inspired by an electric circuit, an Internet network and a virtual
game. This invisible circuit has its own rules, its stops, obstacles, crossings,
accidents, obligations and repetitions… We focus on the spectacularisation of
intimacy, on the conflict between instincts and social codes, and the conditioning of
personality. Towards the research of interpersonal communication.
The dramaturgy is based on scientific experiments, symbols, images, reality
functioning, texts and works of the 20th century’s thinkers.
Spectacle was created for Athens and Epidaurus Festival 2011 and was presented in
National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens in July 2011. With the support of
Municipality of Marseille and La Caldera (space for dance and arts in Barcelona).
Spectacle
Stage direction: Argyro Chioti
Concept/dramaturgy/music: vasistas
Stage Design: Eva Manidaki
Costume Design: Paul Thanopoulos
Light Design: Tasos Palaioroutas
Assistant director: Lida Dalla
With: Ariane Labed | Naima Carbajal | Petros Stathakopoulos | Efthimis Theou |
Argyro Chioti
Photos for spectalce: Yiorgos Lanthimos
Photos of spectacle: Christos Voudouris
Production/Management: Alexandros Vrettos
Diving into the labyrinth of the brain. Vicious circle. Automatism.
Societies of control. Each city has its centre, its periphery; each one of us has their point
of reference, the routes, the neighborhoods, a life that is organized in security zones.
Seeking balance and security. Seeking specific contexts of action. Submitting to norms
and rules. Following the requirements of the times. The natural flow of things is
established as long as these contexts are consolidated, crystallized and dried up from
infertile repetitiveness, the satiety of the rules, the static quality of energy. As long as
authority (with the sense of "the many") aims at an ever increasing control at a physical,
psychological and emotional level. As long as human beings suffocate in the very same
context they have sought to be part of, because the escape routes are ever lessening,
because they think the train is running too fast and they are left behind, because, both
generally and specifically, reality (with its great degree of demand) overpowers and
sucks them, for they don't act as they intended to or the don't act at all. Societies in
which spectacle seems to be omnipotent and omniscient. Everything "in view",
everything "in appearances". Advancing, unaccounted for and unaware, towards
automatism in all levels. In a reality in which simulation seems more real than reality
itself. In a place where (even when ill at ease) we have to be like this and act like that,
quietly accepting control and guidance/patronage. Within such reality, I see each one of
us as a sealed toothpaste tube, so intensely squeezed, that due to lack of outlet, it bursts
open in random and erratic cracks, through which the content runs uncontrollably.
Phobia: a spectacle
Creation 2010
Phobia: from the fact to its “spectalization”
Causing and using fear as a medium of manipulation.
Orchestrated panic in augmented doses.
Alone in a virtual reality. Powerful.
In this performance we attempt to create a micro-society, like ours, that aims to
control and manipulate everything, using two basic means: fear and the spectacle.
A performance that combines two extreme aesthetic lines: the realistic - as much as
possible- actualization of a lecture and the creation of an audio-visual environment
that appeals directly to the senses.
phobia: a spectacle was created in different periods of time and spaces (residencies)
through the year 2009-2010 : Phobia: 1 in Berlin, Phobia: 2 in Santorini, Greece,
Phobia: 3 in Marseille, in the space L’ Eolienne and in collaboration with Les Bernardines
Theatre, before the final rehearsals and the creation of phobia: a spectacle at
Contemporary Theatre of Athens in coproduction with National Theatre of Athens from 5
to 30 of May.
The team
Direction:
Argyro Chioti
Concept/dramaturgy/music:
Vasistas
Lighting:
Tasos Palaioroutas
Stage design:
Eva Manidaki
Costume design:
Paul Thanopoulos
Collaboration to the movement:
Sofia Mavragani
Collaboration to the dramaturgy:
Labros Hrisogonidis
with: Ariane Labed |Efthimis Theou |Naima Carbajal |Petros Stathakopoulos|
Argyro Chioti
Photos of the performance: Isabelle Schneider
Photos of the little men: Christos Kiriakogonas
phobia: a spectacle is a collective writing inspired by the texts of: Henri Laborit, Guy
Debord, Jean Baudrillard, Kostis Papayiorgis and others, as well as symbols, images and
mechanisms of functioning of the reality around us.
Previous creations of
Silence
Creation 2008-09
104 Center of Art and Letters, Athens,
December 2008 and October 2009
L’Eolienne, Marseille, December 2008
Croatia ( Dubrovnic, Split, Zadar), June 2009
Santorini (Boutari’s amphitheater), Greece, February 2010
Les Bernardines Theater, Marseille, Mars 2010
Stage direction: Argyro Chioti (Greece)
Dramaturgy: vasistas / Denis Forgeron (France)
Costumes design: Paul Thanopoulos
Translation: Sherry-Lee Richardson
Rosa Prodromou
With : Naima Carbajal | Euthimis Theou |Ariane Labed |Rosa Prodromou
Photos: Christos Kiriakogonas
In the name of my father I will find a job in silence
In the name of friendship I will use you in silence
In the name of sex open please your legs in silence
In the name of pleasure I will fuck you in silence
In the name of entertainment I will watch TV in silence
Silence is based on the figure of Saint Francis and the book “God’s Little Pauper” by
Nikos Kazantzakis. Our centre theme can be resumed in the following question: “in
the name of what do we live today? In the name of who, or of what do we make the
choices that determine our life?” We question the contradictions between today’s
values or beliefs and our personal drives.
Four actors/story-tellers alternate between being in the action and narrating the
story; the story of a man before, while, and after his choice to change path in his
life. Also, the impact of this choice to its surroundings.
How do we experience the extreme diversity between our social or religious identity
on the one hand, i.e. our social behaviour according to socially accepted ideals, and
our singularity on the other, our inner truth, our instinct? What are the effects of
this conflict on the others around us and on our own selves, our personal choices
and decisions?
The central element of our work is the actor: his physical apparatus, his voice as an
instrument, his awareness and relation to the space, the other actors and of course
the spectators. No objects, no decorative elements, no pre-recorded music, no
special lighting effects, no extra materials to soothe the eye. By composing our own
polyphonic songs and using our mother languages, we utilize material drawn from
our personal experience, images orchestrated in every detail to create the rhythm
of our story, a musical choreography in the present moment.
Actors in Silence speak four different languages (English, Greek, Spanish, and
French). We use live translation (by the actors and the director on stage) to the
language of the country that we perform, or the language of the audience (ex.
Greek translation in Greece, French translation in France, English translation for
English audience in Greece, etc.).
Little red and her riding hood
me and my wolf
Creation 2007-08
Stage direction: Argyro Chioti
Stage and costumes design: Eva Manidaki
Texts: Malwen Voirin Luchessi, tales and popular stories ,vasistas
Video: Isabelle Schneider
Lighting: Tasos Palaioroutas
With: Naima Carbajal, Ariane Labed, Rosa Prodromou, Argyro Chioti
Bios, Athens, April 2008
Le Point de Bascule, Marseille, June 2007
‘Informelles’ of ‘Les Bernardines’, Marseille, October 2007
‘Amore Theatre’, Athens, May 2007
A performance based on the different variations of the tale 'Little red riding hood', the
play Enter ! By Malwen Voirin, member of Vasistas – spectacle vivant along with tales
of the actors.
Four female performers on stage –three, always in a direct relationship with the
spectators- alternate between story-telling and performing the story. The fourth always keeping a distance from the action- brings the public into the strange and
violent world of the fairy tale, by translating live everything that is heard in French,
Greek or Spanish, into the language of the public: French, Greek or English.
Following the dramaturgy of the fairy tale and its firsts verbal French versions, of the
19th century, we strive to discover what it means to be a girl –any girl, today,
anywhere- who becomes a woman,. We focus on an important and determined truelife contradiction: the choice between two routes; the one of cerebral logic, of control,
of 'one does or does not' of social normality or that of primitive desire, the truth of
body and mind, the uncontrollable; and as such, dangerous. Am I going to take the
risk or not?
Get Over It
Creation 2006-07
Collective writing around Phaedra’s’ Myth
Stage direction : Argyro Chioti
with: Naima Carbajal, Denis Forgeron,
Ariane Labed, Malwen Voirin Luchessi
Lighting creation : Marion Baldi
Video : Isabelle Schneider
La Distillerie, Aubagne, February 2006
Bios, Athens, June 2006
Le Point de Bascule, Marseille, October 2006
Festival //01, Vitez Theatre, Aix en Provence, November 2006
Passion itself, as a condition, is not, I believe, only a single element, but several forces,
which combat and cross over. Far from being a single emotional state, passion provokes
itself, is born, feeds itself, grows, and expresses itself through several desires or
mechanisms. I try therefore to dismantle passion, and to bring forth the contradictory
forces, which it incarnates
I wish, on stage, during the intense course of energy, of experience, to give now and then,
time:
to stop and to zoom in on details.
without masks, and singularities.
Strive to awaken the senses, to unveil faces
Dig into what is evident, approach the text from a
sensitive standpoint, to discompose entirely the logic of a linear story. There is always a
hidden source boiling somewhere inside that is ready to explode and destroy all established
order.
The show has no decor, no objects of everyday use.
Only a few spotlights, two musical
instruments, a pair of stilts. It's the story of the passion of a woman for a man who is
passionate about nothing, but whom everyone is passionate about. To tell this story the
chorus of the four actors alternates between recital and dialogue:
reverberate words to
action sensitive and physical reaction. Choreographed polyphony, polyglot choreography:
each time the echo resounds, the language changes (French, English Spanish Greek…), the
body changes. Crude dialogue, the poetry of the verb mixes with the musicality of the
accordion and the bass.
An experience is proposed that lasts fifty minutes.
CV’s of the team of Silence
Argyro Chioti
Born in Athens (Greece), 1978
She is a founding member of the theatre company Vasistas, with whom she has directed ‘Phobia:a
spectacle’ (2010), ‘Silence’ (2008-09), ‘Little Red and Her Riding Hood – Me and my Wolf’ (2007),
and ‘Get Over It’ (based on the myth of Pheadra) (2006). She directed the cantata ‘Cassandra’ by
Benedetto Marcello –collaboration of the company vasistas with the ensemble Latinitas Nostra and
‘Phormigx Concert Agency’ (Septembre 2009). She worked like director and actress for ‘Faust’ by
Goethe for the National Theatre in Athens (2008-2009), as well as working as a theatre trainer
with students with mental disabilities (ESTIA, Centre for Special Educational Needs). She was
head of the theatre department and promotion for Bios, a space for creative performance arts,
Athens (2006-07). As an assistant director she has worked with: T. Bandis, Agnès del Amo,
N.Hatzopoulos. As an actress she has worked with: Yiannis Houvardas (Orestes 2010, The house
with the sliping girls 2003), Agnès del Amo, Y. Tsortekis, T. Bantis,and in the cinema with P.
Fafoutis (Red Sky) and Ch. Vafiadis. She has also worked as an assistant scenographer with E.
Manolopoulou.
She has a Bachelor's degree and a Master (2 years, 2004-6) in Theatre Studies, specialising in
practice of stage direction at Provence University, France. She also studied literary translation
studies (French-Greek) at the French Institute of Athens (2000-2002). She did her Drama Studies
at ' Morfes Theatre Organisation ' in Athens, at the Ebros Theatre (1996-2000).
Naima Carbajal
Born in Mexico City, 1978
She is a founding member of Vasistas Theatre Company and has worked as an actress in
‘Phobia:a spectacle’ (2010), ‘Silence’ (2008-09), ‘Little Red and Her Riding Hood – Me and my
Wolf’ (2007), and ‘Get Over It’ (based on the myth of Pheadra) (2006). She worked like actress in
the cantata ‘Cassandre’ by Benedetto Marcello –a collaboration of the company vasistas with the
ensemble Latinitas Nostra and ‘Phormigx Concert Agency’ (Septembre 2009). She worked with
Renata Neskovska as an actress in a show based on the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish
(Luxembourg). She has also worked in France with Katibur Collective, The Mezzanine Theatre,
Vincent Lacoste, Claire-Ingrid Cottanceau and in Mexico with several companies. She leads
theatre workshops for adults, elders as well as children. She studied Theatre Studies at the
National University of Mexico, 'UNAM', ‘Practice and theory of art’ at Provence University, France,
and completed her Masters Degree in ‘Dramaturgy and Writing for the Stage’ at Provence
University.
She lives and works between France, Greece and Mexico.
Ariane Labed
Born in Athens, Greece, 1984
She is a founding member of Vasistas Theatre Company and has worked as an actress in
‘Phobia:a spectacle’ (2010), ‘Silence’ (2008-09), ‘Little Red and Her Riding Hood – Me and my
Wolf’ (2007), and ‘Get Over It’ (based on the myth of Pheadra) (2006). She worked like actress in
the cantata ‘Cassandre’ by Benedetto Marcello –a collaboration of the company vasistas with the
ensemble Latinitas Nostra and ‘Phormigx Concert Agency’ (Septembre 2009). Also she worked like
actress for the Greek National Theatre in ‘Faust’, Goethe (2008-9) direction Argyro Chioti and
« Alkistis » of Euripide direction Th.Moschopoulos (2009). She has also worked as an actress and
dancer in France with ‘Lesgensd’ enface’ Theatre Company, Agnes Agnès del Amo, Michel Cerda.
In the cinema she played in the film ‘Attenberg’ by Athina Tsangari winning the Coppa Volpi, price
for the best woman interpretation at the 67th Biennale of Venice.
She was raised by French parents and grew up between Greece, Germany and France. She
studied ‘Practice and Theory of Art’ at Provence University, France. She also studied dance for 10
years in Germany and France.
Efthimis Theou
Born in Thessaloniki, 1980
He works with Vasistas Theatre Company the last four years as actor in Spectacle (2011),
Phobia:a spectacle (2010) and Silence (2008-09) and as assistant director and dramaturge in
Silence (2008-09) and Little red riding hood (2007).
He worked as an actor in “Town – State” (directed by Y.Leodaris), “50’00’’ narrations” directed by
D.Theodoridou, ‘the dance of the lonely heart’ directed by A.Karazisis, ‘Roberto Zucco’ directed by
E.Theodorou, “Ficherman and his soal” directed by Th.Kadifes. He works on the use of
performance in archeorgolical process and has created with others the performances “Kalavria”,
“Gavdos – the house”, “The meal”.
He studied theatre at the ‘Drama School-Odeio of Ahens’. He also graduated from ‘Archaeology
and History of Art’ Department in Crete University and completed his Masters in ‘Pre-Historic
Archaeology’ at the same University.
Petros Stathakopoulos
Born in Athens, 1975
He worked as an actor in the plays: 2009«One empty plate on the bistro Big Baffalo» του
Μ.Holiger, stage direction D.Fragioglou. 2008: «About Nina» του St.Dints. stage direction
D.Fragioglou. 2007-2008: «Oxygen» of Ivan Viripaev. stage direction Maria-Louiza Papadopoulou.
2007: «Ο agaphtikos of voskopoula» of D.Koromila. stage direction D.Fragioglou. 2006-2007:
«California Dreaming» of V.Katsikonourh. Stage direction v.Tzamarias. 2005-2006: «Road
Metsanskayia, Νο 3» stage direction Aspasia Krali. 2004-2005: «The tear of pomegranade». Stage
direction T.Ratzos. 2002-2004: «Baron Minhaouzen» Stage direction Ch.Kelandonis. 2002: «We
became theatre», stage direction Nana Nikolaou. 2002: «The cheapskate» of Moliere. Stage
direction Tilemahos Moudatsakis. 2001-2002: «Eliza» of X.Kalogeropoulou. Stage Direction
T.Ratzos. 2000-2001: «Cosmic Fact» Neal Labiout. Stage direction Maria Savva.
In the cinema he participated in the films «Alexandria» of Maria Iliou (2004) and «Brazilero» of
Sotiri Goritsa (2001).
He graduated from the drama school ‘Morfes Theatre Organisation ' in Athens, at the Ebros
Theatre (1996-2000).
He collaborates with the company Vasistas for the first time in Phobia:a spectacle
Rosa Prodromou
Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, 1978
She was raised by Anglo-Cypriot and Greek parents.
She worked with Savvas Stroubos In the Penal Colony of Kafka. She collaborated with Eve
Sussman (New York, San Francisco) on a music show based on ‘The Rape of the Sabine Women’
(video art, 2004). She has worked as a theatre actress and physical performer in Athens and
Berlin: Minako Seki (butoh dance, New National Gallery), I.Dimadi (Greek National Theatre,
Amore Theatre), T.Moshopoulos (Megaron of Music), G.Hatzakis (Benaki Museum). She has also
worked in the cinema with: P.Voulgaris, Y.Gaitanidis, T.Lagis, A.Boskoitis and others. She has
created two solo pieces: ‘Salome Unveiled’ (2002) and ‘Boiling Temperature’ (2007).
She studied Physical Theatre (1996-2000) at Huddersfield University and completed her Masters
Degree in Intercultural Theatre (2000-2) at Exeter University, UK.
Silence is her second collaboration with Vasistas Theatre Company after ‘Little Red and her Riding
Hood- Me and my Wolf’.
Supporters –Partners of the company
Company vasistas was being funding by the Greek Ministry of Culture for the
years 2007-2008-2009.
Municipality of Marseille
J.F Costopoulos Foundation
European program for mobility of artists Step Beyond from the European
Cultural Foundation
General Secretary of Youth in Greece, European Program: Youth in action.
Work in coproduction or collaboration with:
National Theater of Greece
Theater of Bernardines (Marseille)
Theater Comedia (Aubagne)
104 Center of Arts (Athens)
Bios – exploring urban culture (Athens)
MCE Productions (Marseille)
Distillerie (Aubagne)