[@ .Es, Thessaloniki, may 27 2009, as part of the Performance Festival, 2nd Thessaloniki Biennále]
there are few entities that have been as influential in the culturally limp city of northern greece that i call home, as Dimosioypalliliko Retire have been. Influential might be a weird word, as many people are born everyday who are either oblivious to the band’s existence, or just plain refuse to acknowledge them. Let’s just say vital instead of influential.
A brief intro to their work has been posted by nicolas in the “all noises…” blog here, so i won’t double dip in things that i don’t know first hand (i’ve only had the recordings to cherish). Equally important to their audiocentric oeuvre though, is the work of Thanasis Chondros & Alexandra Katsiani (two thirds of the band) in the art/performance space. They have been “coordinating their behaviour” since 1974 and in the time since then have made it their business to introduce performance, direct art action and public intervention in the grey and confused spaces between lives. They have also curated art spaces (“sxedia”, “alli poli” among others) presenting their own work as well as that of others’. Their acts range from simple interventions with everyday pedestrian reality, to elaborate and absurdist conceptions and, finally, flirtations with established art-forms. Objects shift meaning and function, settings are deprived of their assigned use and are given a new one to try out, question. Their tools too numerous to mention, but the character always unmistakably theirs, they shifted focus from art and towards life itself (maybe an evasive statement, given art’s original function within life, but nevertheless an inevitable one, seeing the hole that established art hads dug for itself in the past 50 or so years).
performance art can be a bitch do document & retrospectives mostly serve as obituaries more than celebrations; these were two issues that were acknowledged by the duo and/or the people who organized the tribute to their work on May 27. The second issue was simply skipped over by admitting that they themselves had put a full stop to their activities a few years ago (ending with “Yperdwthe” in march 2004) and that they didn’t really mind a eulogy. Either way, the people who met at .Es for the tribute had too much fun getting together to actually turn this into a sad affair.
As for the documentation, this was handled by a relatively comprehensive slide-show and a video-reel with fragments from past events that stimulated the imagination more than substituting presence and experience. There were history lessons to be had also, by putting these actions into their context (what we accept as art now must have seemed terribly weird back then), but history lessons are for each individual to process, so i best not water them down in this space.
there were a few extra touches to the event. amongst other speakers, Costis Drygianakis shared his thoughts on the artists and made available a more detailed text he prepared for the occasion. The artists (or ex-artists?) were in fine form too, enjoying in good spirit a borderline tasteless re-enactment of one of heir most known and affectionate performances; they were also carrying a soccer ball with them in honour of the Champion’s League finals that were taking place during the same hour. This is also a good spot to mention the fine work of the people behind the Performance Festival of the Biennále, who managed to organize a pretty interesting 10-days worth of events/actions & brought together the artists involved in a refreshing bit of cultural exchange, amongst themselves primarily and the city second.
(photos courtesy of Costis Drygianakis & Olya Gluschenko)
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a couple of links:
http://www.magnet.gr/views/allipoli/
http://www.dim-retire.com/
