Publication of the Marathon Marathon book

Minor Bestiary II. Méth-odos Hési-ode

”Minor Bestiary II. Meth-odos Hesi-ode”, in Les Grands Transparents. In Practice. Vol. I - Family Business, Chalet Society, Paris, 14. 12. 2013

Saprophytes invited by Family Business to participate in Les Grands Transparents. In Practice , Vol.I - December 2013, presented in collaboration with The Chalet Society,  organized an intertextual supplement to Hesiod’s Theogony, titled : Minor Bestiary II. Méth-odos Hési-ode,  Chalet Society, Paris 2013.

The Saprophytes created a multimedia installation in the crypt situated at the alley of the Chalet Society, including the book- in- film- format work Minor Bestiary. Thesaurus Alienus Novissimus and a public reading of Theogony.

With the aim to go back to the roots, the genesis of the monstrous and the bestial, as it is paradoxically described in the genealogy of the most humanistic of all world philosophies, and explore its relation to the contemporary and the political, this open reading de-monstrates the collective potential.

(Saprophytes are Nadja Argyropoulou, Malvina Panagiotidi, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, Marina Vranopoulou)

                                                                

             

                 

                   

                     

Minor Bestiary. Thesaurus Alienus Novissimus

video stills from
Saprophytes
Minor Bestiary.Thesaurus Alienus Novissimus, 20’
book in video-format, video installation
2013

Saprophytes’ latest book in video-format is an in progress project which focuses on finding, processing and assembling pre-existing material on the monstrous and the alien, insisting on local sources, the fringes of normality [social, religious, historic, etc.] and the gray areas of conceptual decay of disparagement.  
In this project are examined issues of identity, kinds of otherness, anthropological and cultural processioning of symbols and riddles towards the Other, time, fear, loss, death, and furthermost the relations of Civilization to Nature. All these pictures represent zoomorphic aliens and emblematic figures of otherness under the combination of heterogeneous sources and fragments from High and Popular (Low) culture.

‘’Minor Bestiary. Thesaurus Alienus Novissimus’’ was presented in the exhibition ‘’Hell As Pavilion’’ curated by Nadja Argyropoulou at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris.(27/02/2013 - 04/04/2013)
The members of the Saprophytes are Nadja Argyropoulou, Malvina Panagiotidi, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis and Marina Vranopoulou.

LUSTLANDS (A FAMILY NOIR UNDER THE SUN: THE N.Y. REMATERIALIZATION)

Could a salon for the 21st c. be organized at a farm house in Peloponnese - Greece?

Can it be DEmaterialized and REmaterialized, beamed from Thermissia-Greece to Chelsea-N.Y.?

Is it possible for Family Business to work as a transporter???? (and do we risk a transporter accident in the process?)

Artists Lakis and Aris Ionas -The Callas, Family member / curator Nadja Argyropoulou and a group of artists and art works are the fearless voyagers of the dematerialization / rematerialization project LUSTLANDS (a family noir under the sun: the N.Y. rematerialization), hosted at Family Business from January 24, 2013 to February 16, 2013.

The project appears in N.Y. after originating, as LUSTLANDS (a family noir under the sun and other experiences), for one day (23 June 2012), in a family farm, situated at the area of Thermissia in Argolida and the South of Greece. Months after being just an energy pattern—due to the serious European crisis that affected all related circuits―Lustlands is reconverted into matter that matters; thanks to Family Business and the valuable energy source ever known as Lust and found in abundance at the much condemned South.

Lust, enchantment (sagéne) as has been investigated by the cooperating project members, has been first transferred to the Greek province, exactly where it is rumored that, because of the crisis and the ever impending ‘Drachmaggedon’, everything and everyone will return.

Nostalgia for the oddities and clichés of the small home towns, desire, ecstasis, black humor, the aimless midsummer days of childhood, ‘friendship’ as a ‘family noir’ of adult life, the shimmering sun and it’s strange light, a ‘museum of the intimate’ installed in the wet yards and among the flower pots and olive trees of vacation houses, the concept of stasis, the ethics of failure, malfunctioning and the paradox of objective chance: all of the above (and hopefully more) has shaped LUSTLANDS. The wild and remote lands, suggested by the project’s title, may be those of Lust or even those of Last but are definitely part of the commons and as such are accessible to all.

The VELVET team, which The Callas have founded and operates like an extended family for the last five years (Velvet Magazine, Velvet Bus, Velvet Festivals, Lust magazine) in Greece and abroad, constitutes the project’s backbone. Artists, writers, curators, musicians, designers, film makers, friends and relatives have become part of the experience continuum and contributed in many ways.

Many of them are also beamed to N.Y., and due to loss of matter stream and britch of safety protocols, they reappear in many altered states and forms (clothes, rags, texts, paintings turned photocopies, photos shrunk, events condensed into notes, delicious foods recreated as films, cicada fuzz reassembled as digital sound, nets and lights, animate and inanimate things and pleasure patterns); as an unpredictable, low-fi, paradoxical salon. Local N.Y. bands will celebrate the oddities, The Callas will be beamed over and perform at the last day, February 16, on the special occasion of the Family Business first birthday!!

Imagination will be summoned to fill in the gaps. And hopefully this will not be the end of it...

LUSTLANDS (a family noir under the sun: the N.Y. Rematerialization) will be the calling card, a summons so to speak, for a 2013 Summer visit to Greece (June 4) where xaos (chaos) will be revisited at the same farm in Peloponnese, right across the sea from the island of Hydra, and right over the N.Y. Atlantic coast.

The list of Lustlanders includes (and is not limited to):

Nadja Argyropoulou, Lakis and Aris Ionas (The Callas), Extra-Conjugale (Irini Karayannopoulou & Sebastien Marteau), Dora Economou, Loukia Alavanou, Eleni Bagaki, Panos Papadopoulos, Tassos Vrettos, the family of Nanos Valaoritis, the family of Andreas Embiricos (including Yannis Tsaruchis), Thanos Murray-Velloudios, magazines Pali and Nea Synteleia, Saprophytes, Spyros Staveris, Frown Tails, Konstantinos Ladianos, Ioanna Gouzeli, Supermarionetta, Selana Vronti, Lightroom Projects, Thanos

Kosmides, Ilias Polyhroniades, Panagiotis Loukas, Lydia Venieri, Iris Touliatou. / Victory Collapse, Moa Bones, Le Page, Conductive, Kostas Varotsos (Victory Collapse), Afroditi Stereo, Anda Theodorakaki, Irene Zografou, Dimitris Kotselis, Nikos Triantafyllou, Elias Papazacharias, Dionysia Bosmi and the contribution of Restless Wind, Sonic Playground, Fab Liquid Studio.

Live gigs are scheduled for:
- Opening -Thu 24 Jan – Psalms (20.00)
- Sat 2 Feb – Poison Dartz (20.00)
- Closing event / Family Business Birthday Party – Sat 16 Feb – The Callas (20.00)
More TBA…!
LUSTLANDS (a family noir under the sun: the N.Y. Rematerialization): January 24-February 16, 2013
FAMILY BUSINESS
520 West 21 Street, New York, NY 10011

www.familybusiness.us

www.lustlands.com

LUSTLANDS (A FAMILY NOIR UNDER THE SUN AND OTHER EXPERIENCES)

Θα μπορούσε να οργανωθεί ένα salon σε ένα αγρόκτημα στην Πελοπόννησο στον 21ο αιώνα; Μπορεί κανείς σήμερα να φύγει από τη δημόσια σφαίρα χωρίς να αποδράσει; Μπορεί η αγραμματική φόρμουλα του Bartleby, («Θα προτιμούσα να μην»), να είναι ένα μυστικό πέρασμα στο ενδεχόμενο; Τι ρόλο έχει η έκσταση στην κρίση; Τι μορφής συλλογικότητα είναι η οικογένεια;

Οι καλλιτέχνες Λάκης και Άρης Ιωνάς / The Callas και η επιμελήτρια Νάντια Αργυροπούλου, είναι οι οικοδεσπότες του project LUSTLANDS (a family noir under the sun and other experiences), το οποίο θέτει ερωτήματα σαν τα παραπάνω, αλλά και άλλα, για μία ημέρα, με πολλά συμβάντα, στο πατρικό κτήμα, στη Θερμησία της Αργολίδας, στις 23 Ιουνίου 2012. Η ομάδα VELVET, την οποία οι ίδιοι έχουν συγκροτήσει και αντιμετωπίζουν σαν διευρυμένη οικογένεια τα τελευταία πέντε χρόνια (Velvet Magazine, Velvet Bus, Velvet Festivals) με δράσεις εντός και εκτός της ελληνικής επικράτειας, αποτελεί την ραχοκοκαλιά του project.

Οι εσχατιές που υπαινίσσεται ο τίτλος μπορεί να είναι της λαγνείας (Lust) ή του τέλους (Last), αλλά σε κάθε περίπτωση δεν σημαίνουν μια «εκτός των τειχών» έκθεση ή έστω μια εναλλακτική επιτέλεση. Είναι ο συμβολικός τόπος μιας σύνθεσης στην οποία θα συμμετάσχουν όλοι οι παρόντες για μια απρόβλεπτη εν πολλοίς ημέρα, σε ένα κτήμα στην Πελοπόννησο, με τα ελάχιστα μέσα, λίγο μετά τις Β' εκλογές, σε ένα παράδοξο, παράτολμο, παράταιρο και (γιατί όχι;) ένα παρά-συλλογικό συμβάν. Αυτά τα πολλά παρά- (τα «δίπλα από» και ταυτόχρονα «πέρα από»), αποκλείουν μια αυστηρή «επιμελητική agenda» και ταυτόχρονα επιτρέπουν να συγκεντρωθούν πολλές «σημειώσεις» (notes), πάνω σε όσα μας απασχολούν καθώς αναμετρώμαστε (ξανά) με το τι είναι σύγχρονο.

H «λαγνεία», η «σαγήνη», όπως ερευνήθηκε πιο πρόσφατα στην έκθεση PeePee των Callas στην Atopos, μεταφέρεται στην ελληνική επαρχία, εκεί από όπου όλα ξεκίνησαν, και, ελέω κρίσης, φημολογείται ότι όλα θα επιστρέψουν. Η νοσταλγία για τα παράξενα των μικρομέγαλων ελληνικών επαρχιακών κωμοπόλεων, ο πόθος, η έκσταση, το μαύρο χιούμορ και τα άσκοπα μεσημέρια της παιδικής ηλικίας, οι διευρυμένες οικογένειες της ενήλικης ζωής, η «φιλία» σαν ένα noir κάτω από τον «μαύρο» ήλιο του μεσημεριού, ένα εναλλακτικό μουσείο του οικείου στις αυλές και τα ξέφωτα του σπιτιού των διακοπών, οι δράσεις και τα έργα σε τόπο όπου σημασία έχουν μόνο τα απαραίτητα και πρέπει να επαναδιατυπωθούν οι ιστορικά γνωστοί χαρακτηρισμοί τους (με αναφορά και σε παλαιότερα γνωστά σχετικά projects της καλλιτεχνικής πρωτοπορίας). Aκόμα η έννοια της στάσης, η σημασία (ή και η ηθική) της αποτυχίας, το αντικειμενικά τυχαίο, όλα τα παραπάνω, συνιστούν την εμπειρία με τίτλο LUSTLANDS (a family noir under the sun and other experiences).

Συμμετέχουν δημιουργοί και δημιουργήματα, (εικαστικοί, μουσικοί, περιοδικά, κινηματογραφιστές, ηθοποιοί, γραφίστες, ταινίες, χορευτές, λογοτέχνες, ευρήματα), έτσι ώστε όχι να στηθεί μια έκθεση αλλά «να φανταστεί έως της πραγμάτωσής του» το LUSTLANDS (a family noir under the sun and other experiences).

Η λίστα από παρουσίες περιλαμβάνει τους εξής:

Λουκία Αλαβάνου, Οικογένεια Νάνου Βαλαωρίτη, Λυδία Βενιέρη, Τάσος Βρεττός, Φοίβη Γιαννίση, Ιωάννα Γουζέλη, Οικογένεια Ανδρέα Εμπειρίκου (Ανδρέας και Λεωνίδας Εμπειρίκος και Γιάννης Τσαρούχης), Extra-Conjugale (Ειρήνη Καραγιαννοπούλου-Sebastien Marteau), Λάκης και Άρης Ιωνάς / The Callas, Θάνος Κοσμίδης, Κωνσταντίνος Λαδιανός, Παναγιώτης Λουκάς/Μαλβίνα Παναγιωτίδη, Θάνος Μουρράης-Βελούδιος, Ελένη Μπαγάκη, Ντόρα Οικονόμου, Πάνος Παπαδόπουλος, Περιοδικά Πάλι και Νέα Συντέλεια, Ηλίας Πολυχρονιάδης, Σαπρόφυτα, Supermarionetta, Σπύρος Στάβερης, Ίρις Τουλιάτου, Frown Tails.

Live: The Callas, Victory Collapse, Moa Bones, Le Page, Conductive
Dj sets: Κώστας Βαρώτσος (Victory Collapse), Afroditi Stereo

LUSTLANDS (a film noir under the sun):
Οι Λάκης και Άρης Ιωνάς σκηνοθετούν την πρώτη μεγάλου μήκους ταινία τους. Ένα Film Noir κάτω από τον καυτό καλοκαιρινό Ήλιο: Πόθος σ’ ένα καλοκαιρινό, ηλιόλουστο, και σκοτεινό ελληνικό επαρχιακό αγρόκτημα. Μια παρέα νεαρών άνεργων κοριτσιών σκοτώνουν τις μέρες τους σε ένα εξοχικό αγρόκτημα. Η μεσημεριανή λαγνεία, η γη, το ποτό, ο ήλιος και ένα μυστικό από το παρελθόν του κτήματος κινούν υπόγεια τους έρωτες, τις φιλίες και τα πάθη. Το σκοτάδι που υπάρχει κάτω από τον Ήλιο. Τα γυρίσματα θα πραγματοποιηθούν τον Ιούνιο στο αγρόκτημα και η ταινία θα
προβληθεί το Φθινόπωρο.

LUSTLANDS EVENT, ΣΑΒΒΑΤΟ 23 ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ
ΓΕΝΙΚΕΣ ΠΛΗΡΟΦΟΡΙΕΣ

Πότε; Σάββατο 23 Ιουνίου
Πού; Θερμησία Αργολίδος (έξω από την Ερμιόνη, απέναντι από την Ύδρα)
Τι; Αrt experience, live lo-fi gigs, performances, ποτό και μεζέ από τις 17:00 και
μετά.
Eλεύθερη είσοδος
lustlands.com
info@lustmagazine.gr

Saprophytes, Symphorophilia Erotica, prints, 30 x 40 cm, 2013

Presentation of the artistic research work of Saprophytes at the OU.UN.PO Symposium "Oral Tradition" in Athens

29 September - 2 October 2011

"Worlds have a longer life than deeds". Pyndaros

The program of the Ouunpo symposium is proposed by Vanessa Theodoropoulou in

collaboration with Nadja Argyropoulou and organized by Alessandra Sandrolini

Members of Ouunpo: Jacopo Miliani, Meris Angioletti, Per Huttner, Alessandra Sandrolini, Klas

Eriksson, Fatos Ustek, Elena Nemkova, Natasha Rosling, Samon Takahashi, Stephen Whitmarsh.

Invitees and guests of the Symposium: Sasha Chaitov (MA western esotericism and director of

Phoenix Rising Academy), Marios Chatziprokopiou (artist), Kostantinos Dagritzikos (curator, Six Dogs), Chiara Fumai (artist), Dimitra Kandilaki (historian of theater), Filippou Koutsaftis (filmmaker), Philippe Latreille, Panayotis Loukas (artist), Malvina Panagiotidi (Saprofyta), Iordanis Poulkouras (writer), Stefanos Rozanis (writer and philosopher), Georgia Spiropoulos (composer), Claudia Squitieri (theater director), Yianna Tsokou (Phd in Theather Studies University of Vienna), Yorgos Tzirtzilakis (Saprofyta), Nanos Valaoritis (poet and writer), Kostis Velonis (artist) Marina Vronopoulos (art historian and curator)

Ouunpo is a three days symposium that will take place in various locations across and around the city of Athens through conventional and non-conventional investigations. The symposium, dedicated to the “oral tradition”, will include performance, round-table discussions, lectures, screenings, visits and walks to various selected sites.

Greece is a country where myths, art, epic and lyrical songs originated from oral tradition and kept alive by travelling poets. This country is also in the limelight due to the current political and economical crisis.

Our visit will be an occasion to investigate the tradition of storytelling and myth as a form of sharing knowledge and performing history, which often stand in opposition to the methodology of institutions. We will try to re-evoke the oral memory of events in contemporary (art) world, with a specific approach to the rituality and the improvisation that are always connected to oral narratives. Performance and initiation to a secret knowledge will be also the objects of our conversations with members of the esoteric milieu and of the masonic lodge.

Inspired by the great religious, theatrical, democratic and artistic traditions of Greece, and in dialogue with local artists, musicians, composers, art historians, writers and curators, we will observe the present moment, and reflect about how a genuine revolutionary movement needs to brake with literal repetition of the past. To perform something means to interpret it, to betray it, to distort it. Boris Groys affirms that “the opposition between living spirit and dead letter informs the whole traditional Western discourse on religion”, but also on art itself, as embodiment of the creative spirit of change.

THURSDAY, 29TH SEPTEMBER

*11 am: Trip by ferry from Pyraeus to the island of Aegina and visit to the temple of “Aphaea”. We will spend the all day in the island, donʼt forget to bring you bathing suit!

FRIDAY, 30TH SEPTEMBER

*11 am: Athens, DESTE foundation. Meeting with the poet Nanos Valaoritis and with Stefanos Rozanis, writer and philosopher.

Presentation of the project “Saprofyta” (http://saprofytablog.blogspot.com) by

curators Nadja Argyropoulou (“Hotel Paradies”, Athens Biennial 2009), Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, Malvina Panagiotidi.

*2 pm – 3.30 pm: lunch

*4 pm – 4.30 pm: van to Eleusys with departure from Deste Foundation.

*4.30 – 8.30 pm: visit to the archaeological site of Eleusys. Performance by Fatos Ustek and Per Huttner. Visit of the temporary exhibitions of Loukia Alavanou and Stephen Antonakos. Collective performance directed by artist Klas Eriksson. Screening of the work of artists Panagiotis Loukas and Panos Tsagaris. Performance by Elena Nemkova.

*8.30 -10 pm: Artist Marios Chatziprokopiou presents the screening of the film by "Agelatos Petra" by Filippou Koutsaftis in an outdoor cinema.

SATURDAY, 1RST OF OCTOBER

*10.30: Athens. Visit to the Masonic Order Delphi and to its temple. Presentation by Iordanis Poulkouras and Sasha Chaitov about "The Eleusinian mysteries through the ages. Initiatory practices in the Western esoteric tradition".

*17.50: Athens, Six Dogs space in collaboration with curator Kostantinos Dagritzikos: Composer Georgia Spiropoulos (www.georgiaspiropoulos.com) will present her work. She will also introduce us to Yianna Tsokou, and we will discuss with them about Anastenaria, ancient rituals of fire still performed in Greece and Bulgaria, and will show us videos of the theatrical revival of Delphi promoted by poet Angelos Sikelianos in the beginning of the XXth century.

*8 - 9 pm: Six Dogs. Selection of Greek experimental music by Samon Takahashi.

http://visionforumouunpo.blogspot.gr/2011/09/ouunpo-greece.html

photos by OU.UN.PO

Program

Τουμαραθωνίουmarathonproject - Order of Speakers

Acropolis Museum.  October 31, 2010 

16:00 – 16:15

Welcome: Prof. Dimitris Pantermalis, president of the Acropolis Museum,

16:15 – 19:00

Christodoulos Panayiotou  (performer Nicolas Stylianou)

Julia Peyton Jones   (skype)

Nanos Valaoritis

Jeff Koons

Etel Adnan    (skype )

Panos Koutrouboussis

Natalia Mela

Huang Yiong Ping

Giorgos Koumendakis (music by Thodoris Patsalidis)

Zyranna Zateli (with Nikos Mpakounakis)

Nikolaus Hirsch

19.00 -22:00

Anna Boghiguian

Stelios Ramfos

Yorgos Tzirtzilakis

Sarah Morris

Dimitris Dimitriadis

Daniel Birnbaum     (skype)

Nairy Baghramian

Kostis Velonis

Leda Papakonstantinou

Angelos Papadimitriou

Simon Fujiwara

Athanasios Argianas   (theremin player- performer Thodoros Pistiolas)

22:00 – 1:30

Andreas Angelidakis

Armand Marie Leroi

Maria Papadimitriou

Vassilis Papavassiliou

Cristiana Soulou

Eva Stefani

Fivi Giannisi

Yiannis Varelas

Societe Realiste & Giorgos Papadopoulos

Vangelis Vlahos

Yiannis Papadakis

Yorgos Sapountzis

Antonis Liakos & Emilia Salvanou

Presentation throughout in monitors

Luigi Ontani (photo performance)

Iannis Xenakis (video interview)

Web + App

Angelo Plessas participates with the web work and an i-phone/i-pad application ‘zigzagmarathonphilosophy’   www.zigzagmarathonphilosophy.com 

The Marathon Marathon or τουμαραθωνίουmarathonproject, is being organized by the non-profit cultural initiative, Saprofyta and realized in cooperation with the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Acropolis Museum.Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. With the support of OPAP S.A.

Information: saprofyta@gmail.com  http://saprofytablog.blogspot.com