Annual Arts Festival 2023

The Frances Rich School of Fine and Performing Arts at Deree—The American College of Greece, presents the 2023 Arts Festival from May 26–June 2, 2023. For this year’s festival faculty and students from the departments of Music, Theatre Arts and Dance, Visual Arts and Art History have collaborated with established artists from around the world to create an exciting program that combines concerts, art exhibitions, lectures, master classes, performances, and workshops for a true celebration of the arts! The Frances Rich School of Fine and Performing Arts provides undergraduate education in the arts that promotes critical reflection and navigates creativity. Class experience in combination with opportunities for creative and academic involvement in the local and international arts and academic community prepare students for successful postgraduate studies and related careers.

The exhibition A Scattering of Salts curated by Panos Giannikopoulos presents works of painting, sculpture, video, performance, and dance at Deree—The American College of Greece. It brings the art collection of The American College of Greece into dialogue with works by contemporary artists. The narrative thread traversing the exhibition stems from a photograph which is part of the art collection. The acclaimed American poet James Merrill looks at the life mask of fellow poet Kimon Friar. Multiple references emerge from the petrified gaze and projections of desire, the form of the Medusa, citations and comparisons, sedimentation, the nexus of life and death.

Privileging scattering over organization, dispersion rather than systematic arrangement, the exhibition presents fragments of imagination dissolving into something else. Salts become a lens through which to contemplate the present and scattering emerges as a methodology, thus creating the illusion of symmetrical, kaleidoscopic patterns.

Participating artists: Yannis Bouteas, James Bridle, Eleni Christodoulou, Jimmie Durham, Nicole Economides, Ioanna Gouma, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Gkikas, Rowena Hughes, Theo Hios, Astrid Kokka, Bety Krňanská, Jack McConville, Irini Miga, Michael Michaelides, Raffaela Naldi Rossano, Kosmas Nikolaou, Aemilia Papaphilippou, Pavlos Nikolakopoulos, Malvina Panagiotidi, Rallou Panagiotou, Cezary Poniatowski, Vaggi Sekifu, Chrysanne Stathacos, Takis, Lina Zedig

Curated by: Panos Giannikopoulos

Performances
May 26: Ermira Goro performed by Sofia Pouchtou
June 9: Konstantina Barkouli

Architectural design: Anastasis Papadakis / Exhibition and ACG Art Collection Senior Manager: Ioanna Papapavlou / Curatorial assistants:  Clio Georgiadis, Maria Kollia, Athina Lasithiotaki, Katerina Milesi, Elena Pitsilka (Deree Art History Program students) / Graphic design: Athina Lasithiotaki, Katerina Milesi / Graphic Design Supervision: Marios Stamatis

Organized by the Frances Rich School of Fine and Performing Arts at Deree – The American College of Greece as part of the Arts Festival 2023. In collaboration and supported by the Art History, Graphic Design and Visual Arts programs and ACG Art Collection. Special thanks to Dean Katerina Thomas, Niki Kladakis, Dr. Daphne Mourelou of the Dance Area for the contribution and collaboration and to Dr. Demetra Papaconstantinou for the archival material.

For more information A Scattering of Salts exhibition at the ACG Art Gallery—The American College of Greece.

Friday, May 26
Corpus Franca Company The Doubles*, ​Black Box Theatre
The physical theatre performance The Doubles, based on Jean Genet’s play The Maids, portrays two sisters who have been maids their entire lives.  

Monday, May 29
Arabesque: A Dialogue between the Oud and Violin, 7th Level Auditorium 
A lecture presentation and concert of Arabic music from the 19th and 20th centuries with visiting professors from Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Professors Dr. Mikhail Maroun-oud and Sami Kheshaiboun-violin, will present a modern perspective on classical works with guest artist, Gerasimos Siasos-percussion.

Tuesday, May 30
Art History lecture via Zoom by Kate Wilcox, 7th Level Auditorium
Invest in Love: Decolonial, Feminist and Queer Curatorial Approaches in deep dive(pause): Uncoiling memory
Commissioned by the Scotland + Venice consortium to produce a multimedia installation for the 59th International Art Exhibition, artist-curator Alberta Whittle employs her signature wayward curatorial approach in the creation of deep dive (pause): uncoiling memory, which is envisioned as a “space built on black love, care, queerness, community and healing”.

Emma Avedissian The Worriment Waltz, Black Box Theatre 
The Worriment Waltz is a performance installation created by Emma Avedissian for the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Space and Design 2023. Before being presented in Prague in June 2023, the installation will be part of this year’s Arts Festival with permission granted by the Quadrennial. 

Wednesday, May 31 
Jazz Vocal Workshop and Concert, 7th Level Auditorium
Jazz vocalist and Ph.D. candidate in Music Education, Katerina Adamopoulou will introduce the fundamentals of jazz singing  in a highly interactive workshop. RSVP to: jones [​at​] acg.edu

Thursday, June 1                                                                                                   
Violin and Piano in Concert, 7th Level Auditorium
Assistant Concertmaster of the State Orchestra of Athens, Nikos Mandylas, presents a concert of masterclass participants, concluding with a faculty performance by Professor Mandylas and Professor Christine Tokatlian on the piano. RSVP to: nmandylas [​at​] acg.edu.

Christoforos Vogiatzis Encomium, Black Box Theatre
Under the direction of our current student Christoforos Vogiatzis, Encomium, comprised by two of Caryl Churchill’s latest works (Bluebeard’s Friends and Kill), attempts to explore how we respond to atrocity, under the lens of crimes committed against femininities.

Friday, June 2
Aeschylus’ Agamemnon: Reading in Terms of Movement by Dr.Kiki Selioni, Black Box Theatre
This workshop will tackle the textual reading of Aeschylus’ tragedy Agamemnon in terms of movement. It will explore the ways in which dramaturgical analysis can be treated as a living process of performance production rather than a process of reading.

*The Theatre Arts program celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. 

Full program here.