The Production Process of the GNO Alternative Stage Project Synthesis Has Begun

Synthesis is a new visual performative installation by choreographer Tzeni Argyriou and visual artist Vassilis Gerodimos that tackles the complicated historical event of the Greek War of Independence. More than 30 artists from all the spectrum of performative and visual arts join forces to create this work, which will be presented on the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC in October 2021, introducing audiences to a unique experience.

The production process of Synthesis has already begun. You can watch it through the new official website https://synthesis21.gr that includes sound clips, videos and photographs bearing the digital imprint of historical and artistic research. The website will be regularly enriched with new material as the work keeps on evolving.

This production, part of a tribute to the 2021 bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, is made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) [www.SNF.org].

Synthesis, the new work by choreographer Tzeni Argyriou and visual artist Vassilis Gerodimos, is a form of visual performative installation associating the process that produced the Greek War of Independence with the process that produces a collective work through a series of conflicts, contradictions, aporias, transitions and reversals.

During the three days of the event, each of which conceptually corresponds to one of the three stages of the Greek Revolution (the intoxication of the initial outbreak, the middle-period introversion, the late-phase "fatigue", including also the endurance as a solid characteristic of the whole revolutionary decade), a wide spectrum of artists and performers will cooperate in real time to create an interactive installation, in which the spaces of the Alternative Stage will lend themselves to a dynamic process of incessant visual and aural mobility. The creators attempt to bring out the invisible aspects of the official history by throwing light to under-recognised factors such as the financial management, military administration, ideological developments and everyday life of the revolutionary period.

Through the conversion of the Alternative Stage into a workshop space, where the limits between "stage" and "backstage" become permeable and the audience experiences the preparation and final presentation of a series of actions in active dialogue with each other, the creators of Synthesis trace the intertwined historical "lines" that synthesise the premeditated and the random and explore the analogies between a performative and a historical event.

Synthesis will be presented on the GNO Alternative Stage at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center on 29, 30 and 31 October 2021.