Integrated in the body of ‘Higher States’, ‘Thanaton, Rough Cut’ is the unrefined effort of the fourth part of
Kiriakos Hadjiioannou thematics, which signifies the biography of a body through existential situations, in view
of possible future prospects.
In an eternal altercation with death, the body is conceived as an element of substance of oneself and a
boundary of social action. Studying various philosophical sources, one can detect two basic theories about
time. One has Greek origins and advocates the closed, circular time; it is based in cosmology, having nature,
the universe and the world as an archetype and being symbolized as a circle or a sphere. The other, with
Jewish origins, adopts the open, linear time and is based in eschatology oriented to history, having the
straight line or the arrow moving straight as a symbol. ‘Thanaton, Rough Cut’ focuses on the above
controversial approaches of the circle and the straight line, thus creating a research field in which a series of
binary concepts can be recreated: body language and the ‘speaking body’, sound and melody, time and
duration.
Having these two basic theories as an axis, Kiriakos Hadjiioannou invites Jeremy Wade on stage, as iconic
representations of the Greek and Jewish origins respectively. They appear as living pillars who float and
haunt what is literally the other side of our spatial design, using death as a metaphor of awakening. Through
this, we are invoked to reflect on time, beyond its eschatological interpretations. Together they wonder or
even question contemporary perceptions of the body and how it is associated with our thoughts over death,
the possible extensions of the body after life and the agreements we make as a society.
In a dark and queer environment, a club, with experimentation as a vehicle, the artists experience different
deaths – the death of theatre, value, sense, attachment. With this research, they feature the death of western
society in the future, conveying anguished resistance strategies to the dominant forces of regularity on stage.

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Contributors

Concept, Direction: Kiriakos Hadjiioannou
Creation and Performance: Kiriakos Hadjiioannou, Jeremy Wade (with excerps from Death Asshole),
Nancy Stamatopoulou (video)
Light Design: Nysos Vasilopoulos
Filming and Editing: Alexandros Kontos
Costumes and Props: Kiriakos Hadjiioannou, Jeremy Wade, Minttu Vesala
Texts: Kiriakos Hadjiioannou, Dimitra Papaioannou, Jeremy Wade, Esra Green
Œuil Extérieur: Dimitra Papaioannou, Bernhard Siebert
Assistant Director: Danai Giannakopoulou
Assistant Camera: Vangelis Tsakas
Feldenkrais Instructor: Marilena Petridou
Death Asshole Video: Liz Rosenfeld
Death Asshole Music: Mika Risiko aka Ziur
Curating Collaborator: Stefanos Skoulikaris
Production Management & Coordination: Maria Vasariotou - Delta Pi
Production: Antibodies
Partners: Tanzhaus Zürich
With the Financial Support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports

 

 

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