A concentrate of the poetics of Dimitris Papaioannou

A concentrate of Dimitris Papaioannou poetics, the show INK presented in world premiere at the Carignano for Torinodanza Festival, co-produced by the Turin festival and by Festival Aperto Reggio Emilia. There is Arte Povera of Kounellis in the nylon walls that wrap the three sides of the scene, planks and transparent plastic panels. Then there is the vital element water that flows from an irrigation system and paints moving images on the scene. Finally, the myth, personified here in the clash between the old and the young, Kronos and his progeny, civilization and the savage world. Papaioannou himself, dressed, fighting his antagonist, the young Šuka Horn totally naked.

INK comes after the worldwide success of “The Great Tamer” seen in Torinodanza which has toured all continents. In reality, a new great fresco was expected like the ones we are used to by the Greek artist: "The great Tamer" that is time and "Seit Sie" created for the company of Pina Bausch. The lockdown blocked the project (it will debut on 16 December 2020 in Athens) and in the days of seclusion an installation idea developed in this theatrical work. In a black and gray atmosphere, like an expressionist film, demonic like Caliban, angelic like Ariel, the wild being emerges among plastic panels, with a perfect physique like a Greek kouros. A struggle begins to tame it. Dimitris wraps him in plastic, ties him with a belt, puts him on the ground. A complex relationship develops: who is the young man? Our animal side, the irrational, what we deny about ourselves and do not want to see?

Meanwhile, an octopus emerges from the marshy ground which will later become a newborn, and again, grown up and ape-like, the young man himself. Simple elements complete that show. A silver disco ball that reflects the lights in the stalls, Vivaldi's music alongside 1930s tunes (yes Bausch) that resound from an old vinyl

Sergio Trombetta, LA STAMPA, 25 September 2020
original review


darkness and fantasy, surrealistic and magnetic

The dimension of darkness and fantasy, surrealist and magnetic; water as a raw, ancestral, fundamental element, as an essential source of life; the presence of two male bodies, two generations, a father and a son and, between them, a relationship of encounter/clash, of conciliation and dissension, of submission and desire. And then, the movement, the music, the lines, the noises that become melodies in the connections with new, different meanings. Here are some of the sensory, visual and conceptual elements of INK, the latest creation by Dimitris Papaioannou

It is a world on whose soaked ground, paternity and inheritance are intertwined in an essential dialectic: a hostile relationship that becomes tolerance, coexistence and even play and discovery (around the physical potential of water). It becomes a parental instinct (of a father trying to breastfeed a newborn) and a veiled filial mockery (of a casual scion half hidden in a symbolic cornfield).

The metamorphosis of the encounter, of sharing, of succession is inevitably contrast, discord, reunion. An archetype that becomes a classic myth and a contemporary witness of humanity, and which is combined in its constant becoming, with the musical language of Vivaldi (and not only), with pictorial and statuary references, images of horror cinema, poetry by Arsenij Tarkovskij, think of the “First Encounters”, where «In the crystal the rivers pulsed / the mountains fumigated, the seas shone / while asleep on the throne / you held the crystal ball in your hand / and" My God! "You were mine". That crystal ball Papaioannou fills it with water and light, empties it, doubles it in a second mirrored ball, while making itself the subject of the dispute in a place in which an artistic instinct materializes in a mental, cerebral form, even before an emotional one. And the dance mixes with the movement of an athletic body, stressed, oppressed and liberated: it allows it, to the surprise of the observer, to stretch itself in resistance more than in melody, in effort more than delicacy, in impact rather than sinuosity."

"In this dark world - cut by glimpses of lights and reflections - the elegance of the adult and composed, weighted man played by Papaioannou collides with the "newborn", energetic and animalistic nudity and prowess of Horn. The result is a struggle between a modern Uranus and a son, an attempt at dominance and union

Nicole Jallin, Cahiers des Arts, 24 Sep 2020
original review


Eroticism and horror, Papaioannou returns to Torinodanza under a shower of water

Simona Antonucci, Il Messaggero, 23 September 2020
original review