Last December, Eleni Bagaki, Nicolas Cilins, Manolis D. Lemos, Katerina Komianou, Louiza Ntourou, and Eleni Tomadaki shared dreams they experienced or imagined through primarily new, silent, moving image works; projected in a night-long loop in Vatsaxi street. These private experiences will be presented again publicly over three nights, from Tuesday, January 28 until Thursday, January 30, from 21:00 to midnight.

In the video collage Marni 25, Athens (2024), Eleni Bagaki voyeuristically looks into her neighboring apartments while scenes from a long-forgotten Hollywood film she found in a rubbish bin, play in the background. Atmospheric images of an open yet empty bar nearby where desire is often transactional are accompanied by Nicolas Cilins's own reflections in Billboard for S (2024). Dreaming in black and white, Katerina Komianou captures the dramatic scene where Thiseaus saves Ipodamia from a drunken centaur, as depicted on the statue on Victoria Square, in her Super-8 film Arpagi [Abduction, 2024]. A dream turns into a nightmare, as birds that fly free across the clear blue sky turn into fighter aircrafts that throw bombs, in Strip Silence (2024) by Louiza Ntourou. Ιn Vague Expressions (2020), Manolis D. Lemos mediates a mental fog, or a so-called clouding of consciousness, through AI-generated continually morphing abstract landscapes. These landscapes are juxtaposed with Eleni Tomadaki's hand-drawn animations that delve into the dynamics of touch and distance, exploring how identity is shaped through conformity and external expectations, in Touch (2024). 

Alongside the silent moving image works, in this second project iteration, the mediation of dreams is also explored through sound. After all, dreams are not inherently soundless; they can include auditory elements that feel vivid, contributing to the overall sensory experience of the dream. Composer, cellist, pianist, and artist Viki Steiri will mediate her own dreams through a live performance of cello on Wednesday, January 29, at 21:00, on Vatsaxi Street.

The project approaches this often-quiet street as a scenography where personal explorations of unconscious experiences become embedded with the urban landscape. By bringing together mediations on diverse feelings and mental states each artist privately had, in close physical proximity to one another, the project develops a subjective and limited mapping of the present moment in this area of the city through the reflections of some people living in it. 

Silent Night marks the beginning of a collaboration between Panos Fourtoulakis and 3 137 as part of its 2024–2025 artistic program. The Where Time Becomes a Loop project, curated by Panos Fourtoulakis, will delve deeper into these themes, focusing on artists' moving image practices – experiments in a medium that has been underrepresented over the years in the Greek art scene.

Credits

Artists: Eleni Bagaki, Nicolas Cilins, Manolis D. Lemos, Katerina Komianou, Louiza Ntourou, Viki Steiri, Eleni Tomadaki

Curated by: Panos Fourtoulakis

Production: Kosmas Nikolaou

Copy Editing: EG Figure of Speech
(Eleanna Papathanasiadi, Geli Mademli)

Communication: Fotini Barka

Photo Documentation: Nefeli Papaioannou

Event Support: Athinodoros Chatzipanagiotou

Supporters

The Where Time Becomes a Loop artistic program is realized with the financial support and is held under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, as well as with the support of NEON Organization for Culture and Development. The production of the Silent Night screening series is supported by Onassis AiR.