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Just For Today
“Make everything that you need for yourself and attempt to not need what you cannot make, that is the ending view that we never arrive at.”
Raymond Duncan interviewed by Orson Welles (1955)
The PLANT project evolves in 3 interrelated stages – dream, design, and celebrate - following an ongoing dialogue between what we need, what we make, and what routes and tools we activate in this process. During its first stage, from 27th to 29th October 2023, the Duncan Dance Research Centre in Athens presents: “Just For Today”, a three-day event drawing from Raymond Duncan’s legacy, routes and traces. Conceived under a situated and historical perspective, the event serves as a starting point from which to investigate the intimate threads that connect us with the physical and conceptual territories we co-inhabit. It questions notions of learning and ways of seeing, hearing and imagining in a shared manner, and explores the interdependence of our work to our daily lives and ultimately to a larger whole.
By interweaving different temporalities, the program presents practices from distinct fields (conceptual, movement, labor) and is willing to enact a framework for contemporary creation that can be textured by the particularities and imaginaries of diverse communities. “Just For Today” is an invitation to nurture a common space by visiting and translating examples of contemporary eco-communities, critical thinking and ancestral knowledge. At the same time, it offers encounters and hands-on activities that seek to widen the perspective of our actual needs and help us identify and reconsider our next steps. The event features workshops, talks, food preparation and sharing, ways of listening, screenings, walks and an exhibition focused on the figure of Raymond, with the participation of Vaskos (Vasilis Noulas and Kostas Tzimoulis), Marlen Mouliou, Anna Tzakou, Julie Loi, Iris Nikolaou, Vasiliki Tsagkari, Maro Pantazidou, Andreas Sell, Napoleon Xifaras, Samantha & Hermes Savvantoglou, rosanayaris (Rosana Sanchez & Aris Spentsas) and nyamnyam (Ariadna Rodriguez & Iñaki Alvarez).
The participation to the event is free of charge with the need for previous reservations for certain activities of the program. These reservations can be made through the email: ddrcathens@gmail.com. When booking your activities, please let us know your name, phone number & email address, as well as which activities you’ll be attending. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Duncan Dance Center through the same email or by phone at 0030 6945714119.
The event will include seasonal and local food for the days of the event, provided by Samantha and Hermes Savvantoglou, grown and collected with the kids at Children's Orchard, a space for children and adults, a warm household with the door open for everyone with a beautiful garden in a small village of Northern Greece. Please let us know, upon making your reservations, if you wish to join us for breakfast and/or lunch on October 28th, and for lunch on October 29th.
Location
Duncan Dance Research Center
Chrisafis 34, Vironas 162 32, Athens, Greece
https://www.duncandancecenter.org/
https://www.facebook.com/DUNCANCENTERATHENS
https://www.instagram.com/duncan.center/
Credits
Curation: Penelope Iliaskou, Rosana Sánchez Rufete, Aris Spentsas
Administration: Anny Hadjikonstantinou
Graphic Design: Sara Jorge
Visual Documentation: Myrto Apostolidou
Communication: Mare Spanoudaki
Production Management: Maria Adela Konomi
About PLANT
PLANT – Performing Life Akademia Network is a cooperation project between three research and creation centres: CRL – Central Elétrica in Porto (PT), Isadora and Raymond Duncan Dance Research Center in Athens (GR) and Espai nyamnyam in Mieres, Girona (SP), and it is co-funded by the European Union.
More information:
https://performinglifeakademianetwork.eu/https://www.facebook.com/performinglifeakademianetwork
https://www.instagram.com/performinglifeakademianetwork/
Schedule:
27 October – Friday
15:00 - 18:00
Pages From My Garden – pt 1. [upon reservation]
Translation workshop with Vaskos - Vasilis Noulas and Kostas Tzimoulis.
A two-day workshop that aims to bring up-to-date Raymond’s manifesto, which was published in English within his book “Pages From My Press” in 1947. The idea behind the workshop reflects on the need to develop a common language through a collective process that will be understood by all and will express contemporary sensibilities, paying attention to how the words we use have an impact both on us and on others.
Schedule:
27 October – Friday
15:00 - 18:00
Pages From My Garden – pt 1. [upon reservation]
Translation workshop with Vaskos - Vasilis Noulas and Kostas Tzimoulis.
A two-day workshop that aims to bring up-to-date Raymond’s manifesto, which was published in English within his book “Pages From My Press” in 1947. The idea behind the workshop reflects on the need to develop a common language through a collective process that will be understood by all and will express contemporary sensibilities, paying attention to how the words we use have an impact both on us and on others.
Schedule:
27 October – Friday
15:00 - 18:00
Pages From My Garden – pt 1. [upon reservation]
Translation workshop with Vaskos - Vasilis Noulas and Kostas Tzimoulis.
A two-day workshop that aims to bring up-to-date Raymond’s manifesto, which was published in English within his book “Pages From My Press” in 1947. The idea behind the workshop reflects on the need to develop a common language through a collective process that will be understood by all and will express contemporary sensibilities, paying attention to how the words we use have an impact both on us and on others.
17:00
Welcoming Visitors
18:00
Exhibitions as Gardens
Presentation and talk with Marlen Mouliou.
In this talk, Marlen will share the multiple layers and routes of the curatorial practice – a network of associations that is organic and endlessly reshaped – as an outcome of her meaningful engagement with diverse museums, historic sites and live art events.
18:30
Aura
Exhibition opening with rosanayaris and nyamnaym.
The exhibition acts as an occasion to re-discover the figure of Raymond Duncan through a social and ecological approach, which in parallel develops a dialogue with the stories and the traces discovered throughout the course of the research carried out during the last two years.
19:30
OMEN
Video screening by rosanayaris and nyamnaym.
On April 2022, Rosana Sánchez and Aris Spentsas, and Ariadna Rodriguez and Iñaki Álvarez, accompanied by their kids Gal·la and Juls, decided to embark on a 2-week trip following the original route taken by the Duncan family in 1903 to Athens. The film unfolds a parallel journey structured in 25 rhapsodies that guide the viewer through various temporal layers in an attempt to unveil the trip's omen.
28 October – Saturday
08:00 - 09:30
How do you relate with the things from afar [upon reservation]
Walk with Anna Tzakou.
A walk about sensing, dreaming and belonging. From mountain Ymittos, the eastern borderline of the city, we return to (or perhaps arrive at) the house of Isadora and Raymond Duncan. We embody their ‘in-between’ seen and unseen connections, and we reflect (or is it dreaming) on people, places and stories that relate the Duncan house to the Mountain and the City.
10:00
Breakfast [please confirm attendance]
11:00 - 14:00
Pages From My Garden – pt 2. [upon reservation]
Translation workshop with Vascos - Vasilis Noulas and Kostas Tzimoulis.
A two-day workshop that aims to bring up-to-date Raymond’s manifesto, which was published in English within his book “Pages From My Press” in 1947. The idea behind the workshop reflects on the need to develop a common language through a collective process that will be understood by all and will express contemporary sensibilities, paying attention to how the words we use have an impact both on us and on others.
Wet Felting Craft [upon reservation]
Wet felting workshop with wool with Julie Loi.
The hill where the Duncan family built their house is described by Isadora as an empty, rocky terrain without water, located far from Athens and frequented only by shepherds and their flocks. During this workshop, we will utilize wool in order to explore the ancient technique of wet felting, a time-consuming craft that allows space for listening to each other but also to oneself.
Listening grounds [upon reservation]
Dance and permaculture workshop with Iris Nikolaou and Vasiliki Tsagkari.
Listening Grounds is a choreographic score that operates as an open system of collective encounter and feedback. It is designed in analogy to the permaculture design zones, expanding from the most intimate, “the self”, to the unknown, “the wilderness”. It proposes a speculative movement practice that spreads across the spectrum of perception, experience, and relationships enfolding inner and outer environments, human and non-human interactions, place and space.
14:00
Lunch Break [please confirm attendance]
16:00 - 19:00
Gestures that bring us close to the things the world is made of
Dialogic Encounters with Maro Pantazidou.
In what we call the central conversation of the event, Maro will share her own research on the contemporary relationship between labor, time, and care. Tapping into learnings from the fields of degrowth, post-work, and the sociology of time, we will reflect on our personal relationship to everyday practices and we will attempt to widen the perspective of our needs; to reanimate and perhaps rearrange our desires. For the better knowing of this world, and the making of new ones.
29 October – Sunday
Note: This day is especially focused on local communities, families with kids and elderly-friendly.
11:00 - 13:00
Wet Felting Craft [upon reservation]
Wet felting workshop with wool with Julie Loi.
The hill where the Duncan family built their house is described by Isadora as an empty, rocky terrain without water, located far from Athens and frequented only by shepherds and their flocks. During this workshop, we will utilize wool in order to explore the ancient technique of wet felting, a time-consuming craft that allows space for listening to each other but also to oneself.
Five Seasons
Melting theory and practice with Napoleon Xifaras.
Chinese culture is permeated by the notion of the five elements, found both in nature and human life. Their energy waxes and wanes in daily and seasonal cycles. The 5 seasons are constantly transformed and each form is complementary to the others. Through the 5 phase practice, we will attempt to connect with the sensitive subtle messages that come from our bodies and our present, embrace these successive transformations and tune in with ourselves and with the world.
The Main Characters [Note: bring a white t-shirt.]
Silkscreen printing with rosanayaris and nyamnyam.
Bring with you a white t-shirt of your choice or a beloved piece of pale fabric and take with you one of the main characters featured in the film OMEN, inspired by the journey of the Duncan Family.
13:00 - 13:30
Alliances of people
Conversation with Andreas Sell from the Hermitage Sykaminea Residency.
“After leaving my permanent job, I got involved in art groups and developed the Hermitage Sykaminea Residency on Lesvos. It was not only a desire for exchange with other people but also a desire to grow beyond my well-rehearsed working methods.” Andreas Sell will talk about his personal experience of moving and shaping a common ground at Sykaminea, Lesvos.
13:30
Lunch Break [please confirm attendance]
14:30 - 16:30
Another Raymond
Gathering stories from then and now with Samantha and Hermes Savvantoglou.
“My father was traveling in Greece searching for a place to start a family. They found the place they loved, here, among the mountains. It was a rocky field, entirely empty, it only had one tree and a house. At the beginning there was nothing outside…”. Samantha and Hermes will talk about another Raymond, their father, and about the Children’s Orchard, an experiential school in northern Greece that connects art, life and education.
