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Dimitris Papaioannou is an Athenian born in 1964 who emerged from theGreek underground art scene as a defining figure. Starting as acomics creator, he became a director,choreographer, performer, and designer of sets, costumes, and lighting.
His hybrid creations gained a growing dedicated audience in Greece, and in 2004 he became the youngest artist to have been assigned to direct the biggest show on earth: theOlympic Games Opening Ceremonies. A decade later, in 2015, he was discovered by European programmers and was invited to tour.
He is now an internationally acclaimedavant-garde theatre maker, considered "a philosopher of dance"(Τanz magazine), "one of the four most important choreographers in the world"(Le Figaro), "a masterful theatrical magician and imagist"(The Times), "the most original choreographer of our time"(La Repubblica), offering "an act of artistic magic created before our eyes"(The New York Times), and "a genre of performance unlike anything else you'll see on stage"(The Guardian).
Papaioannou's more than30 productions range from mass spectacles with thousands of performers to the most intimate pieces. His creations have been commissioned, co-produced, and presented internationally by the most renowned festivals and theatres, enjoying sold-out performances on extensive tours worldwide.
He was a student of the iconic Greek painterYannis Tsarouchis before transitioning to the performing arts
Born inAthens, Papaioannou, anAthens College graduate,[1] showed a flair forfine art from an early age, and studied under the renownedGreekpainterYannis Tsarouchis for three years in his mid-teens. At 19, he earned himself a place at theAthens School of Fine Arts, entering the institution with the highest marks attained by any student, and there studying underDimitris Mytaras andRena Papaspyrou.
Papaioannou first attracted attention as avisual artist,illustrator andcomic book creator. He presented his art work at a number ofexhibitions, producedillustrations for numerousmagazines, and designed and co-edited thecounterculturalfanzineKontrosol sto Haos (1986–1992),[2] one of the few publications to include openly gay content at that time in Greece.[3] He also contributed to the Greek gay activist magazineTo Kraximo (1981–1994)[4] in the early 1980s, and gave an interview to the publication in 1993.[5] Moreover, he published over 40comics in Greek alternative comics magazines such asBabel andPara Pende, many of which incorporated gay themes and explicit images (such as 1986'sRock 'n' Roll, 1988'sMy Ex-Boyfriend, and 1993'sHeart-Shaped Earth). He was awarded first prize in a competition organised by Marseille Public Transport Authority at the 5th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, held inMarseille in 1990, for his comicUn Bon Plan.
Papaioannou began to take an interest indance and theperforming arts while still at theAthens School of Fine Arts, training and experimenting as aperformer andchoreographer, as well as acostume,set andmake-updesigner withdance companies inGreece. In 1986, Papaioannou took a trip toNew York City where he was introduced to theErick Hawkins Technique at the dancer and choreographer's studio, and where he attended seminars onButoh given byMaureen Fleming atLa MaMa E.T.C. While in the United States, he choreographed and performed in the 1986operaThe Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, directed byEllen Stewart and presented inBaltimore.
Upon his return toAthens in 1986, he founded Edafos Dance Theatre (έδαφος meaning "ground" in Greek) with Angeliki Stellatou, and went on to conceive, direct, choreograph and produce all 17 of the company's productions over its 16 years of life (the company disbanded in 2002). The group's four early works –The Mountain–The Raincoat in 1987, andRoom I–Room II in 1988 – representedGreece at the 3rd and 4th Biennials of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, held inBarcelona andBologna respectively, and were warmly received by the press – Stefano Casi of theItalianL'Unità described the company as "the revelation of the Festival" in 1988.[6]
In 1989, Papaioannou left Greece forGermany to work as an unpaid trainee assistant toRobert Wilson inHamburg as he preparedThe Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets withTom Waits andWilliam S. Burroughs. He then accompanied Wilson toBerlin to act as a stand-in for the lights for his production ofOrlando.
Papaioannou, once back in Athens, createdThe Last Song of Richard Strauss in collaboration with thevisual artist Nikos Alexiou in 1990, the first in a series of critical successes for the Edafos Dance Theatre company.The Last Song was incorporated into the 1991trilogyThe Songs, which was selected to represent Greece the following year at both the 6th Biennial from Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean inValencia and at theSeville Expo '92.The Songs was also seen by the thenGreek Minister for CultureMelina Mercouri, who secured regular state funding for the company.
Moons followed in 1992, a two-part work that drew upon thepoetry ofSappho and theballetLe Spectre de la Rose, but it was 1993'sMedea that was to prove the company's greatest success. This dance-theatre retelling of theMedeamyth was performed 52 times by the year 2000, touring festivals and venues acrossEurope and theMediterranean region, visitingNew York City, and representing Greece at theLisbon Expo '98. In her review of the 1998 performance ofMedea at the 12th Lyon Dance Biennial, Anna Kisselgoff ofThe New York Times describes the production as "the festival's big surprise", praising its "extraordinary passion" and "striking intensity".[7]Medea was named "Best Choreography" at the Greek National Awards for Dance in 1994.
Other major Edafos Dance Theatre works include:
1995'sA Moment's Silence, the first Greek stage work to deal directly with the issue ofAIDS (a topic Papaioannou also tackled in his 1987 comicThe Red Freckles on Your Skin), presented the world première ofThe Songs of Sin, a cycle of songs written by theOscar-winningcomposerManos Hadjidakis, and of the specially commissionedRequiem for the End of Love by composer Yorgos Koumendakis.A Moment's Silence was dedicated to the memory of Alexis Bistikas, who died of AIDS in 1995.[8]
1995'sXenakis' Oresteia – The Aeschylus Suite, a retelling ofAeschylus'Oresteia set to the music ofIannis Xenakis and performed at theAncient Epidaurus Theatre as part of the Epidaurus Festival.
1999'sHuman Thirst, a collection of six short choreographies that included 1990'sThe Last Song of Richard Strauss, won awards for "Best Production" and "Best Female Performance" (Angeliki Stellatou) at the Greek National Awards for Dance. Outside Greece, the production was performed inCyprus,France and theUnited Kingdom.
2001'sFor Ever, a non-narrative work that proved to be the last Edafos Dance Theatre production, was performed for the final time inAthens in the summer of 2002. The work was named "Best Production" at the Greek National Awards for Dance.
Beyond his work with Edafos Dance Theatre, Papaioannou undertook a number of other projects between 1986 and 2000.
He directed twooperas for the Athens Megaron Concert Hall:Thanos Mikroutsikos'sThe Return of Helen in 1999 (which was also performed at theMontpellier Opera in France and the Teatro Verdi inFlorence,Italy), andBellini'sLa Sonnambula in 2000. He also directed two stage shows for theGreek singerHaris Alexiou (1995'sNefeli and 1998'sTree), and two for Alkistis Protopsalti (1998'sVolcano and 2000'sA Tale).
As a choreographer, Papaioannou worked with the Greek National Theatre, the National Theatre of Northern Greece, Lefteris Vogiatzis' nea SKINI theatre company, and theAthens Festival (a 1994 show withGeorge Dalaras), and created choreographies for two works directed by theOscar-nominated directorMichael Cacoyannis: 1994'sTheodora, written and performed byIrene Papas, and the 1995 production ofLuigi Cherubini's operaMedea, for which he also produced the costumes. He also designed sets and costumes for theGreek National Opera, and a number of Greek theatre and dance companies. As a performer, he worked with numerous Greek dance companies, including OKTANA Dance Theatre.
His film work included performances in Menelaos Karamagiolis' 1998feature filmBlack Out p.s. Red Out and the 1990film shortThe Kiss by Alexis Bistikas[9] (which saw him engage in an on-screen kiss with the actor Stavros Zalmas),[10] and sets for Bistikas' 1989 film shortThe Marbles.
In 2001, Papaioannou was appointed Artistic Director of theOpening and Closing Ceremonies of the2004 Summer Olympics byGianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President of theAthens 2004 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.the ceremonies took 3 years to produce theOpening Ceremony,and the show was hailed a "triumph" byTime magazine[11] andThe Times ofLondon.[12]
In 2005, following the success of the Athens 2004 Olympic Ceremonies, Papaioannou received theGolden Cross of the Order of Honour, awarded by thePresident of the Hellenic Republic for outstanding artistic achievement.
On 24 November 2006, Papaioannou premièred2 inAthens, his first work following his creative direction of theOpening and Closing Ceremonies of theAthens 2004 Olympic Games.2 was produced in collaboration with theelectronic musiccomposerK.BHTA for the production companyElliniki Theamaton. A "dissection of the male psyche",[13] the production commanded a large of amount of Greek press attention, not least for its open references to homosexuality.[14]2 proved a commercial success; its run was extended twice and over 100,000 tickets were sold in total.
The work seems to draw upon a range of influences, including the work ofJean Genet,René Magritte andRobert Wilson. Inspiration for the show also came partly from Papaioannou's experiences as a gay man in Greece.[15]Contemporary magazine described2 as an "inspiring" work that "captures the zeitgeist".[16]
A DVD of2, produced and directed for the screen by Athina Rachel Tsangari of HAOS FILM, was released on 11 December 2007 byElliniki Theamaton and Modern Times.
Inside is a large-scale on-stage experiment by Dimitris Papaioannou that took place in a room set inside the Pallas Theatre in central Athens. Inside this room, for twenty nights in the Spring of 2011, a simple series of movements documenting our daily return home was uniformly repeated by thirty performers in countless combinations and superimpositions. Six hours on stage with no beginning, middle or end. Visitors could watch as much as they liked, sit wherever they liked, exit and re-enter as many times as they liked. The stage action began before visitors came in, and continued after they left.
Inside encouraged audiences to treat the theatre as an exhibition space and the work as an exhibit, and to watch the action as if gazing at a landscape.
Inside was conceived as a kind of visual meditation. The work was developed along two parallel trains of thought. On the one hand, with a view to the emotional charge that is created when we sense the similarity of all human beings inside their nest. And on the other, an interest in the form of the artwork itself — in how a single motif can become a kind of latent narrative through its repetition and multiplication (like on ancient Greek Geometric vases and Eastern patterned carpets).
Inside's final night was filmed in a single, six-hour take and first presented as a video installation as part ofΑνταλλαγή / Austausch / Exchange, a 2012 Goethe-Institut art project curated by Sofia Dona, at the Broadway open-air cinema in Athens. The following year, it was projected one summer night at the Kalamata International Dance Festival's open-air Castle Amphitheatre.
Still Life premiered at the Onassis Cultural Center - Athens on May 23, 2014.
Still Life springs from a meditation upon the myth of Sisyphus, who was sentenced to a weird kind of immortality: he would roll a huge rock up to the top of a mountain, only for the rock to roll back down. He would then walk down in order to roll the rock up again. Over and over, eternally. Sisyphus is like a working class hero.
While creatingStill Life, Dimitris Papaioannou thought a lot about the human craving for meaning, and about the absurdity of the human condition, rooted in matter but yearning for spirit. He was thinking about Albert Camus, and about work as meaning in and of itself. At the same time, Dimitris Papaioannou concentrated deeply on simplicity, interaction with real materials, and silence — musically-composed silence.
Still Life is a work about work. About confronting physical matter in order to elevate our existence above it. It is an attempt towards a kind of theatre that generates meditative energy through simple actions, and encourages an emotional journey through optical illusions.
In 2017, he received a Special Prize of the XIVEurope Prize Theatrical Realities, inRome, awarded by the president of the jury and theEurope Theatre Prize,[17] with the following motivation:
As part of the Europe Prize Theatrical Realities, this year sees a Special Prize awarded to Dimitris Papaioannou. Performer, director, choreographer and visual artist, he has reached the highest peaks of international theatre with his work. From the end of the 80s until now, during a rich career, Papaioannou has made a vast contribution, in Greece and the rest of the world, to contemporary theatre, visual art, dance and other forms of artistic expression. His theatre is 'total', with an obvious maturity of expression, offering for the stage a perfect form of signification in which bodies, objects, costumes and the entire scenic set-up are transformed into fluctuating visual signs, visual signs into events, events into stories and emotions. With such a talent, Dimitris Papaioannou can tell every story – myth, history, emotional moments, the human condition today, hypermodernity – and make each one unforgettable.[18]
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