A time to mourn

* ZITA, "A Time To Mourn" (Greece)

19.00, BOK, Cinema Forum (15 zł)

Choreography: Iris Karayan

Music: Nikos Veliotis

Visual design: Nikos Papadimitriou

Lighting design and photos: Elisavet Moraki

Performers: Chara Kotsali, Marilena Petridou

Art Director: Iris Karayan

A time to mournis concerned with the ontology of human nature and its inability to overcome expressions of violence in the name of civilisation. Juxtaposing human-animal, savage-tamed and perpetrator-victim, this work is about the fine distinctive line between two contradicting poles. However, it aims to present the interaction and relation of the two in a mutually inclusive condition. A duet exploring the condition of violence, as it is felt and expressed in contemporary societies: violence transforms to grief, power to weakness, and human to animal...

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Holy Bible, Ecclesiastes, 3:4

Iris Karayan studied dance at the Greek State School of Dance. She obtained a Master of Arts in Performance and Culture: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Goldsmiths College, University of London). She has participated in various seminars in Europe with internationally acclaimed dance and theatre artists. As a dancer she has collaborated with the choreographer Athina Vahla, Me Liga Logia Dance Company, Solipsism Dance Company, Amorphy.org, and has been a full time performer for Yelp danceco, Athens based, since 2002. Together with a team of performers and under the direction of Konstantinos Hatzinikolaou, she has co-authored the video dance ΑΩ (2004). She has also performed and assisted choreographically with the art film The Rape of the Sabine Women (2005) directed by Eve Sussman and produced by The Rufus Corporation. She worked as a movement director for the film Pera apo ti limni (2006) directed by Stratos Stasinos and the short film APOGRAFI (2008) directed by Vaggelis Kalabakas. She is a founding member and choreographer of ZITA Dance Company, member of several related to dance networks and organisations. Her works TO DASOS, 2003, SELF PORTRAIT, 2005-09, and DOMESTIC ANIMALS, 2008, A TIME TO MOURN 2009-10 have participated in several festivals in Athens, Thessaloniki, Bucharest, and London. She was awarded the Jarmila Jeřábková Award 2010 for her choreographies A TIME TO MOURN and LEG ACY. She teaches choreography at the Greek State School of Dance and has also taught at the School of Fine Arts/Drama department, University of Peloponese. Since 2008 she has been working together with a team of dance writers for the Athens and Epidaurus festival and the Kalamata International Dance festival, contributing with texts for the festival’s catalogues. ZITA | works ZITA was founded in Athens by a group of dancers/choreographers. Since 2002, ZITA has presented the following works choreographed by Iris Karayan: CITRUS CINENSIS (2002), Athens, Thessaloniki / Greek Choreographers Dance Platform | sonata No. 13 (2002), Athens / 35hours Non-Stop Art Act, Fournos | live performance for the Cosycorner project, medi@terra2002 | THE FOREST (2003), Athens / 2nd Dance Festival by the Greek Choreographers Association, Bucharest / 2nd Balkan Dance Platform | CITRUS CINENSIS 2 (2004), Athens / Cultural Program-Olympic Games, Athens 2004 | 42 (2005), Athens / 1st contemporary dance panorama | SELF PORTRAIT (2005, 2006, 2008), Athens / 4th Dance Festival by the GGA, Thessaloniki / VIDEODANCE05, International Thessaloniki Film Festival, London / Resolution 2008, The Place, Athens / Megaron, Contemporary Dance Platform 2008 DOMESTIC ANIMALS (2008), Kratiras studio, Athens | A TIME TO MOURN (2009), Kinitiras artistic residency centre, Athens | Megaron Athens Concert Hall (2010), Greek choreographers contemporary dance Platform | New Europe Festival, Prague/ 1st prize for best choreography, Jarmila Jeřábková Award 2010 ZITA is supported by the Greek Ministry of Culture