The Dream of Antigone: Performance Art in Greece Between the Seventies and Today was initiated by GAP [Gathering.Around.Performance] for the Venice International Performance Art Week 2016, and realised in collaboration with the State Museum of Contemporary Art (SMCA) in Thessaloniki. The project sought to offer a focused on the development of performance art in Greece, tracing its emergence in the early 1970s through to contemporary practices.
The exhibition section brought together artists from different generations to reflect on the evolving role of performance art within shifting social, political, and cultural contexts. By presenting both pioneering figures and artists actively working today, the exhibition examined how performance art responds to historical conditions while continuing to negotiate its relevance in the present. The conceptual framework of the exhibition drew attention to the social and cultural needs that shaped the rise of performance art in the twentieth century.
The title of this section was inspired by Sophocles’ tragedy Antigone, in which Antigone embodies the voice of the powerless, insisting that the laws of the Polis must be grounded in humanitarian values shared by all. This reference positioned performance art as a form of ethical resistance and collective reflection.
The exhibition featured live performance works including Regimes of Truths by Evangelia Basdekis, Antigone’s Dream: Actions of Love by Christina Georgiou, and Self-Reflectio by Alexandros Plomaritis. Alongside these live works, a retrospective exhibition presented key figures in Greek and international performance art, including Dimitris Alithinos, Maria Karavela, Leda Papaconstantìnou, Panos Charalambous, Thanassis Chondros and Alexandra Katsiani, Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki, Demetrio Stratos (presented through a documentary by Luciano D’Onofrio), Theodoros (sculptor), and Mary Zygouri.
The programme was further enriched by talks and presentations from Eirini Papaconstantinou of the Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art and Angeliki Avgitidou from the University of Western Macedonia. These discussions were moderated by Francesco Kiais, creating a space for dialogue around the historical significance and contemporary urgency of performance art in Greece.
Together, the exhibition and accompanying programme offered a layered reflection on performance art as a practice shaped by social necessity, political consciousness, and embodied resistance, past and present, in conversation with one another.
