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Realisations of Performance in Contemporary Greek Art By Alexandra Antoniadou PhD School of History of Art Edinburgh College of Art The University of Edinburgh July 2017 Declaration page "I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis; that the following thesis is entirely my own work; and that no part of this thesis has been submitted for another degree or qualification". Signed ……………………………………………………………………………… Alexandra Antoniadou Abstract Realisations of Performance in Contemporary Greek Art This is the first study to approach, both historically and theoretically, the emergence and development of performance art in Greece from the 1970s to the 2010s. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework—including feminist theory, philosophy, sociology, art history, and more—the study aims to address an evident gap in histories of contemporary Greek art. The research begins with the emergence of performative artistic practices in the 1970s, in the conditions set out by the seven-year Dictatorship (1967-1974) and follows, selectively, the complex trajectory of these practices while investigating their connection with wider socio- political and economic developments. The thesis should not be read as a survey, despite being the first book-length analysis of Greek performance art in both English and Greek. The material included here has been selective (drawn out of years of field research) and yet presents, and represents, the spectrum of themes and positions making up the history of performance art in Greece. My contention is that the rise and establishment of performance art in Greece reflected both the political ferment of the time (early 1970s) and an enquiry into the possibility of flight from traditional media. The dual aim of this study is, first, to facilitate and encourage the integration of performance art in a revised Greek art history; and, second, to contribute to an expansion of performance art histories in an international context through the negotiation of hitherto unknown material synthesised in a study of adequate length. This thesis has required large-scale in situ research and overcoming the major obstacle of the absence of relevant publicly held archives. This was one reason why even an elementary linear history of performance art had been such an overwhelming task in the past; a second reason is the overall marginalisation of performance art theory in the Greek context. Through the Greek paradigm, the thesis illuminates new aspects not only of performance but also of post-performative participatory practices, engaging new conceptualisations. By identifying fundamental issues in the production, dissemination, and reception of performance art in Greece, I provide a critical analysis not only of its achievements and potential but also of its impasses and failures. My intention in undertaking this research has been to disprove the notion—implied or stated as a matter of fact in histories of contemporary Greek art—that performance art has had only a sporadic and inconsistent presence in this ‘periphery’ scene. I argue that the artists investigated in this study are conclusively part of the history of performance in the 20th and 21th centuries, thereby setting the terms and calling for further research on the subject. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements i List of Figures iii Introduction 1 Part I: The Politics of Performance Art 1. Performance Art and Political Protest: Sites, Audiences and Gestures of Resistance 35 2. Performance as Intervention: Participation, the Public Sphere and the Production of Meaning 111 3. The Politics of Gender and the Performative Body 163 Part II: Diversifying Performance: Community Inclusion, Experience Economy and the Document 4. Performance in the Expanded Field: Community Engaged Art and the ‘Absence’ of the Artist 196 5. Making the Invisible Visible: Performance, Intermediality and the Document 263 Conclusions 343 Bibliography 356 Acknowledgements It would not have been possible to write this doctoral thesis without the generous help and support of several individuals. Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my academic supervisor Dr. Angela Dimitrakaki for the continuous support, for her patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. I am extremely grateful for her guidance throughout this research and writing of this thesis. I would also like to thank my second supervisor Prof. Olga Taxidou for her helpful advice and encouragement. I am also grateful to Sophie Ramette and Dimitris Theodossopoulos for their unfailing support and for being so friendly and helpful. I am indebted to all the artists involved in the study for facilitating my research, readily providing me with material and sharing with me their ideas, hopes and disappointments. Without their support and help it would have been impossible to complete this research. It was a great pleasure meeting them all and I am particularly happy to have become friends with some of them. Spesifically, I would like to thank Mary Zygouri, Evangelia Basdekis, Georgia Sagri, Fani Sofologi, Leda Papakonstantinou, Dimitris Alithinos, Theodoros Papadimitriou, Marios Spiliopoulos, Thanassis Chondros and Alexandra Katsiani, Yiannis Gigas and Giorgos Nouvakis, Alexandros Plomaritis, Rosina Ivanova, Marios Spyroglou, Angeliki Avgitidou, Marios Chatziprokopiou, Myrto Tsilimpounidi and Ally Walsh, Jennifer Nelson, Fotini Kalle, Maria Paschalidou and Nikos Tranos. I am also grateful to art historians Pepi Rigopoulou, Lia Yoka and Christiana Galanopoulou for their advice and help. I am grateful to my parents, Athanasia and Antonis who have been unwavering sources of financial but most importantly emotional support without having ever questioned my choices. I am also indebted to my sister, Iro, for her love, support, and all the wake up calls throughout the last few months of my writing. I owe a debt of gratitude to my friends in Athens, Anna, Stavroula, Evangeline and Stavrina, for the laughters and amazing times we have shared, their love, endless support and encouragement. I would also like to thank my friends in Thessaloniki, Nopi, Rodi and Maria for being there whenever I needed them and for being understanding all the times I was unable to meet them. I would also like to thank my dear friend Jenny (1981-2013) for making the years in Edinburgh a wonderful experience, for the inspiring conversations and endless laughters. Beyond anything else, I would like to thank my partner, Dimitris, for his unconditional love and for encouraging me to follow my dream i in the first place, for enduring all the difficulties it entailed with patience and for making me realise that some things were beyond words. ii List of Figures Introduction Figure 0.1: Takis (Vassilakis), The impossible: A Man in Space, 1960, Performance, Iris Clert Gallery, Paris, https://atelierholsboer.wordpress.com/2015/02/19/takis-the-veneration-of-a- local-hero/ [accessed 25/3/2017]. Figure 0.2: Takis (Vassilakis), The impossible: A Man in Space, 1960, Performance, Iris Clert Gallery, Paris, http://www.orbit.zkm.de/?q=node/200 [accessed 25/3/2017]. Figure 0.3: Pavlos, Action with Public Participation and Confetti, 1975, Iolas-Zoumboulakis Gallery, Athens, Papadopoulou, Bia (ed.). The Years of Defiance, The Art of the 1970s in Greece (National Museum of Contemporary Art, Hellenic Ministry of Culture), 146. Figure 0.4: Pavlos, Action with Public Participation and Confetti, 1975, Iolas-Zoumboulakis Gallery, Athens, Papadopoulou, Bia (ed.). The Years of Defiance, The Art of the 1970s in Greece (National Museum of Contemporary Art, Hellenic Ministry of Culture), 147. Figure 0.5: Jani Christou, Grigoris Semitekolo, RepresentationIII: The Pianist, 1969, Hellenic America Union, Athens, Artist’s Website, http://grigorissemitecolo.blogspot.gr/ [accessed 25/3/2017]. Figure 0.6: Jani Christou, Grigoris Semitekolo, RepresentationIII: The Pianist, 1969, Hellenic America Union, Athens, Artist’s Website, http://grigorissemitecolo.blogspot.gr/ [accessed 25/3/2017]. Figure 0.7: Jani Christou, Grigoris Semitekolo, RepresentationIII: The Pianist, 1969, Hellenic America Union, Athens, Artist’s Website, http://grigorissemitecolo.blogspot.gr/ [accessed 25/3/2017]. Figures 0.8: Jani Christou, Epicycle, 1968, Hilton, Athens, https://insidestory.gr/article/giannis-hristoy?token=N90Q6HAI59 [accessed 25/3/2017]. Figures 0.9: Jani Christou, Epicycle, 1968, Hilton, Athens, https://insidestory.gr/article/giannis-hristoy?token=N90Q6HAI59 [accessed 25/3/2017]. Chapter 1 Figure 1.1: Vlasis Kaniaris, Carnations and Plaster, 1969, Installation, Nea Gallery, Athens, http://freedomgreece.blogspot.gr/2012/05/blog-post.html [accessed 23/5/2016]. Figure 1.1: Maria