From September 22 to 24, 2023

In Drama, the 5th International

Forum of Performance Art with the theme:

“The Posthumanisms and the Metaverses Condition”

At the Forum, Jaroslaw Fret, director of the Grotowski Institute and founder of Teatr Zar, and the internationally renowned performer Alwynne Pritchard were present.

With a large number of artists from Greece and abroad, academics, and students from three universities in Greece, the 5th International Forum of Performance Art returned to Drama, which took place from September 22 to 24, 2023, in the park of Agia Barbara and the “Sokratis Dimitriadis” theater of Agia Barbara.

The participating speakers and performers framed their presentations based on the theme: “The Posthumanisms and the Metaverses Condition.” Key guests of the event were Jaroslaw Fret, director of the Grotowski Institute and founder of Teatr Zar, and the internationally renowned performer Alwynne Pritchard.

The three-day forum involved theorists and artists from Greece, such as Sotiris Bachtetzis, Associate Professor at the University of Thessaly, Georgios Arabatzis, Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Chrysi Karapanagioti, professor at the University of Patras, Dr. Maro Galani, EEP at the University of Patras, Dr. Pinelopi Chatzidimitriou, Lecturer at the Open University of Cyprus, visual artist-cinematographer Giorgos Drivas, Yiannis Mitrou, Lecturer at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Dr. Eleni Gkini, Lecturer at the Open University of Cyprus, art historian Vicky Konstantinidou, and visual artist and PhD candidate Vasilis Alexandrou.

In parallel, performances were presented by artists from Greece and abroad, such as Monika Wachowicz from the Grotowski Institute, Filippos Tsixtopoulos, Ioannis Monogios, Yiannis Stamenitis, Giorgos Lamprianidis, Popi Voulgaroudi, Theodoros Kypselidis, Maro Theodosiou, and Maria Charela.

As part of the International Forum of Performance Art, a residency was organized for 20 students, as part of an educational workshop, from art schools in the country, specifically from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Patras, and University of Western Macedonia.

Additionally, during the three-day event, the students participated in four educational workshops and one masterclass by IRPA-almakalma, and during the program, they presented their final performance.

For the fourth year in a row, alongside the live program, the digital form of performances was supported through the Viewing Room on the event platform (www.ifpa.gr). The viewing room served as the digital space for displaying works that emerged from the open call, hosting 26 video art and digital performance works by creators from eight countries.

It is worth noting that the visual identity of the fourth IFPA event, designed by the Drama-based graphic designer Konstantinos Pavlidis, was awarded as a finalist at the Greek Graphic Design Awards (EBGE) in the category of multiple applications.

The International Forum of Performance Art is under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and with the support of the International Short Film Festival, and has been taking place every September since 2019 in Drama, with ERT3 as the communication sponsor.

Some words from the artistic director about IFPA #5

The artistic director of the event, Mr. Yiannis Mitrou, in an excerpt he wrote for the invitation to participate, states:

“In 1988, Steve Nichols publishes the Posthuman Movement manifesto. A post-Cartesian logic emerges already in this first attempt to document the evolution of the mind in environments of extreme transformation of the human brain. It is an early post-human description with a phenomenological orientation. The transition from the first online reality to post-digital heterogeneity reinforced how contemporary art, philosophy, science fiction, and futurology were embedded in the logic of a state beyond human Being. We are not referring here to a transhumanism condition but to those sets that shape the post-human as a condition of reality that forms the core of a new ontology based on post-humanism.

Therefore, it concerns the sets of ethics, justice, language, corporeality, trans-species communication, and social structures. It refers to a concept that explores new environments in which the notion of the post-human operates as a state of being. Phenomenologically, we could say that the universal description of such a condition follows the phenomenon of the global transformation of social reality as we have understood it until now.

The acceptance of such a condition, to the extent that we now refer to the metaverse era, raises the question: does the subject exist in the living space? Or does it exist as a multiplicity in various spatial versions and environments? And if so, can we speak of a core of all these in which the body and emotions remain unchanged? Does the social imaginary (Castoriadis) exist? The imaginary as a structural condition of the “image of the body” (Dolto, Lacan)?

Does the way of perceiving the new subject change? Does the ontology of the cyborg post-cyborg encompass the initial elements of the human being? So, the physical and human transforms into post-digital and post-human.

Does conceptual art, live art, audiovisual concepts, and space installations as art objects undergo a sufficient transformation in their aesthetic perception? Or do they eventually absorb the new data through heterogeneous artistic practices? Thus, the opening of art itself constitutes an axiomatic condition that reintroduces the issue of its relationship with life as an experiential condition. But what experience are we referring to? Or rather, to which environment are we referring that constitutes an experiential condition of the human and post-human? The “blurred boundary” between virtual and real life imposed by the metaverse condition urges us to reflect on the human experience, the human being. Art, as such, has the potential to transform the individual into the collective through the production of the art object. In the Fifth International meeting, the clarification of these concepts represents a perspective that coexists with artistic research. For this reason, we believe that the combination of the production of art objects, live actions, and theory must be strengthened. Also, the call for both audiovisual (video performance) and live actions, which have now been fully integrated into the forum, constitutes its structural components. The theoretical framework is articulated both at the level of academic investigation and at the level of popularization of the concepts.

In this logic, the fifth international forum expands its work throughout the city, aiming at spreading its ideas and practices. At the same time, it introduces the general public to issues related to the contemporary reality, to the world that is radically changing and, at the same time, seeks its relationship with a “lost core” of its existence.”