Public Idiot

Performance, Kinitiras, Athens 2010, with the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture.

In the Greek everyday life of recent decades, the “modern” woman displays behaviors of superficial emancipation and overexposure within the mass landscape of television, the cultural industry, and similar media. Actions that were once confined to strictly private spaces—forms of speech, sexuality, work, property—now enter public life through mass representations of women, representations that often reproduce the traditional roles assigned to women by Greek society. In Greece, popular-normative forms of female identity dominate as the “legitimized” versions of public female presence. Yet, within the whirlwind of televised publicity, these dominant versions often acquire an “absurd” character—teetering between the ridiculous and the uncanny. Using movement, spoken word, and digital imagery as critical tools, the Amalgama Dance Company investigates the unease experienced by the gendered subject when attempting to demarcate private and public spheres. Concept / Choreography: Maria Gorgia, Performers: Rania Glymitsa, Maria Gorgia, Elena Fiotaki, Sound Design: Stavros Apostolatos, Set Design: Maria Gorgia, Stavros Apostolatos, Costumes: Stavros Apostolatos, Lighting Design: Lefteris Pavlopoulos, Video: Vana Kostagiola, Assistant Choreographer: Aris Sklavos, Photography: Angeliki Svoronou.