JUST TRANSITION? / WAVES OF LIGHT PPC: MEGALOPOLIS

Description

The Greek National Opera’s online festival Waves of Light, in collaboration with the PPC and curated by Giorgos Koumendakis, features the first series of site-specific performances inspired by the Megalopolis Steam Power Station.

Just Transition?
Charikleia (Hari) Marini, Konstantina Kaika - Department of Sound and Image Arts (Ionian University - postgraduate programmes)
The on-site performance Just Transition, shot at the steam power factory in Megalopoli presents a blend of artistic action and social reality, incorporating elements of performance and video art techniques. The factory site is transformed into a multidimensional canvas that tells the story of lignite and industrial heritage, along with the social and environmental consequences of the factory’s operations. Through multimedia elements, photographs, objects, soundscapes, and testimonies, the collective memory of both workers and local inhabitants is brought to the foreground.
The audiovisual components, objects, and physical activities at the site showcase the imprint of the factory’s phases of operation, closure, and transition, along with the gradual desolation of Megalopoli. The artistic intervention focuses on the transition and industrial heritage. The video captures the emotional tension of the performance, highlighting the significance of community and exchanging experiences during a time of change.
This piece was created under the supervision of the Department of Audio and Visual Arts at the Ionian University, as part of the course ‘Performance Interventions’ within the Postgraduate Studies Programme ‘Audiovisual Arts in the Digital Era’.

The Greek National Opera assigned the organisation of a cross-university / interdisciplinary arts workshop focused on the Megalopolis Steam Power Station to the Department of Performing and Digital Arts at the University of the Peloponnese, involving eight university arts departments from across Greece. As part of the online festival titled Waves of Light, 20 young artists and artistic teams from university departments throughout Greece drew inspiration from the striking sites of the old PPC factory in Megalopolis to create 20 new site-specific digital works for GNO TV, the GNO’s digital platform. These works are grouped into various genres that fall within the broader fields of performing, visual, and digital arts. The music and scripts in these works are inspired by the spaces, history, and people who worked there.
Participating in this workshop were students from the following departments: Department of Music Studies (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Department of Visual and Applied Arts (University of Western Macedonia), Department of Culture and Creative Media and Industries (University of Thessaly), Department of Theatre Studies (University of Patras), Department of Sound and Image Arts (Ionian University – undergraduate and postgraduate programmes), and the Athens School of Fine Arts.
PPC, a leader in Greece’s electrification through its emblematic factories, has evolved into an active cultural agent, offering its historical sites as a canvas for contemporary artistic creation. Through the Waves of Light online festival, PPC contributes to repurposing industrial landmarks into vibrant reference points between the past and the future, where energy meets art.