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.

THE RECREATION OF THE CHILDREN’S CITY
Marianthi Barbarigou

My piece oscillates between reality and the dreamlike dimension of memories. Just as memories often seem to serve within us as a form of redemption, offering an escape from the present, childhood memories evoke nostalgia for our past habits. Society has changed rapidly due to the advent of electric power. The children of the past could not have imagined the tremendous developments that have occurred over the years. In my video, I use these phrases: “The city is growing”, “The lights are twinkling”, “More lights begin to appear”, and “Are you speaking? Because I can’t hear you”. There’s a fascination with the new era hidden within these words, along with a fear that arises within us from every new change.
These phrases are repeated in a loop, much like our thoughts, when they are confused. Similarly, the sound of electric current creates a continuous flow, reminiscent of the thoughts that never stop echoing within us. At the end of the video, I state that “Sometimes, I miss the silence and darkness”, to convey the idea that, due to this so-fast change in our lives, everything seems distant and ambiguous.

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.

Creative team – Cast