Anniversary Exhibition | Kalamata, the city of dance | 1995–2025
EXHIBITION OPENING
18.07 | 21:00
Kalamata Dance Megaron – Foyer
EXHIBITION DURATION
18-27.07 | 18:00-23:00
Kalamata Dance Megaron – Foyer
Free Admission
Throughout the Festival’s run, the Foyer of the Kalamata Dance Megaron will be hosting the anniversary exhibition Kalamata, the City of Dance | 1995-2025. This temporary exhibition highlights the thirty-year history of the Festival through selected archival material—posters, programmes, photographs, press clippings, audiovisual documents. At the same time, commissioned by the 31st Festival, the archive becomes a source of inspiration for the creation of two new works from different artistic fields.
Reimagine is an audiovisual piece by Lila Sotiriou, featuring original music by Stavros Gasparatos and video editing by Maria Athanasopoulou, inspired by the archival material of the Kalamata International Dance Festival. Moments, faces, bodies and movements taken from the archive, featuring artists from Greece and the international dance scene, come together as a tribute to the people who have left their artistic mark on the Festival’s 30-year journey.
Typical Organization draws inspiration from 30 years of Festival posters to create a new visual work in printed form. It offers a retrospective on the diverse graphic languages which, by blending colours, shapes, textures, densities, and text, conversed with the pulse, aesthetic, and themes of each year.
The exhibition also includes a new video presentation of the work Monument, a tribute by Dimitris Papaioannou, filmed by Takis Chatzopoulos, twenty-eight years after its original commission by the Festival in 1997. A piece dedicated to Nelly’s, the photographer who captured the beginnings of expressionist dance, featuring performer Katerina Papageorgiou. Monument, the only solo work Papaioannou has created to date, is being presented anew—a rare return to archival material.
Artistic Curation: Tzeni Argyriou
Visual Curation & Architectural Design: Vassilis Gerodimos
Video Art: Lila Sotiriou, Maria Athanasopoulou
Original Music Composition: Stavros Gasparatos
Archival Research Curation: Valérie Petit, Voula Lada
Lighting Design: Nysos Vassilopoulos
Installation: Stratos Katsikogiannis
English Text Editor: Mandy Keegan
Greek Text Editor: Kostis Zagas
Exhibition Construction: YY Creative Constructions
Graphic Design: Typical Organization
Special Exhibition Collaborator: Aristotelis Karantis
Technical Support: Tasos Papaioannou, Konstantinos Vaidanis
Digital Printing: Apopsi – Argyris Panagiotis
Audiovisual Digitisation: Videopress S.A.
Electrical Installation: elemsi
Production Coordination: Stella Rizou, Dimitris Koutsoumpas
Production Director: Konstantinos Sakkas
Production Execution: Delta Pi
Special Thanks
- to Maria Gazi, costume designer for Zouzou Nikoloudi’s production of The Birds, for lending costumes from her personal collection.
- to Vicky Maragopoulou for her invaluable contribution,
- to Giannis Zarganis for granting us access to archival material from his personal collection,
- to the General State Archives, G.S.A. Messenia Section,
- to the archives of ERT, EuroNews, and Cinetic for providing archival footage,
- to the Kalamata Public Central Library for digitising part of the Festival’s archive, as well as to Dimitris Trikas and Giorgos Mitropoulos for their support in archival research,
- to the Athens Epidaurus Festival and View Master Events for generously providing technical equipment,
- to the company Nikos G. Dagiopoulos & Co. for supplying materials.