Mani through the Senses
Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor House, Kardamili-Mani 2021
A site-specific walking performance project in the landscape of Greece's Mani region, with artists’ interventions in and around the house of Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor.
In a typical Mediterranean landscape of cypresses, olive trees, fragrant shrubs, white oleanders, wild flowers--as well as the extraordinary acoustical coastline and surrounding mountains near Kardamyli village, a group of both sighted and partially sighted participants will participate in a three-hour "walkshop" in May 2021. Developed through a series of virtual or physical exchanges as well as preparatory workshops with local community members during the past several months, the event will include short performance pieces and hands-on interactions inspired by passages from Fermor's writing about the natural and cultural landscape of the Mani. The participatory walk will explore multi-sensory dimensions of the building's architecture and grounds, allowing participants to share unique insights gleaned from their collectIve journey and reflect on their distinct forms of embodied knowledge. This intimately scaled, performative experience will be documented in a video by Eirini Steirou, to be debuted publicly in Fall, 2021.
Project Curators: Lydia Matthews, Fotis Flevotomos
Guest Artists: Vassiliki Spachou, Fenia Papadodima, George Palamiotis, Eirini Steirou
Production Coordination, Preliminary workshops: Lydia Matthews, Vassiliki Spachou, Fotis Flevotomos
Community Partners:
Panhellenic Association of the Blind in the South Peloponnese
Cultural Association for Art & Nature "NARTURA"
Kardamyli High School
The performance is produced with the support of NEON Organization for Culture and Development.