M55

A performance-lecture on the subject of desertification, also on the ground that is receding beneath our feet, on the commons becoming private and the management of our common natural resources, a lecture accompanied/interrupted by cyclists who illuminate, by choruses of statistics and history, political readings, community memories, recipes for natural cultivation, words from landscapes and languages that are disappearing, conversations about animals, plants and waters that are disappearing, habits that are disappearing, habits that survive, a love song, a mourning song, a race between social memory and social oblivion, tsipouro (raki) and meze. The performance-lecture is illuminated by an improvised bicycle generator that the performers pedal in real time, making the performance energy self-sufficient. Research for the performance was carried out through the artistic organization Mavromichali 55 as part of an interdisciplinary research in theater subsidized by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, entitled Desertification, which focused on the dramaturgical processing of performative lecture on the theme of the desertification of the Mediterranean Sea. A. interdisciplinary research program in theater, entitled Desertification, which focused on the dramaturgical adaptation of a lecture on the global and multifaceted problem of environmental, social, and cultural desertification. This performance was first presented one evening in July 2022 in the mountains, in the upper square of the village of Drakea in Pelion. We warmly thank the community of Drakea and the Development and Cultural Association "DRAKIA" for their cooperation and support in creating this performance, the community tavern "Balcony with a View" in the square for their hospitality, the residents of Drakea, Agios Lavrentis, Zagora, Sesklo, and Tsagarada for sharing their stories with us, as well as our audience that night who encouraged us to continue on this journey. Finally, we would like to thank Studio and Mavromichali55 for their valuable contribution, as well as the Lycabettus Festival, at the first edition of which we presented our first performance-lecture "My barren mountains, where did you crumble?", which served as a catalyst for us to move forward with enthusiasm to "MILA MOU GALANA"

Direction – Dramaturgy – Performance: Spyros Tsiknas, Tatiana Anna Pitta
Bicycle generator construction – Lighting: Spyros Tsiknas
Photographs: George Pentzikis
Production: Mavromichali55 m55projects

"How is the harvest going this year in the orchards of Pelion? Are there people to pick the apples? What happens to the squares when the tourists leave? Are there any hawks left, do you see any hawks? Wolves, do you see any wolves? What do we do with the water, how do we manage the recourses? What does water management have to do with social memory? What does an Asian clothing factory have to do with an extreme weather event, such as the floods in Thessaly, Mandra, Libya? Is the extreme becoming normal? Has the fire been extinguished? Which one? The war? What does the intergenerational trauma of the inhabitants of a martyred village have to do with tint sheets hiding construction sites in the city center, or the ravaged land of Lesbos with a leisurely plane trip? Where to start? What is desertification?

Text: Fyllia Politi

The performance "MILA MOU GALANA" leaves viewers with a sense of urgency about the ground that is shifting beneath our feet and sweeping societies along with it. "We eat with our eyes." Taste and smell are lost, disappearing over the years. Apples were once neither shiny nor perfectly round and bright red, but they were apples. Apples that smelled wonderful and were sweet, with their own special sweetness. 
Younger people may no longer have this memory, and future generations will not have the opportunity to taste the fruits with the diversity they once had. 
Although memories are ever-present, the performance "MILA MOU GALANA" is not a performance that looks back on the past. On the contrary, it turns its attention to the future, leaving the viewer with a sense of urgency.