Umwelt

Ioannis Panagiotou

“Umwelt” rebuilds, with the use of ephemeral media: memories of my great-grandfather, experiences from a lost war, a destroyed villa in the woods, and a lost notebook. What is the relationship between my family's lost memories and my Umwelt?

concept, performance, composition: Ioannis Panagiotou
video: Alia-Lauren Clain
music performance: Plus-Minus Ensemble (London)
description: video performance, sound, military boxes, pine trees, water, sand

The Memory Passage

Ioannis Panagiotou and Dorothea Kalogianni

During the Greek Genocide in 1922, a member of the family, Manolis, was murdered in a mill as he was trying to escape to Greece. "The Memory Passage" entails a recorded performance that portrays the imaginary narration of the above story. Is it possible to have an anamnesis of an event in which you never took part?

concept: Ioannis Panagiotou and Dorothea Kalogianni
performance, composition: Ioannis Panagiotou
music performance: Edinburgh Film Music Orchestra,
description: video performance, sound, concrete, water, light, smoke

Dorothea Kalogianni is a UK-based architect from Greece with an interest in the affective and liminal experience of digitally mediated spaces. She is a PhD candidate in Architecture at The University of Edinburgh, where she has also been a tutor. Dorothea collaborates with sound and visual artists on the creation of interactive audiovisual exploratory setups.

This work is part of

Common Lands: Who do we think we are?

Over the years, b-side artists from both on and off the island have created artworks that celebrate, question and provoke thoughts on place, identity and belonging. Lots of us have taken part by sharing our special places here on the island and sometimes we've lamented those places we can no longer live.

This year, and going forward, we want to widen the lens and extend the conversation further. We want to go deeper in our exploration of belonging, displacement and thoughts on migration - historical and contemporary, and both on and off the island, by inviting new voices to add richness, inspiration and challenge to the conversation. We are delighted that two artists, Belinda Zhawi and Ioannis Panagiotou, will be sharing with you their responses to the theme Who Do We Think We Are?

Belinda's sound and poetry installation, Viva Voce, will trace the movement of tides, people, animals and goods. Using the Rivers Thames and Exe as a starting point, Belinda's work will blend reflections on two great rivers bound together by a shared history of trade, movement and migration. Belinda's commission has been developed in partnership with Counterpoints Arts.

Ioannis' multi-media installation and live music performance, Pilgrim's Horses, marks the one hundred year anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. Using Portland bridleways to imagine and trace the journey on horseback by one of his relatives, the work seeks to discover lost memories and stories of diaspora. Ioannis will be joined by Lithuanian guitarist Danguole Lingyte.