Marina Mavrogeni
AKIN
The Joy of Failure | 2015
about the project...
joy, [xará]: a strong, pleasant feeling produced by the satisfaction of desires, goals, or the expectation of their satisfaction.
failure, [apotixía]: action that did not have the desired result, the desired outcome.
You see it.
She runs. She gags. She brakes. She hides. She connects with Him... And again.
Your gaze fixes on a creature different, yet familiar; you've seen her before. At the farmer's market, at church, at the tax office, in the subway, at the super market. Where did she come from?
You watch her with the obsession that the weird can cause.
Who defines weird?
In this solo performance Marina Mavrogeni creates a heroine naive, raw, so unpolished that it shocks you. You become a spectator in the process of human transformation through all those grim, personal stages that are often not verbalised. Humour, suspense, subversion, resonance and detuning. Heroine and audience confront their familiar or unfamiliar shadows. I wonder if you remember what the process of your own transformation was like?
The work was presented in April 2015 at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, as part of the 14th Dance Festival - Greek Choreographers Association.
reviews
'M. Mavrogeni demonstrates with simplicity and spontaneity how the body can tell many diametrically opposed stories through music and convincingly analyses how much we get caught up in our minds, our thoughts and the scenarios we weave around human relationships, so much so that without even engaging in a discussion, we end up with her resume.'
-Naya Papapanou, boemradio.com
'The Joy of Failure is a performance, with dance, musicality and words, that really made us feel optimistic about the future of performing arts in our country... Her original choreographies take us on a journey through images, dances and music from the Middle Ages to the 90s and house music.'
-Natalia Koutsougera, dancetheater.gr
performance identity
The Joy of Failure / 2015
Duration: 25'
Creation & performance: Marina Mavrogeni
Project Text: Marina Mavrogeni & Elena Passou
Director and Music Supervisor: Jason Michaelides
Lighting designer: Michalis Bouris
Photos: Alexandros Theofilaktou
Director of Production Management: Elena Passou
Production: A KIN
Artistic Direction: Marina Mavrogeni
Where & When: TV Control Centre (Athens, 2017), Michael Cacoyannis Foundation (Athens, 2015)