Monsters of reality – the mimesis machine (NO/GR)

“This is a poignant moment in Europe’s history. For this is the moment when Europe’s democratic soul is being buried. In Athens where it was born”(Varoufakis, Yannis).

Monsters of Reality - the Mimesis Machine is a happening with live performances, installations and interactions from Norwegian and Greek artists on the theme of representation in European art and politics.

In February 2016, a constellation of Norwegian artists and theatre-workers travelled to Athens in an attempt to trace the ancient theory of mimesis which lies at the core of the entire history of Western discourse surrounding representational art and its values. It has been an obsessive concern for artists and philosophers for thousands of years, but the term might also be considered a curious relic from the past.

The Monsters of Reality uses the axis Oslo–Athens as a starting-point for an artistic investigation. In doing so, this happening will establish a line between two geographical and cultural poles, exploring where these European (op)positions reflect each other and the esthetic and social drama of the ancient past and society today. Ever since Plato laid the foundations for the concept of mimesis, theatre has been subjected to claims of suffering “a crisis of representation”. In our times this concerns a discourse related to concepts of truth and reality, or rather the deconstruction of them - a theoretical debate that mostly has engaged Western philosophy. We should perhaps also turn our minds to another very real crisis of representation. The European Union is creaking at the joints and there is an increasing distrust in a true and just democratic representation.

Monsters of Reality – The Mimesis Machine is an artistic exploration done by a diverse constellation of artists from Norway and Greece. They will share their diverse responses to historical and contemporary ideas about truth, ritual, identification, imitation and reality.

Concept/production: Siri Forberg. Dramaturg/production: Marit G. Eggen. Participating artists: Blindspot theatre group (Yota Argyropoulou & Michalis Konstantatos) (GR), Rafika Chawishe (GR), Trine Falch (NO), Crispin Gurholt (NO), influx artist collective (Charis Pechlivanidis & Korina Vasileiadou) (GR), Victoria Meirik (NO), Poka-Yio (GR), Pia Maria Roll (NO), Helle Siljeholm (NO), Mona Solhaug (NO) and Bo Christer Wallström (NO).