The aejaa team has used, for the first time ever, a remarkable marble landscape made up of gigantic bolders and high walls, at the Koumela’s Quarry in Tinos, as the natural “mise en scene” for a music, theater and dance performance titled “Thalassa Quarry”.

The creators of the event describe it as “exploring the marble’s characteristics, the stages of its excavation, its metamorphic nature, and its function as memory-matter, the performance becomes a composition of the various landscape’s elements. The sounds of the marble found in the quarry are juxtaposed with those of the craftsmen sculpting it.”

Today, Monday June 6, whoever missed the live performance in Tinos will have the opportunity to see it via live streaming at 21:00 (more information here).

“Thalassa Quarry” is a joint effort between Andreas Levisianos, who wrote and directed the music for the performance, and Dimitra Kandia, who conceived the idea, wrote the text and undertook the vocal composition.

At the performance, which took place on May 22, the actors, dancers, musicians and singers used the setting as a multi-level stage; the musicians set up their places in a corner of the layered marbles, and the singers and dancers moved around its different angles and slopes.

The site-specific performance incorporated the marble in several creative ways: it was used as a percussion instrument as well as the inspiration for poetic metaphors created by Demetra Kandia, who in her particularly poignant text, used the image and feel of stone.

“Thalassa Quarry” was created with the contribution of “Socio Gathering” an artistic organization led by Christos Artemis, who brought 35 artists together from all over the world on Tinos for a residency project from April 25 – May 23rd. 

Composer Andreas Levisianos chose to infuse this “ceremony” with slow-moving, portentous, and contemplative music – reminiscent of the feeling and stages of mourning. This was enhanced by polyphonic singing that made the performance’s theme of “return to earth” even more momentous.

With information from kathimerini.gr.