The research project Space of Tapes is staging a five-day performance installation at the Tsaousis building in the old walled city of Nicosia from 11 to 15 November. The programme includes an electroacoustic performance featuring singer Savina Yannatou, a circuit bending workshop and a collective reworking of a pandemic-era digital artwork.
The installation, ‘Tape #1: Tools for Gauging Distances’, takes place at 46-48 Faneromenis Street. According to the organisers, it explores the distances separating academia from state institutions, religion from antiquities and contemporary art from money, which they describe as not merely geometric but matters of power, interpretation and ownership.
The project is supported by the Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture.
Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 November
The opening and central event is an electroacoustic lament, ‘post-truth is another water game I play against my mouth’, at 8.30pm on both nights. Composed and constructed by Stella N. Christou, it features Yannatou once again in the role of the ‘Mouth’. According to the organisers, the piece measures the distances between truth and play, and between the body that speaks and the speech that escapes, proposing mourning as an active cognitive act.
Androula Kafa and Christou take the roles of ‘Actant Worker – Past’ and ‘Actant Worker – Future’. They are joined by the Arcades Bildakt ensemble: Andria Nicodemou on vibraphone and percussion, Tasos Stamou on bouzouki, improvised sound sources and electronics, Jannis Anastasakis on musical saw and analogue electronics, Symis Soukiouroglou on clarinet, Yeti, and Demetris Shammas on lighting.
Video is by Evi Roumani and Eleni Bartzila, and sound by Christos Christodoulou. The visual installation is by Soukiouroglou, Christou, Yeti, KinΣ and Field-Effect Transistors. Visual design is by Stelios Papageorgiou of Common Grounds studio, and design by George Tsaggaris.
Friday 13 November
From 5pm to 2am, ‘Rec’ is a gathering and interactive artists’ tour with Kala Kathoumena.
Saturday 14 November
Stamou leads a workshop, ‘The Art of Circuit Bending’, from 10.30am to 7pm. It covers the history and prehistory of DIY electronic sound, along with its basic principles, techniques and tools, and participants will build electronic musical instruments from recycled materials. No prior knowledge is needed.
Sunday 15 November
At 5pm, the Athens-based Laboratory for the Urban Commons (LUC) presents ‘Revisiting Aboulomania’. Members of the collective will revisit material from Christou’s work ‘Aboulomania’, alongside practices the collective developed online during the pandemic, and the public is invited to take part.
Aboulomania, from the Greek for “without will”, describes paralysis in the face of choice. The interactive digital work was created by Field-Effect Transistors in 2021-22, during the pandemic, as part of the international programme ‘The Whole Life, Archives and Imaginaries’ at HKW in Berlin. It is installed in the building’s basement as a digital environment in which a decision is never made.
The artists
Christou studied music at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and fine art at the Athens School of Fine Arts. She is a founding member of Space of Tapes, an artist-run research platform based between Nicosia, Athens and Berlin.
Yannatou was born in Athens and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She has released around 30 albums and has worked with the group Primavera en Salonico since 1994.
Stamou builds and plays DIY electronic instruments and has led workshops in London, Athens, Dortmund and elsewhere.
LUC’s members are Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Panayotis Lianos, Stavros Stavrides and Pegy Zali.
Tickets and bookings
Tickets for the lament on 11 and 12 November cost 12 euros, or 5 euros reduced. Reservations for the performance and the circuit bending workshop can be made on Instagram at @spaceoftapes or online, and information is available on 96 510 696. Performance bookings can also be made by phone.
