ANCIENT SOULS IN HUMAN BODIES

Museo Castromediano Lecce, Puglia, Italy

An experiential and participatory performance designed especially for the Museo Archeologico Sigismondo Castromediano, where contemporary performance merges with ancient mysticism and creates a thread that connects the audience with the museum exhibits in a symbiotic relationship with the past, the present, and the future.

  • Inspired by the permanent exhibition of the museum that starts from prehistoric times and focuses on the Messapian and Ancient Greek findings,

  • the site-specific performance Ancient Souls In Human Bodies incorporated the 12 large-scale photographs of the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky

  • on the Xylella Disaster that documents the ecological disaster that led so far to the destruction of 21 million ancient olive trees.

Dissolving The Boundaries

In the site-specific performance "Ancient Souls In Human Bodies," created in just nine days by the multifaceted artist Apostolia Papadamaki, spectators were deeply engaged with their emotional and spiritual selves. Performers and audience members shared every moment in an active, participatory, and embodied way.

This experience was an archaic and contemporary ritual, weaving together dance, music, and singing. For lovers of Ancient Greece and Griko civilizations, it offered a rejuvenating immersion into the universal values of harmony, spirituality, and communion between the natural and supernatural.

For contemporary art enthusiasts, it presented a realization where the modern did not exclude the past but integrated it into a fluid circularity, dissolving the boundaries between past, present, and future.

The performance was also an innovative approach to the use of public space. "Ancient Souls In Human Bodies" created a multidimensional, site-specific performative ritual that deeply involved spectators in their emotional and mental realms, demonstrating the transformative power of art.

Supporting Organisations & Sponsors

 The performance was implemented as part of the 2023 “Tempora/Contempora” festival, organized by AMA (Accademia Mediterranea dell’Attore) in collaboration with the Castromediano Museum in Lecce,Italy.

Premiere: 01/09/2023

Ancient Souls In Human Bodies

Direction, Choreography, Costumes
Apostolia Papadamaki

Original music
Trifon Koutsourelis

Lighting and sound designer
Lorenzo Paladini

Cinematographer
Paolo Caputo

Assistant Choreographer
Rossella Notarnicola

Production of Accademia Mediterranea dell'Attore , Lecce, directed by Franco Ungaro.

Credits

Angelica dell’Anna, Paraskevi Bakis, Ermelinda Bircaj, Sara Colonna, Simone Imbriani, Daniela Nisi, Rossella Notarnicola, Anna Maria Massante, Titti Mastria, Arianna Marangio, Virginia Michail, Miriana Moschetti, Cosimo Muci, Claudia Roselli, Samuele Spagnolo, Gaia Quarta.

On Stage

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