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Information about access on site at the gallery is available here: Whitechapel Gallery Access. This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
This event takes place in our auditorium, with cushioned seats that have backs.
Transport
– To the best of our knowledge, there are no planned disruptions to local transport on the date of the event.
– Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min walk) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min walk), Shoreditch High Street (15 min walk) or Liverpool Street (15 min walk).
– Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
24 September 2022 | 3pm | £5
The first gay prime minister of Greece struggles to carry the legacy of LGBT history at a time of post-truth alt-right dystopia, while a mysterious algorithm of the collective unconscious and heavy-handed tradition of “the land of heroes” proves unshakable. Will liberal Europe provide an alternative or is it just another platform for neo-reactionary culture wars?
ORFEAS 2021 is a retro-futurist story of utopian politics, ideological conflicts, supernatural leaders and totalitarian spectacle, where cyberpunk queer pirates are pitched against rainbow homo-capitalist normies. The film explores post-internet identity politics through a contemporary take on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus.
This film is the first queer opera in Greek, a post-modern experimental work, oscillating between baroque melodrama, DIY collage, post-internet and VR/AI aesthetics.
The opera is influenced by and dedicated to the memory of Zak Kostopoulos/Zackie Oh, a queer performer and activist, murdered in 2018 in the centre of Athens.
The UK premiere of ORFEAS 2021 will be followed by a conversation with Foivos Dousos & Fil Ieropoulos (aka FYTA) and Librettist Andriana Minou, hosted by Nayia Yiakoumaki, Director of the Hellenic Centre in London.
Presented in collaboration with community partner Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest:a week of boundary-pushing film, art, performance, and community to London 20-25 September
FYTA (meaning: plants) is a conceptual audio-textual performance and curation duo. some of the central concerns of FYTA are: a rethinking of notions of the ‘radical’ in political art, the debunking of myths of hellenism and hellenic influences in the Western canon, the relationship between underground grassroots art movements and institutions and the queer art of failure as a somatic expression of resistance. FYTA have curated a number of (usually performance-based) shows working closely with the queer communities in Athens, Berlin and London, as well as produced their own artifacts, ranging from music albums, fauxcumentaries, poetry and installations. FYTA is composed of Fil Ieropoulos and Foivos Dousos.
Andriana Minou is a musician and writer, born in Greece and living in London since 2004. She works mainly as a pianist and is the founder of the Vladimir&Estragon Piano Duo and the Oiseaux Bizarres Ensemble. Andriana holds a BA in Piano Performance (University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki), an MA in Performing Arts (Middlesex University, London) and a PhD in Piano Performance Practice (Goldsmiths, University of London). As an academic researcher she has organised the 1st International Jani Christou Conference (London, 2013) and has presented her work at IRCAM, Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2014). She has written librettos and performance texts for operas and performances presented around the world (Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Athens etc.). As a composer/songwriter she has released albums with the DIY label FYTINI (as Delicassetten Machimenai and andrianette) and composed music for various performances, films and theatrical plays. Her work as a writer and poet has been published by Strange Days Books, The Paper Nautilus, Rattle Journal, poetix, Sand Journal, tiny spoon, codepoetry, chimeres, FIVE:2:ONE and more. She is a co-curator of Sand Festival, a DIY literature summer festival in various Greek beaches. Her latest book, ‘The Fabulous Dead’ was recently published by Kernpunkt Press (March 2020, New York), while her book terrallà (Strange Days Books) was recently published in Spanish.
