I/O has been the main producer and Dutch partner in this large-scale adventurous residency, fully funded and supported by Onassis Culture & Onassis Stegi. The Margaroni Residency (2022-2023) was initiated and directed by Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos (Onassis Culture Fellows / Onassis AiR), who put together a team in order to research the potential of recomposing the world of the Greek countryside’s musical culture.

photo credit: Thanos Tsantas

Thanasis and Yannis, together with their team, roamed the countryside recording, interviewing and filming musicians, sound engineers, farmers, dancers and general public, churches and public squares, rural and industrial landscapes – all part of the agricultural culture that brings to life the Greek traditional feast known as the panighíri.

The residency takes its title from the legendary singer Kiki Margaroni, the voice of which proved to be as inspiring as bringing tears to both the two directors and the people who testified in numerous interviews, remembering her voice in the panighíria of the 70s and 80s.

// A brief story of the Margaroni Residency //

The field recordings (July-August 2022)
Mainly working all around Thessalia (Central Greece) and Xirómero (Western Greece), the team visited and recorded various panighíria, as well as agricultural fields. The trips by car from one place to another, during the day as well as throughout the night, proved to be an entire of its own to document. About 40 interviews were conducted.

photo credits: 1-4 & 6 Thanasis Deligiannis / 5 Yorgos Kyvernitis

The two directors would gather all material into a studio in Athens provided by Onassis Stegi; the headquarters of the residency, full of maps, books, notes, hard drives with video and audio footage, as well as a digital collection of 3D scanned objects.

photo credits: 1-2 Thanasis Deligiannis

Workshop A | Legaki building (November-December 2022)
The Onassis Stegi offered one of their spaces that were out of use at the moment in ordered to move to the next phase of the residency: the very valuable artistic tests, using the fieldwork experience, the documented material (audio, video, transcribed texts), musicians and raw materials in place of scenography, as well being in a dialogue with invited artistic consultants. The workshop took place in the “Legaki” building in Athens, a 2.000 sq.m. industrial space that was waiting to be renovated. After a month of tests, and a round-table discussing the challenges of a creative process when working transdisciplinary, a private tryout took place on November 27th. It was a peripatetic immersive experience lasting over two hours throughout the entire building. The tryout was repeated once again for professionals and programmers on December 11th.

photo credits: 1, 3, 5, 8 Pinelopi Gerasimou / 2, 4, 7 Yorgos Kyvernitis / 6 Thanasis Deligiannis

Workshop B | Ydras building (April-May 2023)
After a few extra trips in the countryside by Thanasis and Yannis during carnival season, and a month of desk/research work at the Onassis Stegi building, the 2nd workshop started at the “Ydras” building in Athens. The entire research was re-composed in the multiple floors of the emptied ex-shoe factory. Some of the material was reconfigured, new material was used (only a portion out of the GBs hibernating in our hard drives). The artistic tests culminated to the final private tryout of the residency on May 28th; another 2-hour peripatetic immersive experience with performative elements throughout the over 2.000 sq.m. of the entire complex.

photo credits: Pinelopi Gerasimou

Presentation at the Onassis AiR Open Days & Workshop for professionals (October 2023)
After the summer of 2023, when Thanasis and Yannis revisited most of the locations of the residency’s fieldwork, the two directors were invited by the Onassis AiR program to present the residency to the rest of the community during the Open Day of October 20th. A 2-day workshop for professional artists took place as well, diving in to the research’s topics while sharing the artistic tools and outcomes.

A way to the Venice Biennale 2024
Throughout the 2nd phase of the residency (March-May 2023), Thanasis and Yannis, in discussions with Onassis Stegi and professionals in the visual arts sector, investigated the potential of their work being proposed as the national participation of Greece at Venice Art Biennale. After a lot of research on the format, the team, the narrative and the meaning of such an artistic gesture, an application was sent to the Greek Ministry of Culture re-adjusting the residency’s outcomes in the format of an immersive installation for the building of the Greek Pavilion in the Giardini, under the title Xirómero/Dryland. The result was announced end of July 2023; the application was selected by a national committee. Xirómero/Dryland is presented at the 60th International Art Exhibition of Venice Biennale from April till November 2024. The exceptional news is that it has been one of the most praised pavilions among public and critics!

The Margaroni Residency workforce
Thanasis Deligiannis & Yannis Michalopoulos – directors
Elia Kalogianni, Yorgos Kyvernitis, Kostas Chaikalis, Fotini Papachristopoulou – artistic collaborators
Natasa Tsakiridou, Lina Alatzidou, Dafni Nikolaou, Christina Kemanetzidou – singers
Spyros Rakis Nikolaou – clarinet, Yannis Zarias, Christos Dalianis – violin, Dimitris Tigkas – double bass, Stamatis Passopoulos – keyboard
Sofia Karakantza, Miranda Terzopoulou, Tasos Koukoutas, Jeph Vanger – artistic consultants
Stavros Nikolakopoulos – technical director
Konstantinos Margkas – lighting engineer
Danai Belosinof – production assistant for I/O

Production companies in Greece collaborated with I/O
Lefou productions (Legaki workshop)
TooFarEast (Ydras workshop)

An enormous thank-you to Onassis Stegi, to their amazing crew and to the Onassis AiR team.

Links
Onassis AiR | Margaroni Residengy
Thanasis Deligiannis | Margaroni Residency
Onassis AiR | Workshop
Lifo | article on the residency and its connection to the Venice Biennale work [in Greek]