Διαθέσιμο και στα:

SIDAAROS* is a performance by Nicolas Lakiotakis that combines text, music and video installation, moving between documentary material and fiction, realism and dream. Iron lies at the heart of the work: its origins, its journey through time and its connection to the stars. Can we trace the history of a metal across billions of years, from its formation in the universe to the depths of the Earth? How can the same element be essential to the human body yet potentially toxic?

The performance also explores the long history of mining in the Cyclades, focusing on Sifnos and Serifos. Mining on Sifnos dates back to the third millennium BC, and the island’s mineral wealth played a central role in its economic and cultural development. The remains of ancient mines, still visible today, bear witness to the enduring relationship between the land, human labour and collective memory. On Serifos, the miners’ strike of 1916 became a defining moment in the island’s history and a landmark in the history of the Greek labour movement.

The title *SIDAAROS recalls the archaic and dialectal form sidāros, meaning iron. It also suggests a possible etymological connection with the Indo-European root sweid- (“to shine”) and the Latin sidus (“star”).

CONCEPT & PERFORMANCE
Nicolas Lakiotakis

TEXTS
Nicolas Lakiotakis, Jérôme Margueron, Louis Fresnes, L’Exposition universelle illustrée, Paris, 1 August 1878; Ismini Zanou-Groman, Pepromena kai Poreies Zois; William Shakespeare, The Tempest.

The performance also incorporates testimonies by Zannis Livanios, Anna Rota and Michalis Kouzoupis, as recorded by Alexandra Christakaki in her book Sta Splachna tis Serifou, as well as testimony by Thodoris Livanios from Giorgos Petritsis’s ERT program Serifos 1916, NARRATIOΝ: Dimitris Nathanael.

FREE ENTRANCE
Under the auspices and with the support of the Ministry of Culture.
In collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, the Municipality of Sifnos and the Sifnos Cultural Association.