FENIA KOTSOPOULOU
VideoPerformance and Experimental Cinema
BECOMING (AN)OTHER STORY: LENA
year of production: 2024
format: digital ( filmed as 16mm, Mini DV and digital)
filming /editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou
voice/text: Lena Sass and Fenia Kotsopoulou
performance: Lena Sass
Original sound and music: Meydän, source: Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0
audio post-production: daz disley
duration: 26:16
location: Lincoln (UK)
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"Becoming (an)other story: Lena" (2024) is an experimental short documentary portrait. A poetic, non-linear journey that delves into the fragments of Lena Sass' life and artistic practice, centering on themes of death and loss, disability and creativity, memory and transformation. Lena shares her experiences through performative acts, reflections on working with disabled and neurodivergent communities, and contemplations on her ash prints and shrouds. Her storytelling invites us into a layered exploration of life and death, celebrating both through her unique creative lens.
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experimental short documentary
because the tree remembers...
year of production: 2024
format: 16:9 digital
filming: daz disley
editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou
performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
poem: Rashid Hussein
duration: 05:48
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Performance for camera dedicate to the Palestinian farmers of the West Bank based on the poem "With the Land" by Palestinian poet Rashid Hussein.
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SUPER 8 FILM
pondering
year of production: 2023
format: digitised super8
SUPER 8 filming /editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou
performance/super 8 processing: Irina Baldini
duration: 03:30
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Pondering; wondering; hovering; lingering. And then a trunk was just there. A poetic exploration and performance for a super8 camera.
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SUPER 8 FILM
untitled
year of production: 2023
format: digitised super8
SUPER 8 filming /processing /editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
performance: Ash McNaughton, Enok Ripley, Emily Welther, Irina Baldini, Marcel Sparmann, Sara Simeoni.
duration: 03:09
location: ITALY
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I sing under the moonlight
[what] she didn't tell me yet
[and before] reaching you through mycelium
[I find ] specs of sand and a splinter in time.
A super 8mm film dedicated to those waiting in silence, someone who never arrived, something that didn't happen, yet.
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SUPER 8 FILM
the blood of horses never dries
year of production: 2023
format: digitised super8
SUPER 8 filming /processing /editing/voice/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
performance: Emily Welther
poem: "The Horse Fell Off the Poem” by Mahmoud Darwish translated by Fady Joudah
duration: 05:11
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"the blood of horses never dries" (2023) is an experimental film inspired by the poem 'The Horse Fell Off the Poem' by Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. When love, nature, and war collide, poetry and dance emerge to honour the innocent blood shed in search and longing of freedom; blood which will never dry but will eternally stain the heart. The film is the juxtaposition of two short films - a super8 filmed in the remote countryside of Humpilla (Finland) and a single shot of the moonset through binoculars - with the morphing/animation of 50 drawings, created during the first 50 days of the on-going massacre against innocent Palestinian civilians following the horrific events of the 7th of October 2023, reflecting the last 75 years of darkness, occupation, and injustice.
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SUPER 8 FILM
Gaza MonoLogues: (n5) Amanee A Shorafa
year of production: 2023
format: 16:9 | 1920 X 1080
35mm photography/drawings/processing /editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
text: Amanee A. Shorafa
duration: 05:32
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This video was created on the 29th of November 2023 [International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People] in response to the ASHTAR Theatre most recent Global Call for solidarity with the Palestinians. It has been made using 50 drawings - one for each day of the first 50 days of the on going horrific massacre against innocent Palestinians since the 7th of October 2023- and photographs taken during a national pro-Palestinian march in London (UK) whilst reading one of the moving Gaza Monologues (from 2010) as translated in Greek by Maria Tsiona. The chosen monologue for the purpose of this video is a testimony by Amanee A. Shorafa (n.5). The translation in English is by Fida Jiryis. "The Gaza Monologues are testimonies written by ASHTAR youth in 2010, after the first war on the Gaza Strip. Tragically, these Monologues are still accurate today. They are highlighting the horrors, hopes and resilience of the courageous Gazans to a wider audience, bringing out the voices of children and people in Gaza." (ASHTAR Theatre). https://www.gazamonologues.com/
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EXPERIMENTAL FILM/ANIMATION
BLUE HAZE
year of production: 2023
format: digitised super8
super 8 filming/processing /editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
featuring: Vaya Kapousidou, Kostis Kotsopoulos
duration: 02:28
location: Greece
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"Blue haze" is super8 film shot with expired colour film [AGFA MOVIECHROME, 1989], hand-developed using B&W chemistry. Low contrast negative which then was projected with CHINON 7000, filmed with sony, inverted and overlayed in AdobePremiere.
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SUPER8 FILM
TRAPPED CIRCLES
year of production: 2022
format: 16:9 | 1920 X 1080
filming/performing /editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
duration: 10:24
location: Berlin (UK)
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an experimental short film made within the context of the masterclass "Experimental and personal filmmaking" with artist filmmaker Rousbeh Rashidi, at Berlin Art Institute
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PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA/EXPERIMENTAL FILM
50.000 TOUCHES -EXCERPT #7
year of production: 2022- on going
format: 16:9 |1920x1080
performance/filming/image processing /editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
featuring: Ash McNaughton, Emily Welther, Enok Ripley, Irina Baldini, Leonora Lax, Marcel Sparmann, Sara Simeoni.
duration: 13:07
location: Lincoln (UK)/Venice (IT)
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This is the seventh cumulative excerpt from the ongoing experimental film project “50,000 TOUCHES” (2022-) on the poetics and politics of love, friendship, touch, and intimacy in relation to self and other, through the means of alternative image making, performance for/with camera, and animation.
The main ambition and challenge of this work lies with devoted attentiveness and deep commitment to a long and slow creative process during which the aim is to hand-develop 50,000 frames (only then the project can be considered completed), using a range of alternative image making techniques- in and out of the darkroom- such as cyanotypes, gelatin silver print, chemigrams, chlorophyll prints, anthotypes, image transfers, lumens, hybrid techniques, as well as super8 analogue film. Oscillating between digital and analogue methods, the frames are developed and re-assembled before being edited to shape an audio-visual poetic journey of a non-linear narrative unfolding through time.
In a process that matters more than the final product, the gaze navigates through the cracks of the body, the mind, and the soul; in search of (un)told stories, deep desires, and dreams that yearn to emerge from the subconscious.
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50.000 TOUCHES -EXCERPT #1
experimental fim
year of production: 2022- on going
format: 16:9 |1920x1080
performance/video/editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
Location: Lincoln (UK)
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This video is a short unpublished excerpt from the ongoing moving-
image project “50,000 TOUCHES” (2022-) on the poetics and politics of love, intimacy
and touch in relation to self and other, through the means of (alternative) photography,
performance for/with camera, animation. The main ambition and challenge of this
work lies upon devoted attentiveness and deep commitment to a slow and long creative
process during which the aim is to hand-develop 50,000 frames (only then the project
can be considered concluded), using a range of alternative image-making techniques- in and out of the dark room-, such as cyanotype, contact printing, chemograms,
chlorophyll printing, anthotypes, and their hybridization. Oscillating between digital
and analogue methods, the developed frames are re-assembled and edited to shape an
audio-visual journey with a non-linear narrative that unfolds through time.
Whilst content-wise this work seeks to navigate the cracks to find out what love is(not),
some of the issues that emerge to reflect upon are : the performativity and materiality
of images, the hyperfocus, commitment and solitude during making process, slowness
as creative method, (intimate) gaze that seeks to create moments of affect, and visual
traps (im)possible to deviate from.
Some of the inspirations stem from the artistic work and approach of Maya Deren, Ed
Carr, Emma Luise Prin, Claude Cahun, Jo Spence, and the critical writing of Tina Campt,
bell hooks, Maria Stehle and Beverly Weber.
THIS IS NOT YOUR TERRITORY
experimental videoperformance
year of production: 2022
duration: 24:32
format: 16:9 |1920x1080
performance/video/editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
Location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
A performance for camera taking as a starting point the latest facts regarding the killings of women by their partners, during 2021 in Greece. Domestic (and other forms of) violence, inflicted predominantly on female-identified subjects around the globe, remains under-reported, stigmatised, and kept as taboo behind doors: devastatingly pervasive in capitalistic, patriarchal, hegemonic, and (hetero)normative societies. The underlying factors behind these forms of violence can be multiple, intersecting gender, age, race, class. However, it can be said with certainty that their basis lies on issues of power and control, as well as still active belief systems on domination which support the illusion that women and their bodies are properties owned and ruled by their (male) partner or spouse. The performance whilst using specific signifiers and (symbolic) references focuses on skin self-writing and dancing as acts of resilience and (self)empowerment "THIS IS NOT YOUR TERRITORY" is not only a performance for the dead but mainly for the still alive ones, the daily survivors, including the children behind the closed doors, and their joint screams. There is not enough space for the names of all of them, but definitely, they are not forgotten.
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A special thanks to : Verena Stenke, Dr. Aylwyn Walsh, Marianna Saxioni.
Leave a mark on me #1
experimental videoperformance
year of production: 2021
duration: 10:20
format: 16:9 |1920x1080
performance/video/editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
Location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
A creative response to the work "The Weight of the World 1-20" (2016) by Lebanese-Americal artist, painter, poet, essayist Etel Adnan (1925-2021)
Once I was a lizard...but not anymore
experimental videoperformance
year of production: 2020
duration: 4:55
format: 16:9 |1920x1080
performance/video/editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
Location: Torino IT/Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
an experimental video on the feeling to be stuck in one place; not being able to find a safe exit; not being agile enough to move through the cracks of loneliness; reaching but not finding anyone; running but not arriving anywhere; Even in these moments there is still a hope that one day you will be a lizard again.
SLIPPAGE
experimental video performance
year of production: 2020
duration: 4:13
format: 16:9 |1920x1080
performance/video/editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
glitch scripting: daz disley
Location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
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“To become an error is to surrender to becoming unknown, unrecognisable, unnamed” Legacy Russell.
“SLIPPAGE” (2020) is an experimental videoperformance in which binary representations fall apart through the hacking of the gender “code”. The use of glitch - as a means of mutiny and resistance against societal oppression of gender expression - allows the dismantling of the faces that constitute our constructed identities. Inspired by the Legacy Russell’s manifesto on Glitch Feminism in which “The glitch challenges us to consider how we can 'penetrate…break…puncture…tear' the material of institution, and, by extension, the institution of the body”, in “Slippage” the notion of identity is in constant flux of transformation, deconstruction, and fragmentation. As a way of resisting aligning with the canon of white heteronormativity, the emphasis is in the gap created during the process of “slipping”; of failing to grip; of unbecoming through consecutive errors. The visual output is a performative proposition towards a “malleable” self, reflected in the deformation of the face. What changes in the perception of our identities which, in their error, refuse to be recognisable, known, and named?
SIGNed
performance for camera
year of production: 2020
duration: 5:46
format: 16:9 |1920x1080
performance/video/editing/sound: Fenia Kotsopoulou
original text: Aylwyn Walsh
Location: Nottingham/Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
"Other people are good at naming emotions. Suffering and desire, measured out in different proportions, tell what name is used. I name hunger: Hunger opening in my chest. Hunger to belong. Hunger to belong. Hunger to be understood. Hunger to be met with compassion. I do not know what will satiate this hunger but repeatedly knocking on this chest. 'You are already open'. 'Your hunger is beautiful'. You don't need to name what others name. You belong to your open, hungry, desiring self" (text by Aywlyn Walsh).
"SIGNed" is a performance for camera using the skin as a site of empowering vulnerabilities asSIGNed back to the body through its marking. The work takes into consideration dehumanizing practices performed and inflicted upon the "hysterical" body, by Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) and other doctors in his neurological school at the Salpêtrière (Paris). Charcot used the camera and the means of photography to document the symptomatology of hysterical women, thereby, to classify certain disorders by means of their visual appearance. Words were written on the hysterics' backs, chest, and arms, and the doctors used to also sign and date their names on them. Such a sadistic practice reflected men's intention and desire to possess the female body and claim ownership of it. The action of "repeatedly knocking on this chest", with a blood lancet needle, uses self-inflicting pain as a way to reclaim ownership of the body, to expose its vulnerability as a means towards self-empowerment, and to satiate its hunger to be met with compassion.
WITHOUT HESITATION [I WAIT]
animation of drawing and random poetry
year of production: 2020
duration: 04:17
format: 16:9 | 1920x10
drawings/text/animation: Fenia Kotsopoulou
music: "ASTRAY" by M.A.K.T. Sono
location: Lincoln (UK)
https://issuu.com/feniakotsopoulou/docs/without_hesitation_fenia_kotsopoulou_2020
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I confess. Today I sinned.
Today I decided to dissent. With consent. Today I gave a hug to a friend. He hugged me back.
He rang the bell. I opened the door. We hesitated. It might have been 30sec of waiting on the doorstep. Until we decided to hug each other. A fleeting moment.
Do I keep it a secret? Today I sinned, and it felt like being a human again. I remembered what a sublime thing is to hug and be hugged.
23.04.2020, Lincoln.
The day after that event of a simple hug in the midst of the pandemic, I realised that my biggest fear is how is already changing the way that we physically (and therefore emotionally-mentally) encounter the other. How far the fear to contaminate and be contaminated will compromise human relationships? It feels that already touch is strongly associated with the idea of illness, and possibly death.
As a way to channel my need and desire for a spontaneous hug, a touch that feels again a safe manifestation of shared intimacy, I started drawing once a day - usually before going to sleep - an imaginary encounter with the other(s) and the self, using a black pencil, blue and red water colour. Basic lines, basic colours, and a basic need and desire: to touch and be touched...without hesitation. I will keep drawing once a day, until that day.
"A body touched, touching, fragile, vulnerable, always changing, fleeing, ungraspable, evanescent under a caress or a blow, a body without a husk, a poor skin stretched over the cave where our shadow floats … "[Fifty-eight Indices on the Body (Corpus), Jean-Luc Nancy, 2008].
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A visual poem composed of drawings and text, created during the months of the lockdown. Lines, colours, and words become a dance about intimacy, touch, and the fundamental need to be with the other, which in the times of Covid-19 is restricted, compromised, suppressed, and associated with the fear of contamination and death. To touch, to feel, to hug the other can be considered a sinful act that can potentially put at risk ours or others' lives. But how can we remain alive without skin to skin contact and real physical connection? What is left for us now is the body that keeps craving, the mind that keeps imagining, and the soul that keeps longing to meet you on the other side, without hesitation.
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CECI N'EST PAS UN FLEUR (2020)
one minute video performance
year of production: 2020
duration: 01:00
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
music: extract from Kim Foscato "bird fuckupery" by Various Artists (Sonic Mmabolela)
location: Lincoln (UK)
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"Perhaps it is time to return to that repressed entity, the female imaginary" (Luce Irigaray)
This is not a flower. This is a (re-)imagined site of female (self)pleasure, to be unfolded, to be discovered through its multiple layers.
An one minute video in which papaver rhoeas is used to celebrate the multiplicity of the female body in search for self-pleasure.
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ON THE STREAMBED
video work created for HUMAN RIGHTS? #CLIMA, curated by Roberto Ronca.
Year of production: 2019
duration: 03:43
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
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On the streambed of the bleeding Earth I sat and I wondered:
why don't you see the visible?
why don't you hear the outcry?
why don't you smell the malodorousness that you've spread?
What song will you sing as together we drown?
No doubt we are living in times where the earth and its inhabitants suffer the effects of human intervention and lack of empathy. No doubt we are living in times where we are obviously paying the price of neglecting and harming the environment whilst ignoring the warnings of global warming with constant risk of flooding, of droughts, of extreme heat, and mass extinctions. No doubt it becomes even more crucial and urgent to fully comprehend that this damage, once done, cannot be reversed.
No doubt the dead will not ressurect.
This video is the silent outcry of a dead butterfly, a creature who reminds us of the power of transformation, and the possibility of significant outcomes caused by small changes. The body is the deserted landscape where the natural blends with the voice to be transformed into a stream of blood.
The blood of smashed flowers.
To give or take life.
To create or destroy.
All it takes just an instance.
THIS DANCE HAS NO END (2018)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2018
duration: 10:53
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera: single shot by Daz Disley
performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
"What happens when someone dies is that we, the living, contain their memory within us ... They will live on in us, and we will celebrate them. And dance like there is no tomorrow". Diane Torr
A dance dedicated to artist, drag king and gender activist Diane Torr who passed away in May 2017. A year to the day, I dance in a black room : a single shot fusing male and female as ode to life and death.
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Traditional urban zeybekiko dance of Rebetiko, exclusively danced by men is danced by my hybrid manifestation - blended aspects of my identity. In silence I hear Diane's words "Take space with all your being. Own the space". I lift my arms and dance like there is no tomorrow as the camera follows. No edits or retakes : the aim is not to please or excite but to offer myself as site for collective unburdening.
PURGE (2018)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2018
duration: 06:08
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera/edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
music: ROOM OF WIRES - Night Ryde
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
“PURGE” is another attempt at removal; an act of cleansing and reclaiming the materiality of the Body which, through history, has been manipulated, stigmatised, penalised, “othered”, oppressed, controlled, dismissed and taught to feel ashamed of its own materiality.
“PURGE” is the urge to stop holding back because:
The body thinks.
The body feels.
The body remembers.
The body speaks its own truth which we are not always willing to listen to.
The body reveals our fears, and by letting these fears be revealed, we delve into the depths of our collective humanity, where we might find the core of what it means to be connected. We are bound not just by our presence, absence, preferences and interests, but on a more fundamental level, by our shames and ultimately our fears.
WHITE TRANSIT (2018)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2018
duration: 04:15
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera: Fenia Kotsopoulou
performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou & Sara Simeoni
edit: Fenia Kotsopoulou & Daz Disley
location: Berlin
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Music video clip for the title track "White Transit" of the new album of Room of Wires.
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untold hairstories
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2018
duration: 04:15
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera: Fenia Kotsopoulou/Daz Disley
edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
music: ROOM OF WIRES- "Protected Space"
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
The Queen of Sheba's book is found and opened. H(air)story emerges like a spell, revealing myths, legends, rituals in which the archetype of the Hairy Woman is celebrated, admired, adored, spoken, written and depicted with respect and playfulness, contributing to the creation of a positive body-hair culture and tradition. Who is the ancient Goddess Thrikseni (from the Greek θρÎ¯ξ “hair”) - protector of hairy women - the muse of painters and sculptors, ancient and modern? What happened when Samson tried to trim Delilah's hairy legs with scissors, after her own confession that in those hairs resides her extraordinary force to make great heroic deeds? Which is the special ayurvedic recipe for body hair's care? Who was Lanugo (from Latin lana “wool”) from whom was named the thin, soft, usually unpigmented, downy hair that the fetus consumes before birth? Have you heard about the hairy armpit dance ritual? A surreal and symbolic ode, a visual poem, a mash-up of re-invented (or slightly tweaked) mythologies, celebrating the hairy female body, beyond binaries of normal vs abnormal, trivial vs relevant, accepted vs rejected, female vs male, beautiful vs monstrous. At the end of the day, it can be argued that all these binaries are a construction of the human mind to regulate bodies and create categories to fit. Therefore, now is the time to re-write the past, by adding, re-imagining, re-proposing certain mythologies and histories around the (female) Body, translated through the lenses of the camera.
A MATCH FOR TWENTY BLUE DEVILS_THE PROCESS (2018)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2018
duration: 03:28
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera/edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou & Daz Disley
music: Jaybird Coleman - "COFFEE GRINDER BLUES"
Label: Columbia 14534-D
Released: 1927 - 1930
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis
"A cup of coffee - real coffee - home-browned, home ground, home made, that comes to you dark as a hazel-eye, but changes to a golden bronze as you temper it with cream that never cheated, but was real cream from its birth, thick, tenderly yellow, perfectly sweet, neither lumpy nor frothing on the Java: such a cup of coffee is a match for twenty blue devils and will exorcise them all."
Created in response to The Coffee Project's 2018 open-call, "A match for twenty blue devils" reaches back to Beecher's last days, reflecting contemporary photographic practice and the slightly hazy, sepia tonality of the technology available at the time : he died between George Eastman starting manufacturing paper-based film in 1885, and introducing celluloid-based film in 1889.
Shot on hand-made 35mm paper-negatives, using DIY coffee-based darkroom chemistry and cobbled-together equipment; we reach-out toward Beecher's austere Calvinism and simultaneously his sense of fun, to reappropriate his abolitionist views to suggest that in this modern-age we are all slaves, of a kind : to the machine, to commerce, to industry, to mental-health even, and in terms of those "blue devils" : slaves to coffee - whilst blissfully aware of just how sensuous and exhilarating our cup of "daily grind" can be.
The beans in the images are those used to develop the images - carefully ground releasing rugged aromas, their resultant brew playfully mixed with similarly basic household fayre to bring to life the alchemy of our all-analog scratch darkroom process.
THE WAITRESS (2018)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
ear of production: 2018
duration: 01:00
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera: Daz Disley
edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
music: MUTED SILENCE WALKING SIDEWAYS by Jared C. Balogh
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
This videoperformance is part of the long term project: DEVIANT WOMEN, a series of still and moving image about female representations which don't conform to societal norms.
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The Waitress.
Any request to be made, supplied or served?
Be aware and cautious of what you order. It might be served in ways you didn't expect or desire.
TAXIMI (2018)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2018
duration: 03:59
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera: Fenia Kotsopoulou
edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
music: Kostis K. & Takis D.
location: C32, Forte Maghera, Venice (Italy
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Synopsis
This is a video created from performance footage within the context of Venice International Performance Art Week | Workshop Series
Joint Performance Summer Class by La Pocha Nostra and VestAndPage.
The original piece "Apocalyptic Zeibekiko" took place as a live durational performance on the 5th of June 201,7 at C32, Forte Maghera, Venice (Italy).
The performance is filmed by a camera placed on the top of the ceiling and the unedited full version was projected on a door surface in the C32 performing art workspace during the final public presentation in the following day (6th of June 2017).
Both the original live performance and the short video performance are performed as a ritualistic dance, rooted in the dance of Zeibekiko: a solo male dance based on improvisation, constituting one of the most renowned urban traditional dances in Greece. The specific dance has its roots, possibly, back to 17th century in Constantinople and Smyrni. Ottoman explorer Mehmed Zilli, in his writings, mention that it was danced in Magnesia and in Aydın at local feasts as a dance for two armed people facing one another, which afterwards was developed into an improvised dance for a single male. Zeibekiko dance has been incorporated in the context of "Rebetiko": a genre closely intertwined with migration, with multicultural origins, encompassing Ottoman-Greek, Ottoman-Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Slavic and Balkan elements, dating back to the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. Throughout history, Zeibekiko has been known as an intensely personal dance where people can express their individuality. Only one man at a time was dancing it. If another got up, it would be a cause for conflict and possible violence.
Here the solitary dance is performed by a woman's body, claiming the space to manifest its vulnerability and find its own catharsis.
The music is an improvised duet of guitar and bouzouki; a taximi which is defined as a freely improvised unmeasured prelude, within a given dromos/makam, which usually was played at the beginning or in the middle of a song.
This video is dedicated to those present in that night and accompanied me in this trasformative journey, leaving traces of their thoughts on my body.
…and in the middle of the horizon, you will see me again (2017)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2017
duration: 03:05
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera: Fenia Kotsopoulou
edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
location: Karpathos (Greece)
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Synopsis:
"Wherever we look, wherever we stand,
all of us dream of you and want you back."
L.Stamatiadis, 1986
"...and in the middle of the horizon, you will see me again"
a video dedicated to a woman I never met.
A women who decided to abandon the land where she was born,
to cross the sea
and navigate the unknown of her destiny...and therefore I exist.
To my grandmother Theodora
MY BODY IS (2017)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2017
duration: 01:00
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera: Fenia Kotsopoulou
edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis
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MY HOME
N0 MAN'S TERRITORY
WHERE MY POWER RESIDES
SHELTER OF EMOTIONS
TESTIMONY
MAP OF TIME
MY TOOL OF EXPRESSION
WHERE PLEASURE EXISTS
WHERE TRUTH IS MANIFESTED
MY BODY IS ONLY MINE ONLY MINE ONLY MINE
A CUPPA WITH ANCESTORS (2017)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2017
duration: 01:00
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera: Fenia Kotsopoulou
edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
location: Lincoln (UK)
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SYNOPSIS
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"Come in, take a seat, the kettle's on : I think we should have a quiet word;
But be careful what you say about my choices 'cause it takes less than a minute for an agitated, unsettled cup to overflow...
and then you will accuse me again of being libertine, rebellious, angry, simpering and unnatural".
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A one minute video dedicated to the deviant, extravagant, whimsical, insolent, indocile, irritable, naughty, talkative, incoherent, depressed, chatty, simpering, flirtatious, unconventional, irascible, impulsive women interned in Sant'Antonio Abate mental hospital during Italian Fascism. Women who have not been able to "fulfill" the roles of mother- housewife- fieldworker as imposed by the oppressive patriarchal society.
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Obsolete domestic equipment was used to produce this short video in an ordinary living room and led by only one person who assumes all the roles: director, performer, camera operator, editor, photographer. This video is presented as an example of simple but still complex in its production video; short vs long duration; steady camera and fixed compositional frames vs multiple different angles and smooth camera work; one person-led vs crew; home vs studio production; As a former dancer, cross-disciplinary artist who can't afford the conditions/technology/equipment for a so called " high production value" output, had never been a real limitation even if I am aware that my work can't access certain contexts of video art and screendance. Imagination, adaptation, and new strategies are constantly emerging and they become the elements which will define what is the real value of a work. "A cuppa with ancestors" aimed to challenge personal boundaries during the making process, searching for an organic synthesis between the different elements of creation.
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FROM A GREEK CUNT'S POINT OF VIEW
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
videoperformance in collaboration with Apollvn S Delios
year of production: 2016
duration: 16:36
format: 16:9 | 1280x960
camera: Fenia Kotsopoulou || Apollvn S Delios
edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou | Apollvn S Delios
location: Lincoln || Athens
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SYNOPSIS
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"From a Greek Cunt's - Eye - View" , composed by six short video by Apollvon S Delios and Fenia Kotsopoulou. A sixteen minutes video program, reflective of current Greek issues, imagery, situation and outlook.
- "ERT" by Apollvon S Delios: a video inspired by the shutting down of Greece's national TV channels : NET, ERT1, ERT 2 on June of 2013. It was happened in a brutal way with a police raid on the broadcaster's building. This event was a symbol of the total domination of the facism in modern Greek history. In response, the artist attack every rotten aspect of modern Greek culture : phallocracy, political corruption, police immunity ... in a lyrical and trippy way".
- "In and out" by Fenia Kotsopoulou: Money, money money, money....MOney, MoneY, Money, mONEy...common, everyone let's start singing with ABBA : "Money, money, money // Must be funny // In the rich man's world // Money, money, money // Always sunny //In the rich man's world // Aha-ahaaa..Hey you! Why don't you laugh? -"HyperAthens" by Fenia Kotsopoulou: A dangling flag, a dizzy Parliament, hands on the rails and a nocturnal dance. Surely it's simple to see which one of the four caused the others ?
-"Deflation" by Fenia Kotsopoulou: a satirical short video about "yes" and "no", "In and out" and the in between scenes. * dialogue from Scarface (1983) with Al Pacino directed by Tarantino.
-"Pythian Oracles" by Apollvn S Delios. "Tell to the king that the cavern wall is fallen in decay", she said.
-"Shower of identities" by Fenia Kotsopoulou: The parade is over and I can wash off the Blu pride from my legs with hot and cold cycle of water.
DOMESTIC CATWOMAN (2016)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: February 2016
duration: version 1 - 20:39 || version 2- 10: 34
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera: Daz Disley
edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
location: Lincoln 2016
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SYNOPSIS
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Open, apply, wait and smile for 20 min, remove.
And then all that they have promised you will become true.
*List of Animal Ingredients - that can be found in products of the beauty industry - is taken from: peta.org/living/beauty/animal-ingredients-list/s
VERSION 2: https://youtu.be/qv691Z_SIPk
SHOWER OF IDENTITIES
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: March 2016
duration: 09:45
format: 16:9 | 1280x720
camera: Daz Disley
edit/performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
location: Lincoln 2016
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Synopsis
The parade is over and I can wash off Blu colour from my painted legs with hot and cold cycle of water (Scottish shower). "In order to find your own answers on questions about identity (personal, social, gender, national etc), first you need to go through a self-cleansing process to get rid of all the external assumptions and expectation upon you . Then you might start discovering the real surface of your skin, while you let the rest disappear in the sink. Then you might start discovering what it means to be you..."
BORDERLINE (2015)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: December 2015
duration: 3:06
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera/editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou
location: Spiatza Ilias (GR)
SYNOPSIS
"Where should we go after the last frontiers ?
Where should the birds fly after the last sky ? "by Mahmoud Darwish.
While the West still struggles to find solutions for the “refugee crisis”, the main route towards peace and hope remains passage through the Mediterranean Sea. In 2015 alone, of the almost one million refugees* and migrants attempting to cross the blue waters in rubber dinghies and wooden boat, desperately fleeing war, violence, terrorism, and persecution : over three and a half thousand have lost their lives. In 2016, Greek islands keep on battling odds to cope with refugee influx. On the one side of the cost, Turkey is already hosting over 2.5 million Syrians and also shouldering one of the greatest responsibility in sheer numbers in this humanitarian international crisis. What relies behind these numbers is the human desire and longing for that place "after the last frontiers...after the last sky"; a place that still remains unknown.
"Millions of people, displaced by war and hunger are opting for dangerous routes towards a better and safer life". Reinhard Kleist
*data based on reports be the UN Refugee Agency: data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.php
MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL... (2015)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: December 2015
duration: 4:10
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
performance/camera/editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou
music: Sol Rezza "Nibru"
location: P.A.F , St. Ermes (FR) - during artstic residence (2013)
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SYNOPSIS
"The Queen and the Huntsman, in front of the mirror on the wall,
are wondering who's the fairest and who's the bravest of them all...
Forgetting that mirrors don't speak at all.
An ironic video -performance as a virtual comment on classic fairy tail, still having a lasting impact on the perpetuation of gender stereotypes and notions of female beauty- innocence vs masculinity-bravery.
itinerarios (2015)
experimental screendance
year of production: December 2015
duration: 5:20
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera/editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou
music: Stefano Risso
location: Lisbon (PT)
SYNOPSIS
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"itinerários" is a collage of instant collective compositions by pedestrian in urban context. Individuals, couples and groups map a journey across time and space by walking in different paces and/or standing still; passengers become a performative ensemble which creates multiple trajectories and random encounters, transforming the square in a site of performance; the music is an important element revealing inner dynamic rhythms of the walking activity, bringing together and resynthesising all the elements of this urban choreography.
The video has been filmed from the top of the arch on Rua Augusta which sees at the Commerce Square (Praça do Comércio) in Lisbon and edited on the experimental music piece - "A wail" - composed and performed by Stefano Risso.
WHAT BEAUTY FEELS LIKE (2015)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
Year of production: January 2015
duration: 2:48
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou // Daz Disley
voice/shooting/editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou
Location: Lincoln (UK)
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SYNOPSIS
"What beauty feels like" is the slogan/logo of the famous hair removal product. A slogan that persuades the audience to believe that they will be "beautiful" as long they use this hair removal product for touchable, soft, desirable, extra smooth, moisturized and shiny legs that can proudly show off.
Here the same slogan is used to celebrate:
The pleasure of "failing" to conform to certain presumptions about female appearance.
The pleasure of "failing" to satisfy basic expectations of public presentation and image.
The pleasure of "failing" to follow social standards for beauty.
The pleasure of showing off real touchable, soft, desirable, moisturized,shiny, beautiful, hairy legs.
HERE BUT NOT HERE AT ALL AT THE SAME TIME
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
year of production: 2014
duration: 09:15
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
camera/edit/fx: Daz Disley
performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
location: Lincoln (UK)
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Synopsis:
lonely in a crowd; distant, separate from others; something in common, not sure what; crossing boundaries, twisting space. You are here, and I am here. Here but not here at all at the same time."
"HERE BUT NOT HERE AT ALL AT THE SAME TIME" is an experimental slow-motion, slit-scan short, exploring identity, presence, absence, and otherness in a pedestrian context.
Slit-scan and non-conventional narrative aim to challenge the viewer's traditional view and perspective :
Who and Where is the alien ?
The static subject ?
The modulated spontaneously self-choreographing public body ?
The relationship between the two entities ?
Or something / somewhere else entirely ?
EXPERIMENTAL FILM /HANDMADE
IT NEVER ENDS (2014)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
Year of production: July 2014
duration: 5:39
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
shooting/editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou
music: Randolf Arriola - "KB 1" Fedotov/Shubin - "Composition 3"
photo: Daz Disley
Location: Nocton Hall, Lincolnshire (UK)
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SYNOPSIS
There is nothing to fear as you wander in abandoned places: those hidden, secret, isolated, dark places within your dreams. In some point you will wake up, you will open your eyes and they will disappear....until you fall asleep again...
(DIS)REMEMBERING (2013)
PERFORMANCE FOR CAMERA
Year of production: 2013
duration: 2:14
format: 16:9 | 1920x1080
performance: Fenia Kotsopoulou
video/editing: Fenia Kotsopoulou
photo: Daz Disley
Location: Lincoln
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SYNOPSIS
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a sort of autobiography where words aren't necessary;
a sort of diary where my body becomes the messenger of thoughts and feelings; where Real and Imaginary are blended
a sort of conglomerated visual traces of a confrontation with my past;
a bunch of pixels becoming a digital letter with only receiver: my father.
Screening at: Art Web GalleryVideoperformance 2013 [ Art Director Gallery and artist: Paola Zucchello ||Art Director and curator: Gilda Da Pozzo ]
Review by Gilda da Pozzo (IT) : L'artista greca Fenia Kotsopoulou, si presenta nel suo video dal titolo “(Dis)remembering” con una passeggiata dentro una stanza, dove si muove scalza e salendo ad ogni passaggio su un cumulo di viti di acciaio. Su e giù, sempre concentrata nell'azione, sembra che soffra ma resiste al dolore, preme ancora i suoi piedi sul cumulo della tortura, le viti scricchiolano per la pressione. Questa performance in stile body art anni Sessanta, ci fa ricordare le azioni di Gina Pane e quelle di Valie Export, con il suo agire concentrata e nel sopportare senza lamenti il dolore fisico, subito con la messa in campo del proprio corpo nel contesto dell'azione, anche se, l'artista Fenia, questi temi li propone in linguaggio video.
 inFocus 2018 |  FESTIVAL DO MINUTO |  WAC |  SCREENINGS |  Contemporary Visions |  |  |
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 |  |  |  MAKEOUT |  Online videoperformance |  "Pancaroba" video art festival |  InstantsVideo 2015 catalogue p 7 |