Primal Matter, the Entire Work in Seventeen Minutes (2012)

Primal Matter, the entire work in seventeen minutes, is a condensed cinematic summary of Dimitris Papaioannou’s original production, Primal Matter, presented in 2013 at the Athens Festival. Originally spanning one hour and fifteen minutes, this live performance featured Dimitris Papaioannou and Michalis Theophanous and was filmed by Stefanos Sitaras and edited by Dimitris Papaioannou. Primal Matter is Dimitris Papaioannou’s personal response to a new political, social, and ethical reality, where issues of national identity are re-interpreted. The challenge that lies ahead is how to face a wounded national identity, the trauma continues, but so does the resistance of creativity. Papaioannou employs the simplest means, the body itself. Primal Matter offers a universal language of decoding, and a shortcut to the truth – the fusion of the two bodies through optical illusions is a fusion of attitudes, of identities and a struggle between the matter and the mind, the shadow and the light, the creator and its creation. (源自: TIDF 2024)