Residency of Mairi Pardalaki, hosted by Dance Laboratory Rhodes in partnership with Istanbul Fringe Festival & Dance Days Chania
©AnastasiaGiannaki
Dünya Maskara is a bilingual Turkish-Greek project inspired by 19th-century archives written in “karamanlidika" - a dialect and writing system of the Turkish language using the Greek alphabet. It was common among the Rum Orthodox population of the Ottoman Empire. Poet Cagla Meknuze and EFFEA Artist and choreographer Mairi Pardalaki combined “karamanlidika” archive themes with their own writings, reflecting on love, death, religion and questioning the place of women within them as seen today.
The Dünya Maskara EFFEA residency started on 19 July at the Kinitiras Lab in Athens, bringing together choreographer Mairi Pardalaki and performers Elina Demirtzioglou, Katerina Gevetzi, Sevasti Zafeira and Marietta Manaroli. Based on the performance texts written by Cagla and Mairi, the group started blending movement with live voice, giving shape to Dünya Maskara. Musician Anna Linardou joined the residency to provide directions on how the spoken words could be performed.
©Mairi Pardalaki
During the residency, Mairi also met with costume designer Dimitra Liakoura, to work on the Dünya Maskara costumes. One of the main “karamanlidika” books whose content takes part in the performance (Kallifonos Seirin by Panagiotis Kiltzanidis, 1859) is decorated with a print technique named Ebru. Ebru is also known as marbling and flourished during the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. Using Ebru as an inspiration, Dimitra and Mairi met Ebru artist Katerina Momitsa who created a new Ebru print for the project. Mixed with contemporary, casual outfits, the costumes of the project took shape.
The team travelled to Dance Days Chania Festival in Crete to present their work at the old mosque of Küçük Hassan, by the old port of the town, on 25 July <3
©South Space for Photography
In September, Dünya Maskara travelled to Dance Laboratory Rhodes, where a second performance took place (04/09), as well as a workshop (05/09) based on the 19th-century bilingual archives that inspired the project. Participants of all ages gathered for a creative writing session around “karamanlidika” poems. They then embodied their own writings through voice and movement.
©Nassia Stouraiti
Dünya Maskara's last stop was at the Istanbul Fringe Festival, at the end of September 2024, where a second residency took place together with the Turkish performers team: Canan Yücel Pekiçten, Aslı Bostancı and Gizem Seçkin. Bilingual performer Elina Demirtzioglou, also part of the residency in Greece, travelled to Istanbul to rejoin the project, thus serving as a link between the two teams. Vocalist Çağıl Kaya gave additional directions concerning the voice score. The performance was presented in the Arter Museum on 21 September. An artist talk was co-organised the following day with Istos, an independent publishing and production house initiated by the Istanbul Greek community. Mairi Pardalaki, together with Anna Maria Aslanoglu, İlyas Özçakır and Ilker Hepkaner, traced parallels between Dünya Maskara and Büyük Zarifi Apartmanı, another turkish-greek performance which is experimenting between theatre and cinema. The evening ended with a concert of the Istos Chorus <3
©Yusuf Tan Demirel/ Istanbul Fringe Festival