The Great Tamer

Sisyphus: the man who the gods condemned to push a boulder up a hill for eternity. In this new work, a group of people dig up a living body, like archaeologists unearthing a memory or adventurers discovering a new country. The body is admired, embraced, idealised and cannibalised. But also transformed, copied, cloned, cared for and cherished. The body is lost, found and sought again.

Papaioannou is a trained painter and visual artist. Since 1986, he has devoted himself to the creation of extreme image theatre, initially with his influential ensemble Edafos Dance Theatre (1986-2002) and since 2002 as an independent artist. His great, symbolic work is a hybrid of experimental dance, movement theatre and performance art, strongly influenced by Robert Wilson. In the 1990s, he also presented himself as an illustrator of subversive highly homoerotic comics. In the theatre, all of his interests came together, Papaioannou explains, 'As a painter, it was somewhere to paint pictures. As a cartoonist, it was somewhere to tell stories. And as a performer, it was a context in which I was able to physically and emotionally express myself. I also discovered that live action presented me with the opportunity to communicate directly.'

This new work builds on four fields of research that Papaioannou has been involved with since 2009: movement, sound, light and space. The human body forms the basis of Papaioannou's work. In his physical theatre – without text or music, but full of symbolism – he seeks the essence of being human. Papaioannou sees himself as a painter on the stage, who makes use of the human body in all its diversity. He uses minimum resources to create worlds of a stunning beauty, in order to enrich life with a theatrical magic.

and light designer, choreographer and director. During a work period in New York under the wings of Ellen Stewart, he became acquainted with butoh and avant-garde dance. He was co-founder of Kontrosol sto Haos (1986-1992), one of the first Greek fanzines to discuss gay topics. As the principal founder of the influential company Edafos Dance Theatre (1986-2002) he conceived, directed, and choreographed all of the company’s 17 productions. In 2004, he designed and directed the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympic Games in Athens. In 2006 he presented his work 2 that enjoyed a successful run of 100.000 sold tickets, and in 2008 he restaged Medea that received the same success. In 2009 he presented Nowhere, the opening performance for the renovated main stage of the National Theatre of Greece. With Primal Matter (2012), Papaioannou performed for the first time in many years himself on stage. This performance premiered at the Athens Festival and toured to Thessaloniki, New York, Edinburgh, Moscow, Vicenza, Vienna, and London. In 2014 his work Still Life premiered at the Onassis Cultural Centre – Athens, and one year later he was responsible for Origins, the opening ceremony of the 1^st European Games in Baku. In 2015-17 Still Life toured to theatres in Bordeaux, Paris, Milan, Stockholm, Cagliari, Santiago, Limassol, Braga, São Paulo, Antwerp, Belgrade, Montpellier, Singapore, Rennes, Seville, and Sydney. This new creation is Papaioannou's debut at the Holland Festival.