Mystery 73 Cinema Paradise: Industries of Coexistence

A documentary filmed at Gadani, Pakistan, in collaboration with the shipbuilders’ association, the lost Atlantis by award-winning Ben Russell; the Cannes-awarded short film by Evi Kalogiropoulou starring Giorgos Mazonakis; the legendary What Are the Clouds? by Pier Paolo Pasolini; the journey of a container from Rotterdam to Los Angeles and Hong Kong by film theory guru Allan Sekula; views from an intense televised debate on the war in Syria through the eyes of Johan Grimonprez; the figure of a melancholy sun witnessing the moral and environmental degradation of the planet by visual artist Agnieszka Polska; the story of four drag queens from Brazil directed by Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin De Burca as well as conversations between women in Kurdistan, Colombia and Lebanon are just some of the works that will be enjoyed by those who will be attending the Mystery 73 Cinema Paradise: Industries of Coexistence in Elefsina. And alongside their own works, artists will travel from all corners of the world to Elefsina to present their films and meet the Greek audiences.

As Marina Fokidis says, Mystery 73, Cinema Paradise: Industries of Coexistence is “a collection of film narratives about a variety of communities, rituals, seas, the destruction of the planet, work and displacement, aspiring to momentarily occupy space and provoke cathartic conversations – for as long as they last – between different individuals and groups. An experiment on how artworks can be presented outside museums and art institutions, in venues of daily entertainment, like an open-air cinema with a sea view, a historical cinema built by American soldiers who served in Elefsina during the Cold War and which, though it changed ownership through the years, survived thanks to the loyalty of local cinephiles.”

“The title Cinema Paradise evokes the symbolism of the passage from the ‘world of the living’ to the ‘world of the dead,’ a theme that ever since antiquity permeates the mythology of Elefsina and the human soul. The subtitle Industries of Coexistence refers to the wider concept of work and the workforce in labour and production, the people who work incessantly, keeping our world in motion, even at personal risk, throughout the pandemics and a series of global geopolitical conflicts. The essential coexistence of all the different ‘worlds’ is the issue at stake in this particular project.”

Detailed schedule:

Wednesday 13 September 2023

Kostis Velonis, How One Can Think Freely in the Shadow of a Temple
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening)
Allan Sekula & Noël Burch, The Forgotten Space, 2010, 112΄ 

Friday 15 September 2023

Panos Charalambous, La gazza ladra
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening) .
Driant Zeneli, Those Who Tried to Put the Rainbow Back in the Sky, 2012, 15΄
& Maybe the Cosmos is Not so Extraordinary, 2019, 15΄
Hira Nabi, All That Perishes at the Edge of Land, 2019, 20΄
The screenings will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the artists and Maria-Thalia Carras.

Saturday 16 September 2023

Kostis Velonis, How One Can Think Freely in the Shadow of a Temple
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening)
Menelaos Karamaghiolis, No One Will Kill You, Anymore than if You Were a Corpse (video)
The screening will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the artist.

Sunday 17 September 2023

Panos Charalambous, La gazza ladra
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening) .
The Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative (PCAI) Collection, curated by Kika Kyriakakou, presents:
Eva Papamargariti, Always a Body Always a Thing, 2022, 12΄ Strong, Feeble, Unfixed, 3’25”
Petros Moris, Oracle, 13΄
James Bridle, Se ti sabir, 2019, 19΄
The screenings will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the artists and Kika Kyriakakou.

Panos Charalambous, La gazza ladra
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening) .
The Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative (PCAI) Collection, curated by Kika Kyriakakou, presents:
Angieszka Polska, What the Sun Has Seen, 2017, 10΄
& The New Sun, 2017, 10΄
The screenings will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the artist.

Tuesday 19 September 2023

Panos Charalambous, La gazza ladra
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening) .
Kasper Akhoj & Tamar Guimaraes, Studies for a Minor History of a Trembling Matter, 2017, 31΄
Theo Prodromidis, Children of the Sun (acting), 2020, 27΄
Pier Paolo Pasolini, What Are the Clouds? (Che cosa sono le nuvole?), 1967, 21΄
The screenings will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the artists.

Wednesday 20 September 2023

Panos Charalambous, La gazza ladra
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening).
Jumana Manna, Foragers, 2022, 65΄

Thursday 21 September 2023

Kostis Velonis, How One Can Think Freely in the Shadow of a Temple
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening)
Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin De Burca, Swinguerra, 2019, 23΄
& Set to Go (Faz que vai), 2015, 12΄
Evi Kalogiropoulou, On Xerxes’ Throne, 2022, 20΄
The screenings will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the artists.

Friday 22 September 2023

Kostis Velonis, How One Can Think Freely in the Shadow of a Temple
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening)

Marwa Arsanios, Who is Afraid of Ιdeology?, Part 3: Micro Resistencias, 31’17”, 2020 & Part 4: Reverse Shot, 35’, 2022
The screenings will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the artist.

Saturday 23 September 2023

Kostis Velonis, How One Can Think Freely in the Shadow of a Temple (loop)
Ben Russell, Atlantis, 2014, 23΄
& Against Time, 2022, 23΄
The screenings will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the artist.

Sunday 24 September 2023
Kostis Velonis, How One Can Think Freely in the Shadow of a Temple
(The film will be played in loop on certain days before the main screening)
Johan Grimonprez, Blue Orchids, 2017, 48΄
& Raymond Tallis: On Tickling, 2017, 8΄
The screenings will be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the artist.

Main photo credit : Driant Zeneli, Those Who Tried to Put the Rainbow Back in the Sky