Xenon

An ambitious interdisciplinary work taking the form a video and a performance (and comprising photographs, props, sounds and actions), which serves as a critical political allegory reflecting on the global economic upheavals post-2008 and the state of human rights, and focusing on the theme of the politics of work, notions of censorship and freedom of speech. The work brings together original music and choreography, spoken word, experimental vocals and video, and is devised for virtuoso performances.

– Synopsis –

The unusual absence of a colleague and the news heard on the radio trigger unlikely reactions in seven characters working in the claustrophobic routine of an austere office. Yearning to overcome their oppressive circumstances and pursuing the impossible, each character enters an imaginary space where s/he battles with self-censorship, frustration, high aspirations and failure. The bare banality and bleak automation in the office are juxtaposed with striking dream-like sequences staging each character’s quest, including an office worker’s flight attempt from his chair, the recitation of the Declaration of Human Rights from memory and an encounter with the Ferryman of Death.

Xenon: the film

Xenon: the film

The film Xenon is based on an ambitious performance project by Mikhail Karikis entitled Xenon: an exploded opera. It is a political allegory created…

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Mikhail Karikis, Xenon: an exploded opera

Xenon: the performance

An ambitious interdisciplinary performance originally entitled Xenon: an exploded opera, which serves as a critical political allegory reflecting on recent global economic upheavals and…

Read More