At NOŪS Theatre – Creative Space, we continue our exploration of the fields of contemporary
performing arts and, in co-production with the transdisciplinary artistic platform Movement
Research Project, present to the Athens public for the first time the internationally acclaimed artist
Yann Marussich and the performance AGOKWA, for one performance only on Saturday, 16 May,
on the main stage of NOŪS – Creative Space.
Yann Marussich is among the most radical figures in international performance art, with a practice
that pushes the body to its limits and transforms stillness into a field of tension and absolute control.
He has served as director of the Théâtre de l’Usine in Geneva and founded ADC-Studio, while his
work has been honored with major international distinctions, including Ars Electronica (Hybrid
Art), the CERN Collide Geneva residency, and the Swiss Performing Arts Award.
AGOKWA is a ritual endurance performance that focuses on an almost vanished cultural identity.
The term Agokwa is used by Indigenous peoples of North America to describe persons who
embody the masculine and feminine elements in one body and one social existence. For centuries,
these persons held an active and often spiritual role within their communities.
With the arrival of European colonizers, the Agokwa were violently targeted and exterminated as
part of a broader process of colonial repression and the elimination of forms of life that did not align
with Western normative standards. Their history survives today as a silent yet persistent memory.
On stage, a body becomes immobilized and endures. Endurance is transformed into language, and
presence acquires ritual intensity. The work activates an experience of concentration, in which the
audience is invited to attune to the body and experience a state of heightened alertness and
embodied perception. AGOKWA constitutes an act of memory and an act of recognition — of the
histories that were erased and of the possibilities of existence that continue to be activated in the
present.
The performance is intended for audiences over the age of 18.
Event Venue
NOŪS Theatre Creative Space, 34 Troias Street, Athens 11255, Athens, Greece
