Contemporary Greek Culture Abroad: Σatellart-Transmitting Greece

Σatellart – transmitting Greece constitutes the only platform for the promotion of contemporary Greek culture in Europe. It originates from the annual Milano incontra la Grecia festival for contemporary Greek performing arts that has been taking place in Milan’s Piccolo Teatro since 2007, and is currently expanding both in terms of geographical coverage and artistic content. Important Greek and foreign artists have appeared during the festival such as Theodoros Terzopoulos, the National Theatre of Greece, Savinna Yannatou, Lydia Koniordou, Rootlessroot, Andonis Foniadakis, Giorgos Koumendakis, Rimini Protokoll, Aiep-Ariella Vidach, Moni Ovadia, Taldans, Sentieri Selvaggi and many more, as well as entities such as the Greek National Theater, the Greek State Museum for Contemporary Art and the photography agency Magnum.

Programming of the events is individual for every different city and includes all types of art. The different performances and events take place in a variety of locations within each city (theatres, museums and other cultural venues) also in collaboration with local entities, thus ensuring the platform’s broader visibility and public outreach.

For the 2012-2013 season, events and performances were held in Milan (May 2012), Vienna (7-10 November 2012), while next stops will be Montpellier and Hamburg.

Σatellart has been brought to fruition by Αlexandra Papadopoulos (Artistic Director), Mariella Kesisoglou (Artistic Curator) and Myrto Rogan (Administrative Director), as they “realized that there was very intense creativity in Greece which had no way of exporting itself. So we said why not try and show the world that there is more to Greece than the beach, the sun, and the Acropolis (which we admit is already great!). Moreover we are part of this artistic scene which in the last years has grown as much as the negativity around the Greek crisis! So now, more than ever we feel that it is time to have our artists reach out to the world and join forces with a larger artistic community. We are in the midst of a crisis which is way beyond our borders and it is our belief that if we don’t invest now in cultural bridges we will all end up being statistics on economists’ sheets!”

• Σatellart website