Involving a global network of interdisciplinary scholars and artists, Performing Space is an ongoing research project exploring the relationship between performance and the built environment from the varying perspectives of those studying and practicing at the intersection of human activity and its space, such as anthropology, archaeology, architecture, digital and visual arts, economics, performance studies, philosophy, sociology, and theatre studies.
Mediterranean Spacing workshop led by Dorita Hannah. Karathona Beach, Nafplio, Performing Space 2024. (Photo: Spyros Kousouris)
PERFORMING SPACE 2025
Nafplio, Greece, from 4 to 7 July
at Labor Center of Nafplio, 25is Martiou 6, Nafplio
The Performing Space Association,
in collaboration with the Department of Performing and Digital Arts and the Department of Theatre Studies of the University of the Peloponnese,
is organising the
4th Performing Space conference,.
Previous publications: Performing Space 2022 (download here), Performing Space 2023 (download here).
PERFORMING SPACE 2025 PROGRAMME
4 to 7 July at Labor Center of Nafplio, 25is Martiou 6, Nafplio, Greece
You can download the full programme here
Friday, 4 July
9:00 Registration
9:30 Welcome address
9:50 Coffee break
1st Session
Body, Time and Space. Chair: Dr. Philip Hager
10:00 Dr. Eirini Sourgiadaki. Spaces of the in-between.
10:10 Prof. Mónica Raya. Under the Light of a Posthuman Feminist Approach to Apace. Seminar of Expanded Practices of Scenography.
10:20 Dr. Fatma Erkök & Dr. Pelin Dursun Çebi. An Embodied Educational Experience: An Accumulated Memory and Vision.
10:30 Michael Budmani. The Posthuman Space of Theatre Production Education.
10:40 Discussion
2nd Session
Theatre and Social Change. Chair: Dr Christina Zoniou
10:50 PhD(C) Bilal Akar. Home as a Diasporic Space: Underground Theatre Practices of the Kurdish Group Koma Demhat.
11:00 Dr Tyrone Grima. Performative Spaces and Queerness at the End of the Twentieth Century in Malta.
11:10 Dr Tony McCaffrey. Differentiated Bodies, Dysfluent Voices: Disabling Performing Space.
11:20 Katerina Kataki & Despina Mitsiali.Performing Ages
11:30 Discussion
11:40 Coffee break
3rd Session
Building the Environment through Performance
Chair: Dr. Alba Balmaseda Domínguez
12:00 Andreas Skourtis. Performing House.
12:10 Dr. Angeliki Sakellariou. Performing the Square: Notational Practices as Spatial Interventions.
12:20 Dr Miljana Zeković. Bubble Ecologies: Interstitial Worlds of Performance and Growth.
12:30 PhD(C) Pantea Eslami. Embodying Space, Performing Learning: Architecture as an Interface for Interdisciplinary Education.
12:40 Discussion
12:50 Dr. Eleni Kolliopoulou. The Soup.
13:00 Break
4th Session
Performative Presentations I. Chair: Dr. Pablo Berzal Cruz
13:15 Anna Luyten. Hear the Things Sing. Writing Footnotes While Reading Your Hand.
13:30 Adrian Montana. Co-Habiting with Pteropodidae (Australian fruit bats) as Sound Ecology.
13:45 Discussion
14:00 Lunch Break
Workshops
16:00 – 20:00 Workshops
The Preferences of the Gods. Spatial Performativity Revealed.
Led by Dr. Pablo Berzal Cruz & Dr. Alba Balmaseda Domínguez.
Mediterranean Spacing 2.0. Site-Responsive Actions Exploring Nafplion’s Spatiotemporal Performativity.
Led by Prof. Dorita Hannah
21:00 Opening party
Saturday, 5 July
5th Session
Environmental Awareness. Chair: Dr. Bill Psarras
9:00 Dr.Giada Cipollone. Curating Islandness: The Case of Marosi Festival (Stromboli, IT)
9:10 George Lazoglou. The Carbon Tierra Biennale 2025: Spatial Performativity and Artistic. Negotiations in Post-Industrial Landscapes.
9:20 Dr. Joonwoo Kim. Performing Resistance to Regional Decline: Revitalizing Korea’s Small Towns through the Gyechon Classical Festival.
9:30 PhD(C) Alexia Kalogeropoulou. Following the Movements of Trees: Nature as a Portal to Creative Flow.
9:40 Discussion
9:50 Coffee break
6th Session
Changing the Perception of Environment through Performance Chair: Dr. Adonis Volanakis
10:00 Georgia Kanellopoulou. Reading the City: The Performative Function of Text and the Dramaturgy of Public Space
10:10 Marcela Oteíza Silva. Scenographic Void. Aereal Street Performances and the Urban Space.
10:20 Anthi Kougia. PUBLIC SPACE, ENCHANTMENT AND RESISTANCE.
10:30 Zoe Drakopoulou. REBEARTH.
10:40 Dr. Daniel Dilliplane. Walking as Anarchiving. An Aesthetic Analysis of the “Window on the World” Tour.
10:50 Discussion
7th Session
The Material as Narrative. Chair: Dr. Maria Mikedaki
11:00 Katerina Liapopoulou. Poe on Paper, or The Gold-Bug Was Made of Paper. An Ecological Performance. Using Paper as Its Sole Material.
11:10 Prof. Rachel Fensham. Re-imagining the Architecture of the Chiton: An intimate Haptics.
11:20 PhD(C) Sofia Alexiadou. W Memorabilia, (Phaedra’s Laboratory) Following the light: A Woman’s Never-Ending Dialogue with Space and Time
11:30 Gülten Nur Bilgiç & Dr. Pelin Dursun Çebi. The Body as Deus Ex Machina: Revealing the Stage through Apparatus.
11:40 Discussion
11:50 Coffee break
8th Session
Ritual Space. Chair: Dr Pablo Berzal Cruz
12:10 Prof. Dorita Hannah. Resistance and Revelry in Le Grand Théâtre of Lebanon’s 2019 October Revolution.
12:20 Dr. Dragana Konstantinović. Public Urban Space and the Performance of Political Agency – the Case of Serbia.
12:30 Dr. Christina Banalopoulou. Ruined Performativity, Ethno-Religious Diversity:Live Events at the Ruins of the Panagia Paramythias/Vlach Saray Church in Istanbul.
12:40 Dr. Wen Liang, PhD(C) Xiao Yang & PhD(C) Rebeca Zhu Cao. Mapping Temporal and Spatial Dynamics of Imperial Rituals in the Forbidden City.
12:50 Discussion
13:00 Break
9th Session
Performative Presentations II. Chair: Dr. Athena Stourna
13:15 Dr. Bill Psarras. We are all Cities: The Poetics of Performing Landscapes through Writing, Microscope and Digital Media.
13:30 Bernadett Jobbágy. Embodying Space and Text: The Inside and the Outside of Soma in a Creative Process
13:45 Discussion
14:00 Lunch break
Workshops
16:00 – 20:00 Workshops
The Preferences of the Gods. Spatial Performativity Revealed.
Led by Dr. Pablo Berzal Cruz & Dr. Alba Balmaseda Domínguez.
Mediterranean Spacing 2.0. Site-Responsive Actions Exploring Nafplion’s Spatiotemporal Performativity.
Led by Prof. Dorita Hannah
20:00 Bus departure to Epidaurus
21:00 Epidaurus Festival
Sunday, 6 July
9:00 PhD(C) Valentina Sáez Marín. Living in Motion: Muleteer Corporacies and Territorialization in the Maule Mountains, Chile.
10th Session
Performance as Research. Chair: Dr. KIMVI Nguyen
9:10 Helen Robertson. IN A CLEARING.
9:20 Dimitra Kordomenou. Playing in the City: Practice and Poetics of Reclaiming Urban Space.
9:30 Eliza Soroga. Let’s Inject Some Randomness into the City: Reflecting on Eliza Soroga’s Site-Specific Performances in London and Prague.
9:40 Discussion
9:50 Coffee break
11th Session
Multimedia Performance. Chair: Dr. Gina Giotaki
10:00 Dr. David Bassuk. DESIGNING SPATIAL NARRATIVES: From Memory Palaces to AI-Enhanced XR.
10:10 PhD(C) Eleana Pandia. A moment in Digital Time: Pause During Performative Gameplay.
10:20 Dr. Katerina El Raheb. Streetstories: Instagram as Drift.
10:30 Dr. Philip Hager. Portable Dramaturgies: Performing Globalization’s Un/Specific Ground.
10:40 Discussion
12th Session
Social Change through Performance. Chair: Dr Tyrone Grima
10:50 Prof. Klitsa Antoniou. Roadworks (1985) versus Coalworks (2024).
11:00 PhD(C) Sara Gholami & Sara Boroumandi. Performing Protest: The Girl of Enghelab Street and the Spatial Politics of Resistance in Iran.
11:10 Dr. Antonia Vasilakou. Redefining the Change of Care in Democracy: A Site-Specific Walking Performance in the Park of Sotiria Hospital.
11:20 Marianna Koukoulekidou & Aggeliki M. Doufa. Lipstick Liberation: A Feminist Performance Mapping the Femicides in the Performing Public Space.
11:30 Discussion
11:40 Coffee break
13th Session
Spatial Performativity. Chair: Dr. Alba Balmaseda Domínguez
12:00 Dr. Loukia Minetou. Shaping Actants to Assist Communication: Co-Producing Narrative Spaces with People Living with Dementia.
12:10 Dr. Anna Street. Subversive Submersions: Water’s Shapeshifting Force.
12:20 Dr. Vasiliki Sirakouli. Changing Spaces, Changing Music Ecosystems: What We’ve Learned so Far in Greece.
12:30 Dr. Višnja Žugić. Architectural Performative on the Thresholds of the Domestic and the Extreme.
12:40 Discussion.
12.50 Break
14th Session
Performative Presentations III. Chair: Dr Christina Zoniou
13:00 Arianna Chatzigalanou. Urban Vampire: A Rite of Passage.
13:15 Carolyn Defrin & Elena Marchevska. The Shape of Home: A Performative Presentation of Letters that Resist the Border as a Line.
13:30 Elli Vassalou. Some Dances Last Longer than Castles: Çiftetelli.
13:45 Discussion
14:00 Lunch break
Workshops
16:00 – 20:00 Workshops
Performing Spaces: Narrative Spaces and Scenography
Led by Maria Chaniotaki with the collaboration of Eleni Palogou
Mediterranean Spacing 2.0. Site-Responsive Actions Exploring Nafplion’s Spatiotemporal Performativity.
Led by Prof. Dorita Hannah
21:00 Let's have a drink!
Monday, 7 July
15th Session
New Performative Spaces. Chair: Dr Athena Stourna
9:00 PhD(C) Daniela Dispoto. An Archipelago of Floating Islands. Memory, Transmission, Transformation.
9:10 Anna-Pagona Papidi & Dafni Anastasia Tsintzeli. Methodologies and Immersive Tools in Scenography. The case of the “Beyond the 4th Wall (B4W)” project.
9:20 PhD(C) Pavlos Panagiotidis. From Actors to Performative Architecture Designers: Devising Experiments with Responsive Environments.
9:30 Dr. Adonis Volanakis. A Performative Archive.
9:40 Discussion
9:50 Coffee break
16th Session
Other Forms of Presence. Chair: Dr Antonia Vasilakou
10:00 Greig Burgoyne. Re-thinking site-specificity via long durational performance art.
10:10 Valassia Barbouti & Myrto Andronidi.Deciphering Mechanisms and Narration Systems in the Natural Landscape: The Case of Keros.
10:20 Sophia Kyriakou & Areti Petropoulou.The Performative Character of Betrayal in Public Space.
10:30 Anastasia Giamouzi & Dr. Stella Paschalidou. Bacchae: You Who Are Willing to See the Unseen.
10:40 PhD(C) Beatrice Lapadat. Space and Voice as Substitutes to Character Embodiment in the Expositional Performance “Entre vos mains” by Marc Lainé.
10:50 Discussion
17th Session
Performance Space. Chair: Prof. Dorita Hannah
11:00 Dr. Rafaël Magrou. Scenographic Architectures". (Re)Questioning the Relationship between Spectators and Actors.
11:10 Prof Liviu Dospinescu. A Phenomenological Approach to the A-Social Configuration of Scenography in Single-Spectator Performances.
11:20 Edward Nilsson. Exploring the Spectator / Performer Interface: A Case Study of Grecian Garden, Yonkers, New York
11:30 PhD(C) Elias D’hollander. Storytelling the Theatre Building. On the Tension between the Multiplication of the Theatre Building’s Specificities and the Al-Halqa in Radouan Mriziga’s 7 (2017).
11:40 Discussion
11:50 Coffee break
18th Session
Multimedia Performance II. Chair: Dr. Katerina El Raheb
12:10 Paraskevi Bokovou. New Technologies Reshaping the Performative Space: the Site-Specific Set and the Action Props.
12:20 PhD(C) Alessandro Di Egidio. Where Do I Play My Body? A Round Trip between Virtual Stages and Real-World Arenas.
12:30 Altar Çolak & Merve İrem Keklik. In the Dialectic of Space as Body, Body as Space: The Performative Grey Zone
12:40 Discussion
12:50 Break
19th Session
Performative Presentations IV. Chair: Dr Dorita Hannah
13:00 PhD(C) Natalia Jowita Kozakiewicz.Strategies of Creating Presence in the Space of the City: Analysing the Role of Somatic Practices in Performance within Urban Environments.
13:15 Ridha DHIB. Conjuring the Threshold.
13:30 Discussion
13:45 Conclusion
14:00 Lunch break
Workshops
16:00 – 20:00 Workshop.
Mediterranean Spacing 2.0. Site-Responsive Actions Exploring Nafplion’s Spatiotemporal Performativity.
Led by Prof. Dorita Hannah
21:00 Closing Party
PERFORMING SPACE 2025 CONFERENCE & WORKSHOPS ORGANISATION
Executive Committee
Director: Dr. Pablo Berzal Cruz
Coordinator: Dr. Alba Balmaseda Domínguez
Coordinator: Dr. Athena Stourna
Coordinator: Prof. Dorita Hannah
Scientific Committee
Honorary Member: Prof Dorita Hannah. University of Newcastle, Australia
Chair: Dr. Athena Stourna. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Alba Balmaseda Domínguez. Independent researcher
Dr. Pablo Berzal Cruz. Independent researcher
Dr. Carmen Blasco Rodríguez. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Dr. Katerina El Raheb. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Gina Giotaki. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Tyrone Grima. Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology
Dr. Philip Hager. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Maria Chaniotaki. Independent researcher
Dr. Giorgos Kondis. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Marina Kotzamani. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Maria Mikedaki. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Alberto Morell Sixto. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Dr. KIMVI Nguyen. Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Dr. Eftichios Pirovolakis. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Bill Psarras. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Elina Roinioti. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Antonia Vasilakou. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Adonis Volanakis. University of Patras
Dr. Emmanouela Vogiatzaki. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Christina Zoniou. University of the Peloponnese
Organising Committee
Dr. Katerina El Raheb. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Giorgos Kondis. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Bill Psarras. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Anastasios Theodoropoulos. University of the Peloponnese
Dr. Antonia Vasilakou. University of the Peloponnese
Collaborators
Spyros Kousouris
Workshop Leaders
Dr. Alba Balmaseda Domínguez. Independent researcher
Dr. Pablo Berzal Cruz. Independent researcher
Maria Chaniotaki
Prof. Dorita Hannah. University of Newcastle, Australia
Eleni Palogou
Trainee
Franka Eichinger, Erasmus Plus Intern at Asociación Performing Space, TH Nüremberg, Germany
Volunteers
Elisavet Doukata
Viktoria Maria Katsamagka
Stefanos Pothos
Spyros Poulos
Anna Theochari
Mary Theodosiadou
Sofia Tzanetou
Amanda Velloso
Dione Zerva
Organised by:
Asociación Performing Space
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In collaboration with:
University of the Peloponnese
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With the support of:
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