awaiting your response
2020 | Kat Kats
περιμένω απάντηση / awaiting your response
Περιμένω απάντηση brings the story of Eleni Georgiou and Neofitos Charalambous, back to Cyprus. Using their handwritten letters, artist Kat Kats – their granddaughter – tells the story of their betrothal in an attempt to better understand their history, her history and the displacement that still surrounds her grandparents today, decades later in Australia. Part art installation, part treasure hunt, part immersive experience, audience members will discover the 134 letters across Nicosia. Audience members will require a web-connected smartphone and headphones for listening.
About the Process:
In 1962, Neofitos Charalambous, living in Melbourne Australia, became engaged to Eleni Georgiou, a woman seven years his junior, from Maroni, a small village in Cyprus. They’d never met. They were engaged over a photo. Eleni wasn’t to arrive in Australia for another 18 months. During that time, they wrote each other letters.
This work will use hundreds of handwritten letters from my grandparents. I will read, transcribe, and translate these letters, in a durational performance that connects Maroni with Melbourne.
Only when we personalise displacement and make it accessible to everyone, can we move forward. I feel very placed and at home in Australia. However, being back in Cyprus, I realised I was also at home. These letters tell the history of an entire generation of migrants, and now, in my hands, they tell my story as a Cypriot Australian female artist who, through her grandparent’s displacement, has been placed.
Creative Team:
Kat Kats is a writer and dramaturg who writes for stage, screen and live art. Her works have been performed in Australia and internationally. Kat holds a Masters in Writing for Performance and has trained alongside renowned Australian artists Jenny Kemp, Raimondo Cortese, and New York artists Sibyl Kempson, Mac Wellman and 7 Daughters of Eve.
Bryce Ives is an Artistic Director, theatre maker, director, writer, creative producer, and composer. His company, Present Tense, has produced work with Australia’s most significant arts organisations including the Castlemaine State Festival, Adelaide Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Arena Theatre, big hART, Theatre Works, and Rawcus Theatre.
Kyriaki Theodorou is a Cypriot Fashion Art Director, focusing on illustration, styling, graphics, and mixed media collage. Her passion lies in working with different textures to create unique images. She is the creative director and founder of Κίτρινες Ποδιές – a creative arts centre for children in Larnaca.https://bufferfringe.org/artists-work/loving-birds-kyriaki-theodorou/
