The performance by the visual duo VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas & Kostas Tzimoulis) From Vardari to Omonoia claims the public urban space as a living and embodied part of the history of the LGBTQ+ community. A story that runs parallel to and without intersecting with the official national narrative, and that is articulated through moments of pleasure, exchange, symbolic recognition, gathering, community solidarity, confrontations and tensions, but also repression, violence, collective mourning and demands.

With the participation of students from Thessaloniki, we will create a performance with open microphones, musical interludes, dance outbursts. We have as our starting point the love poems of the poets of Thessaloniki, Nikos Alexis Aslanoglou, Dinos Christianopoulos, and Giorgos Ioannou. We will recite verses by Loukas Theodorakopoulos (pioneer of AKOE -the Homosexuals’ Liberation Movement of Greece- and the magazine AMFI), Kostas Tachtsis, Andreas Angelakis (love poet, one of the first victims of AIDS), and Zak/Zaki-O (drag artist, HIV-positive activist). The performance aspires to transform the noise of the city for a while into a pandemonium of poetry.

Using a collage of poems, photographs, architecture, and archival material, VASKOS clothe pieces of the queer history of Omonoia and Vardari and propose an alternative genealogy in the heart of the city.

VASKOS participation to the the 9th Thessaloniki Biennale and their performance From Vardari to Omonoia is supported by NEON through its annual Grants Scheme.