ION

The second project in SHOWstudio's collaboration with the Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens centres around Christos Papadopoulos’ minimal, poetic dance piece, Ion. In Ion, ten dancers interact, evading and confronting one another, tracing paths determined by the unexplored mechanisms of nature. Ion is based on a metaphor: the image of electronically charged atoms may reflect reality as it is shaped by people moving and interacting in space. Exploring the significance of this, SHOWstudio and the Onassis Cultural Centre curated a panel of experts chaired by Sebastian Anthony. The panel focused on kinetic behaviour and the drive to explore the relationship between the individual and society as a whole, and the variations of this relationship in nature and contemporary society. Extracting moments from the minimal choreography orchestrated by Christos Papadopoulos, Nick Knight's film expands space and time. Art directed by Younji Ku, the film explores group behaviour and sees Papadopoulos' ten dancers creating negative space in the echoes of their individual movements.