“attracted to trees”: A Midnight Gathering of Performance, Bodies, and an Ephemeral Forest at Piraeus 260

As part of the celebrations marking twenty years of Piraeus 260, the Athens Epidaurus Festival welcomes the Performance Laboratory of the Athens School of Fine Arts for a unique late-night event titled attracted to trees. Taking place in the open square of Piraeus 260 on 6 June, the evening brings together a series of new performances developed throughout the academic year, offering audiences a glimpse into the ongoing artistic research, methodologies, and collective practices cultivated within the laboratory.

Set within the fleeting landscape of an ephemeral forest, the works unfold through voice, movement, sound, and sculptural presence. Bodies, gestures, and the night itself become interconnected elements in a temporary ecosystem of encounters and shared attention. Rather than presenting a conventional programme of performances, the event invites visitors into a living environment where artistic actions emerge organically and coexist within the same space.

A subtle reference to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream lingers in the atmosphere of the evening. Encounters, disorientation, desire, and transformation, themes traditionally associated with the nocturnal world of the play, resonate throughout the event. Yet attracted to trees is not conceived as a theatrical adaptation. Instead, it embraces the simple pleasure of gathering outdoors, among trees, shadows, sounds, and presences that temporarily inhabit the same landscape.

At its core, the event proposes a bridge between the Athens Epidaurus Festival and the Athens School of Fine Arts, creating a space where performance becomes a way of collectively inhabiting and reimagining public space. It is an invitation to slow down, wander, observe, participate, and experience the environment through new forms of attentiveness and connection.

The evening emerges from the ongoing pedagogical and artistic research developed within the Performance Laboratory under the direction of artist and professor Georgia Sagri. Bringing together a diverse group of young artists and performers, it reflects the laboratory’s commitment to experimentation, collaboration, and performance as a shared social practice.

Visitors are free to move throughout the site and are not required to attend from beginning to end. The programme includes actions of varying durations alongside moments of collective participation, creating an experience that evolves continuously throughout the night. The total duration will not exceed two hours.