Misslightenment: Eleni Ploumi brings her acclaimed performance to Athens

After a series of performances on European stages, choreographer and performer Eleni Ploumi brings Misslightenment to Greece for the first time-a physical and visual performance that, through light, shadow, and mythology, explores how the male gaze eclipses women’s stories and how the body can reclaim and rewrite them.

How many stories of femininity are lost in the shadows before they can be told? Can the light of the stage reveal the subtle, invisible forms that gender-based violence takes over time? What happens when the body claims the right to rewrite its own myth?

Misslightenment is a physical and visual performance: a female body, a ladder, and projected images compose a landscape in which the performer transforms into multiple characters and inhabits different states.

Like a book yet to be written, the performance unfolds multiple narratives through the relationships among different female identities, as shadows, light, and movement interact. The performer and her shadows weave moving images that hover between reality, imagination, and mythology.

The thematic focus of Misslightenment centers on how the male gaze “produces” and interprets women and their stories, raising questions about how these interpretations fuel the ongoing abuse of women today.

The performance was developed with the contribution of the Feniks Emancipation Center and Blauwe Maan, an organization that supports survivors of sexual abuse, based in Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Choreographer’s note

Prompted by the femicide of someone I knew in the Netherlands, I felt the need to investigate the forms of gender-based violence in that country. What surprised me was the scale of the phenomenon, as well as its ability to remain “camouflaged” behind the façade of a “progressive Dutch society.” Realizing that this issue does not occupy the space it deserves in public discourse there (unlike in other countries, including Greece), I turned to my choreographic voice and to the stage as a place for reflection—and for shedding more light on the issue.

In Misslightenment, I explore how the male gaze eclipses women’s stories—and, consequently, their bodies. Through references ranging from mythology to the contemporary era, I reinterpret these stories through a new and personal lens: what they evoke in me, which memories and experiences surface, and which responses are triggered by the body-as-memory.

“[…] There are performances I personally want to return to. I am guided by the authenticity and sensitivity of the creators—in this case, Eleni Ploumi and the performance Misslightenment.”
— Monika Wachowicz, Curator, Grotowski Institute

“[…] With Misslightenment, you are doing something extraordinarily brave and important. Everyone should experience your performance—and be set ablaze with rage. We at Feniks Tilburg feel privileged to have been able to contribute, even in the smallest way, to your inspiration. Side by side on the barricades and wherever else it may be needed.”
— Veerle Slegers, Director, Feniks Emancipation Center Tilburg

Credits

Concept, choreography, visual design, video, sound & performance: Eleni Ploumi
Video editing: Nikola Scheibe
Music piece: Appalachian Grove I, Laurie Spiegel
Artistic advice: Pauline Roelants, Maarten van der Put
Dramaturgy: Danae Theodoridou
Photography: Clara Gustafsson
Videography: Marica De Michele
Print design: T.M. Cabrera
Co-production: United Cowboys
Funding: PLAN Brabant

Special thanks to De Blauwe Maan and Feniks Emancipatie Expertise Centrum (Tilburg) for their guidance and contribution.

Photos: Clara Gustafsson