# PHRASIS ≠ PRAXIS
    Tzeni Argyriou

The ‘fragments’ of Tzeni Argyriou’s PHRASIS ≠ PRAXIS are intended to be presented in public spaces, inside and outside, urban and natural. The different locations allow a continuous dialogue between the action of the project and the surrounding area. A structural element of the work is the effort of the performers in each performance to show a visual or sound trace in the action. Together, they create a new range of potential connections between the performing and visual arts, as they are reshaped in relation to contemporary digital culture. The concept behind each fragment is as follows.
 

Excerpt I.

 "How do actions translate into words and how do words form actions?"

The work is under constant configuration, as defined by the treaty itself, i.e., the relationship between "say" and "do", while it consists of a sequence of performative and phonological actions derived from the wider research project of the artist.

Depending on the space in which the work unfolds, multiple interpretations emerge each time in the parallel worlds of verbal and non-verbal communication. Possibilities of coexistence, contrast, convergence and divergence appear between language and body, text and movement, cause and effect.

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Excerpt II

"How do we perceive, experience and defend our human rights today? How far are they removed from our daily practice?"

Based on the practice of walking, four performers coexist in an endless movement inspired by sacred geometric formations, architectural symmetries and repetitions of patterns. Performers share space, travel in time and build relationships with each other. At the same time, a soundscape consisting of human rights articles guides with the choreographic action and relates it to the concept of moving and searching for a new place.

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Excerpt III

A female figure wears a technological mask, like a turtle in its shell, and walks around the city looking for a place to meditate. She uses her shell as a pedestal for a ritual choreography, inspired by gestures found in sculptures and paintings of various historical eras. Classic, modern, abstract and religious figures from antiquity to modernity use their hands differently as a means of communication. Excerpt III attempts to counter complex technological communication systems and to restore our attention to the body, to a rich mode of communication that, while used for centuries, tends to be forgotten.

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Excerpt IV

Excerpt IV is an audio installation that explores the tendency of modern man to try to filter the amount of chaotic information he receives daily. The human body is increasingly plagued by paradoxical shapes, as the relationships that develop between physical and verbal behavior, emotions and actions, society and the environment lack coherence.

The play is in progress, while it tries to comment with humor on the social and individual "schizophrenia" of the time. Different lists of "concepts" are selected to cover and generally symbolize modern socio-political and cultural life, as well as our relations with the natural environment. The apparent disconnect of words creates a new paradoxical and ironic reality.