Artistic Portfolio

ANGELIKI MELI architect | aerialist | performer

Name: Angeliki Meli Date of Birth: 23.12.1989 Email: meli.ageliki@gmail.com Ph.No: +306978655812 Country: Greece

-ACADEMIC STUDIES 2016-2018 Master Studies in Contemporary Circus Practise -D.O.C.H university of Stockholm, Sweden.

2008-2015 Architecture and Engineering School of Thessaly University, Greece.

2015-2017, UN-LABEL, multydisciplinary performance, artists with and without disabilities, Germany, Greece, Turkey 2014, social circus, Kids in action, Thessaloniki, Greece 2013, Against All Odds, What is an apparatus, Benaki Museum, Greece, exhibition, performance

-CIRCUS TRAINING 2014, IADF, Irish festival 2013, Rogelio, Circus School, Barcelona 2012, La Nave, Circus Space, Sevilla

-WORKING EXPERIENCE 2012-... Teaching aerial skills (silks, rope, trapeze) to adults, dancers, children and also people with disabilities.

Greece, Germany, Sweden 2013, senior architect at Spiros Papadopoulos office 2011, senior architect at Giannis Kountras office

-ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE 2017, After the earthquake, D.O.C.H, Stockholm, Sweden, installation, playsite, interactive space, improvisation, participatory audience 2016, In between, 24hz festival, Cologne, Germany, Installation, interactive space, performance 2015, Kipseli| urban games| Play[on]ground, Architecture school, University of Thessaly, Greece 2015, Hanging Body| Insomnia, Metamatic Art Foundation, Greece Exchibition, Performance

-CIRCUS SKILLS Bungee aerial rope, aerial rope, silks, dance trapeze, aerial hoop, wall running, rigging -OTHER SKILLS Contemporary dance, butoh, piano, rock climbing -DIGITAL SKILLS Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Video editing, Autocad, 3dmax, Sketch-up

-LINKS https://vimeo.com/angelikimeli https://issuu.com/meli.angeliki https://amacir.tumblr.com/ http://meliaggeliki.tumblr.com/

I grow up in Athens, after i born in Albania. I studied architecture meanwhile i was climbing and traveling to train and develop my circus skills.

I’m designing and constructing my own equipment and spaces. Trying to combine arcitecture with circus and a common space to be, to exist and create. My personal work tries to engage a lot with political and social thinking.

CIrcus and designing for me are both tools so that my imagination comes alive.

AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE April 2017 - ....

https://amacir.tumblr.com/ a detailed diary of the project

It’s an ongoing creation of a playsite. The audience is participating by playing and creating their own space together with the artist. Wooden objects of different scale are provided to be used in any way. Big beams (1,60x0,30x0,20), medium ones (1,10x0,30x0,20) and small ones (0,15x0,04x0,02) were the tools together with rigging points and flexible connectors (rope and bungees). We started by setting up the space / reshaping it / introducing the first actions of construction and descontruction and finally we had a “jam” of free play. Participants were invited to stay as long as they want and act as they were feeling depenting on their abilities. Playing or just observing what was going on.

The whole process was opened to children, elder people, circus artists, non-artists as part of my experiment, regarding to artistic dialog and diversity.

During my studies at D.O.C.H in the master programme of contemporary circus i try to deal with the improvisation of space and the limits between audience and artist. How the audience can get engage in to a game where there is no rule except of some suggestions and the desires of the participants. The improvisor-players should be able to constantly recreate the rules and reshape the space.

Part of my project has to do with the unseen side of our cities so instead of buying materials i am re-using existing one. For this project materials were peaked and cleaned from a construction site.

Since public space is not anymore a meeting point for dialog we have to reinvent it. Play-sites were always spaces were things happen by the drive of joy. My research as an architect and circus practisioner tries to create moving spaces, where the making creates the thinking with the less possible rules .Our time wants us to be improvisor-players who take risks and intervene with an unstable environment.

The improvisor-player can be anyone.

It is crucial to adapt our technics to this unstaible environment.

The users should be ready any time to intervene.

Our time can be described as a big construction site.

The most efficient way to approach the site is as a big playground, where nothing has been designed for them, but everything is meant to be used.

IN BETWEEN | WAR, PIECE August 2015

video: https://vimeo.com/146371682 ONE VIEW FROM THE SPACE WAS MADE DURING THE 4 DAYS

bed’sbeams

library

cube

CITY

wooden pallet library

wooden ladder

legs from a chair pallet

pallet

library

construction beams

The project was about a 4day performance where everything is always changing. The audience is not anymore a passive audience but they can use, change or destroy the environment they are inside together with the artists.

Both are getting inspired from each other.

24Hz Festival, Cologne, Germany August 2015

WORKLAB INSTALLATION, PERFORMANCE, ACROBATIC

transportable cube space ramp- slop

teeterboard climbing

balance tower climbing wall

swing

ramps

PERFORMATIVE SPACE

IN BETWEEN | WAR , PIECE

INSTALLATION, PERFORMANCE, ACROBATIC 24Hz Festival, Cologne, Germany August 2015 "Nobody knew where this place was There was a perfect war or a horible peace They were in between nowhere Each day was 1 second Every second was a year ago"

The project was made inside a corridor, between the outside and the gallery. For four days we were living, constructing and perfoming in the new space. Aparratuses, objects, games everything totaly new, they where trying to find new shapes and forms of constructing and desconstructing.

The performance was a continuously changing space.

Sound design was a live mix of urban sounds and a pioano melody everything recorded by us.

Sound impro was in a direct dialog with constructing and movement impro. The end of this 4days performance was the deconstruction of all objects. Still a process of expanding the notion of space. A space which was open to audience to interact and play. concept: Angeliki Meli Artistic team: Angeliki Meli, Maria Brachou, Tomas Suminas, Vasso Farmaki Constructions: Angeliki Meli, Tomas Suminas Choreography | acrobatics : Angeliki Meli Sound design: Vasso Farmaki trailer: https://vimeo.com/146371682

KIPSELI | urban games PLAY [ON] GROUND 2014-2015 (final project in architecture school) video: https://vimeo.com/153886902

Understanding what means to play in the urban landscape of Athens in this project (part of my final project in architecture) i tried to turn my imaginary spaces and doodles into a real space. The final object was a knitted, hanging space where the users could play on their own, personal way depending on their fantasy and skills. out of the transparent tube (450meters) were woven carpets and mattresses, corridors and bridges, swings and patches; so that the body can be found floating in pendulous surfaces, searching for its own limits and its forlorn wildness.

The space - installation was always changing because of the users but also because of its interaction with the bigger place that was in.

imaginary spaces

imaginary spaces

full project: https://issuu.com/meli.angeliki/docs/issue1

imaginary spaces

URBAN GAMES | PLAY [ON] GROUND

DIPLOMA THESIS UNIVERSITY OF ARCHITECTURE THESSALY, GREECE JUNE 2015 video: https://vimeo.com/153886902

During my diploma thesis at university of architecture in Greece, i was trying to find a way to combine aerial with design. So a different kind of playgroung came up. A playground that depeding the circumstances could be a place for fun or a new aerial apparatus for the field of circus, Everything was design and constructed by me.

The PLAY [on] GROUND is surfaces of transparent PVC knitted; surfaces which are weaved in a way that every point, becomes a touching-point, a handle to grip, a surface to drop on, to swing from, or just a place to rest. It can accommodate from kids to adults, regardless of weight.

The aim of the construction is, according to the dimensions of the space provided, to be multiplied, shape-shifted and redesigned in asmuch as to cover the needs of the available space above the ground.

UN-LABEL

ARTISTS WITH AND WITHOUT DISABILITIES October 2015- May 2017 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KchJKbIJ9U&t=453s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Db_uuyBaXo

I was part of this mix-able group where i had to collaborate as an artist with artists with disabilities. Because of that we came up with new material so that we can combine all the new abilities.

We performed in Cologne (Germany), Thessaloniki (Greece) and Bursa (Turkey).

I was in charge of the aerial work and the rigging.

Production: Sommertheater Pusteblume e.V (Cologne / Germany) Management: Lisette ReuterArtistic director: Costas Lamproulis Partners: Candoco Dance Company (London/England), Synergy of Music Theatre (Larissa/ Greece), Sosyal Kulturel Yasami Gelistirme Dernegi (Istanbul / Turkey), TH Kรถln (Cologne / Germany)

HANGING BODY | INSOMNIA

January 2016 video: https://vimeo.com/147244954

Can we approach a situation from another which we already know, so that the body can live in?

A condition in which the body is constantly accompanied by death, violence, pleasure, game so that can be shaken and filled.

This was a performance for an art excibition in Athens.

The concept was based on my thesis, in which i was trying through aerial act and circus to find connection between pubic space, spectacle violence and power (political and social).

ANGELIKI MELI architect | aerialist | performer meli.ageliki@gmail.com