Cultural Portfolio
Explore a range of selected projects that showcase my work in arts & culture management
hybrid reality theatre performance
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audio-spatial performance
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Experiment in Collaborative Change Making in the Arts
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European Capital of Culture Candidate City
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Athens Open Schools
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mobile library & storytelling project
hybrid reality theatre performance ✳︎ audio-spatial performance ✳︎ Experiment in Collaborative Change Making in the Arts ✳︎ European Capital of Culture Candidate City ✳︎ Athens Open Schools ✳︎ mobile library & storytelling project
ONASSIS OPEN DAYS 2025 In the framework of ONASSIS ONX
Dreamwalk blurs the worlds of live theatre performance, virtual reality and audio spatial design to create a vivid one-to-one and one-to-many hybrid reality journey in quest of hope and its illuminating manifestation in the world.
Inspired by Ernst Bloch’s philosophical exploration of hope and the unfinished nature of reality,
Dreamwalk opens a temporary,fragile space where one can trace the hopes,the dreams and the flickering possibilities of humanity. Alongside the dream imprints of Mugai, the first female Japanese Zen Master, Severo, a queer Cuban poet from the 70s and Thomas,a contemporary German cameraman, the piece invites us to cross the window of the dreaming mind and venture—alone yet together—in an exploratory journey of a World Not Yet become.
Where/How can we hope (for) and dream (of) a better life?
The project was realised in the framework of Onassis ONX and is a prototype performative experience at the intersection of theatre and immersive technology. The performance features a member of the audience on stage, wearing a Virtual Reality (VR) headset.
Credits
Dramaturgy & Direction: Margarita Pita
Performer: Konstantinos Dimitrakakis
Technical Director & Digital Artist: Christos Bourantas
Sound Design: Manolis Manousakis
Set Design: Maria Karathanou
Virtual Reality Supervisor: Elena Dimopoulou
Technical Artist: Christos Mouka
Sound Mixing: Kostantinos Stylianou
Dramaturgy Consultant: Angeliki Poulou
Voice-over: Dafni Evangelidi
Production Management: Movement Lab AMKE
Special Thanks: Vlassis Kasapakis, Savina Yannatou, Apostolis Vangelakis, Aristeidis Pitas, Petros Morfopoulos (Rokoko Greece), Nysos Vasilopoulos,Teo Triantaffylidis, Konstantinos Evangelidis, Mattia Carbone. With the support of the Laboratory of Image, Sound, and Cultural Representation" of the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean.The prototype of Dreamwalk was realized within the framework of Onassis ONX. *Photos by © Stephie Grape for Onassis Stegi
DREAMWALK | a hybrid reality theatre performance
An audio-spatial performance | ONASSIS AIR OPEN DAYS 2022/23
This audio-spatial performance invites a small audience to explore immersive performative praxis as a quest towards illumination. Inspired by Ernst Bloch’s utopian philosophy (The Principle of Hope, MIT Press, 1986), initiation rituals, zen practices and psychedelic journeys, this performance is an experiential game for performers and participants alike to playfully explore what is often referred to as “heightened states of existence”.
What lies beneath the “normal” experience of our everyday life? What is the nature of this self-centered reality and can we exist without it? Can other spaces of perception exist and how can we experience them?
This practice is an invitation to all of us stagnated, anxious, sleepwalking people of our times to come out and play. To explore our bodies as a site of senses and our minds as landscapes of freedom. To enjoy time and space and maybe even find a way to ‘come to ourselves’ and to hope; that rare possession that once collected and shared, it is said to act as an illuminating explosive to the status quo’s current reality.
Credits: Dramaturgy & Performance: Margarita Pita
Special Thanks: Mattia Carbone, Myrto Katsimiha, Nefeli Myrodia. Developed in the framework of Tailored-made Fellowship of Onassis AiR 2022/23. Photos by @Pinelopi Gerasimou for Onassis Stegi
self, free, illusions, of, will / please place in the right order
An Experiment in Collaborative Change Making in the Arts
RESHAPE was a research and development project that brought together arts organisations from Europe and the South Mediterranean to jointly create innovative organisational models and reflect on concrete answers to crucial challenges related to the production, distribution and presentation of contemporary art practices. The aim of RESHAPE was to imagine an alternative to the European arts ecosystem by rethinking its instruments and collaborative models, placing them in line with artistic and social innovation and the principles of fairness, solidarity, geographic balance and sustainability. RESHAPE developed and tested an experimental bottom-up method to construct new narratives and new instruments that were appropriate to the evolutions of the arts sector and the society. By increasing the knowledge, competences and reactivity of intermediary organisations in relation to those artistic experimentations, RESHAPE aimed to influence public policies and integrate future policy instruments.
RESHAPE proposed a process to reboot business and organisational models of contemporary art practices by tackling these models in the broad sense. Beyond management practices and diversifying revenue sources, we looked for models that in the broad sense generated value for society. We identified 5 major challenges that focused the process, shaped all activities and, each in its own right, questioned how the contemporary arts sector contributed to generating value for society. We then invited artists and cultural workers across Europe to collaborate with us and together create five prototype models for better organisation in contemporary art practices. The outcome of this two year strenuous process was published as a Workbook to reimagine the art world.
Role: Reshaper | Prototype Researcher & Developer
RESHAPE R&D EUROPEAN PROJECT (2019-2021)
Kalamata:21 | European Capital of Culture Candidate City | Selection Bid Book
Kalamata Rising: Beyond the edge 2016
Kalamata Rising: Beyond the Edge was the strategic bid for the title of European Capital of Culture 2021, designed as a central pillar of the city’s long-term cultural strategy to transform Kalamata from a peripheral coastal city into a vibrant Mediterranean gateway.
Centered on the concept of "the edge," both as a geographic boundary and a psychological threshold, the project focused on social healing, urban resilience, and the transition from a history of trauma to a future of creative innovation. Developed through extensive outreach and the active participation of citizens and local communities, the proposal aimed to integrate Kalamata's world-class dance heritage with a sustainable cultural ecosystem that bridged the gap between the European South and the rest of the continent.
Role: Outreach Coordinator | Artistic Programme
Photo by Tassos Vrettos
Athens Open Schools
Project Pilot Outreach Design 2015/16
The Open Schools program was an innovative initiative run by the City of Athens, which had grown popular within the local community. Schools were open to the neighbourhood and to the society.
The school premises turned into meeting places and centres of action where the local community was invited to take part in recreational, cultural, educational and sports activities suitable for people of all ages.
The Open Schools program was an initiative by the City of Athens, which was implemented with the support of the Athens Partnership thanks to the exclusive donation of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. It was piloted in 2015 and was quickly embraced by the local communities.
Role: Program Pilot Outreach Co-designer | Co-facilitator
A mobile library & storytelling project | The Culture of Integration | Skaramangas Refugee Camp 2016/18
Let’s Keep in Touch! was a two-phase literacy and community-building initiative implemented at the Skaramangas refugee camp. Launched in November 2016, the project focused on fostering social inclusion and providing consistent access to multilingual literature specifically for children and young people.
Phase I: Mobile Library The project debuted as a mobile library, delivering books in multiple languages to young residents twice weekly. A central feature of this phase was the "postbox" initiative, which facilitated a creative exchange of stories and letters between students at the refugee-run Hope School and the 30th Elementary School of Athens, bridging the gap between the camp and the local community.
Phase II: Community Library In November 2017, the focus shifted towards supporting a culture of reading for the children population. Through a series of interactive storytelling workshops and book-reading events at the camp’s permanent library (constructed by the Norwegian NGO A Drop in the Ocean), the project supported the creation of a communal,lively hub for education and cultural interaction.
Impact:
Curated a collection of 300+ multilingual books.
Engaged over 200 regular library users and 100+ children.
Empowered 10 young leaders within the camp community.
Successfully integrated library culture and storytelling into the fabric of daily camp life.
Project Team: Margarita Pita, Mattia Carbone, Jihad Sulaiman Abboud, Anna Magoulioti, Deyya Orfali, Marina Malfa
Role: Project Manager Documentary link: https://youtu.be/4rOSaJXCpZA?si=N3aJpe1nIKSv88uS 15.55 Project Athens Presentation at Deree - The American College of Greece: https://youtu.be/JYbPhtrbi7M?si=UMl-i5uXxJP69v92 Supported by: Goethe Institut, EUNIC
Let’s Keep in Touch!
OLD VIC Theatre | AGES
Community Company Production
The production of Ages was a major community-led project staged at The Old Vic Theatre inLondon. Written by Alexandra Wood and directed by Alexander Ferris, it was the centerpiece of the Old Vic Community Company's 2015 season.
The play was a large-scale, devised performance that explored the universal experience of growing and aging. It brought together a massive ensemble of over 100 Londoners, ranging from age 18 to those in their late 80s to share stories about what it means to grow older in the modern world.
Credits
Writer: Alexandra Wood
Director: Alexander Ferris
Movement Director: Sarah Dowling
Composer: Dom Coyote
Set and Costume Designer: Fly Davis
Lighting Designer: Elliot Griggs
Sound Designer: Pete Malkin
Role: Production Team | Stage Management Team
Community Company Production
Housed was the first major production by the Old Vic Community Company, staged in 2014. Written by David Watson and directed by Alexander Ferris, Housed was a "state-of-the-nation" play that tackled the urgent and complex issue of the London housing crisis.
The production was unique in its staging: it was first performed in a vacant warehouse in Bermondsey (South London) before moving to the main stage at The Old Vic Theatre. The play wove together multiple storylines -from young people struggling to get on the property ladder to families facing eviction- to paint a vivid, often heartbreaking portrait of a city where "home" is becoming an impossible luxury.
Credits
Writer: David Watson
Director: Alexander Ferris
Set and Costume Designer: Fly Davis
Lighting Designer: Elliot Griggs
Sound Designer: Pete Malkin
Composer: Dom Coyote
Movement Director: Sarah Dowling
Produced by: Old Vic New Voices
Production Manager: Mike Canham
Company Stage Manager: Kate West
Role: Production Team | Front of House Team