Klimentini Vounelaki, April 2022 

“As if by some miracle, Sunday night, somewhere in Votanikos, Athens I was bound to discover yet another culture space, the Industrial Park PLYFA and with it the performance by arisandmartha, the artistic collaboration between Aris Papadopoulos and Martha Pasakopoulou. A spacious studio was turned into a performance space, literally with just the essentials: chairs for the audience, two chairs for the performers, a laptop for the musical choices and the mirror of the room covered in meaning. One as the mirror of the other, identifying with each another but also being others, being one’s own self and what connects them to (or appalls them from) the other. The secret drive in this open and impromptu game between themselves and others – because the spectator also becomes part of and aligns with the spectacle – could be “You need to be yourself and not what others demand of you” (Nietzsche). And then you have a take on the unknown, the unexplored routes again and again, seeking some liberating logic which goes beyond the norms of a constructed spectacle. This is how physical practices have been refreshed by the entry of the “thinking body” into the history realm and the two performers borrowed that credo – that which relates to taking up risks. They desired a risky duo and they succeeded. With constant question marks about what connects or sets them apart in their relation and co-existence on stage, articulated as speech or as text emblematically printed on the t-shirts: If I were you, The potential of both, The property of neither and others which summed up the imprint of their common attempt. With humour, directness and far from wanna-be attitude they came to remind us that sometimes our bodies are far more intelligent and sincere than our own selves!!”