artists-in-residence | program

Mine the Cycladic Body

a community-based art project in Serifos  

Hosted at Kotoki ART Space, Serifos,  organized by Underscore A.M.K.E. in collaboration with the Adult Theatre Workshop of Sifnos (THEES).

The research project Mine the Cycladic Body focuses on the dynamic relationship between body and landscape, through walking practices, somatic research, and site-specific artistic observation.

The participating artists are invited to engage with the Cycladic landscape, the materiality of the island, and the notions of embodied experience — through paths, physical exercises, and situations that cultivate presence in the field and interaction with the natural environment.

As part of the residency, those interested are invited to join upcoming workshops and open activities on the island of Serifos.

Key Contributors:

Program Director: Thenia Antoniadou – Dancer/Choreographer
Research: to_convoy | Thenia Antoniadou, Sekin Naindi – Visual Artist

Workshops: Thenia Antoniadou, Shekin Naidi, Polina Kremasta – Dancer/Choreographer, Giorgos Dousos – Musician

Production support: Katerina Delakoura

Media Relations Consultant: Anna Pitti

Thenia Antoniadou 

Thenia is a dance artist and educator based in Athens. Her practice moves between choreography, visual arts and socially engaged processes. She holds a Professional Dance Diploma (Rallou Manou School), a BA in Early Childhood Education (University of Athens), and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Visual Arts and Landscape at the University of Western Macedonia. Her current artistic research, Land(e)scapes, explores the relationship between landscape and body, with a focus on post-industrial and mining areas. The project has produced the solo work Shifting Grounds (2024), the videoart Terra Nera, and the site-specific performance Mine the Body (Sifnos, Cyclades, 2024), and includes community workshops in Western Macedonia. Part of this research is funded by the Greek Ministry of Culture. She has collaborated with Creo Dance Company since 2014, performing and researching internationally (France, Ireland, Denmark, Portugal), and is a founding member of Underscore, a collective running the independent art space M54 in Athens. Her work often involves site-based practices, community engagement, and interdisciplinary research linking movement, territory, and memory.

Polina Kremasta

Polina holds a BMed in Medicine and an MA in Anthropology (University of Ioannina). She also graduated with honors from the Higher Professional Dance School Rallou Manou (Hellenic Ministry of Culture). Central axes of her work are: research processes, movement and body mechanics. She studies in depth kinesiology, anatomy and physiology of the body, while her readings travel through poetry, philosophy, anthropology, music, as well as political and sociological analysis. Dancer and choreographer (Creo Dance Company), she participates in International Festivals, Residencies, Symposiums and Platforms and she conducts Workshops. Creo DC has received state support from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (2009–2024). Polina was awarded first prize at the Sarajevo Winter Festival 2012 for the performance GODOT. Since 2014 she has been conducting the art-based research Apogeos. She is also the creator and founder of Skytali, a multilayered educational program for dancers and pupils, which was chosen as one of the most inspiring programs in Europe by the European Dancehouse Network. As a choreographer and educator she collaborated with the National Opera of Greece and led an educational Intercultural Dance Program and the Community Project Melisma, which took place in a Greek area affected by the devastating fires of 2021. She has collaborated with many artists and scholars from various fields. She is teaching contemporary dance, theory of dance, improvisation and applied anatomy in various Professional Dance Schools in Greece.

Giorgos Dousos

Giorgos Dousos is a composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Athens. He studied classical flute at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki with N. Dimopoulos and at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Abbie de Quant; traditional clarinet with S. Vasdekis and at the Athens Conservatoire with A. Arkadopoulos; musicology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; and composition at the workshops of the National Theatre of Greece with K. Selamsis. As a performer, he has collaborated with T. Tsanaklidou, G. Haroulis, G. Negka, M. Kana, M. Frintzila, M. Aslanidou and M. Hatzigiannis, and has taken part in National Theatre of Greece productions such as “Οπερέτα”, “Πλούτος”, “Ικέτιδες” and “Ο κοτζαμπάσης του
Καστρόπυργου”. As a composer, he has written music for the National Theatre of Greece
productions “Αυτόχειρας” (dir. G. Papageorgiou) and “Ο Ιμπρεσσάριος από τη Σμύρνη” (dir. V.
Papavasileiou), as well as for numerous independent theatre productions (“Κανόνια και
τρομπέτες”, “Αρίστος”, “Βουρκόλακας”, “Silence”, “Απέθαντο”). He has collaborated with the National Theatre of North Macedonia on the production An Enemy of the People (dir. N. Nikolic), and has participated in the Greek National Opera’s educational programme “Μέλισμα”, composing music for the performance “Τόπος Ατελείωτος”. He has written music for the short film Hopepunk (Vasiliki Lazaridou, Homemade Films) and for the documentary series The Ways of the Heroes (Eho Animato, LOOP, Creative Europe). He is a founding member of the musical ensembles Darnakes and Local Heroes and has released two solo albums: Serres (2021), an experimental album for solo flute, and “Το ζεϊμπέκικο του
Μενούση” (2015), a collection of songs.

Shekine Naidi 

Shekine Naidi (Greek-Iranian) is a visual artist whose practice explores the transformation of natural materials, with a particular focus on marble, minerals, and wool. Her work investigates the intersections of materiality, mythology, and the eco-transition, creating new narratives that connect geological and cultural histories. Shekine studied at the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, Italy (until 2022). She graduated from the MET postgraduate program at the Athens School of Fine Arts in February 2025. Her work has been shown internationally, including at MOMus, Thessaloniki; the Nazim Hikmet Cultural Center, Istanbul; and the Virgilio Sieni Center, Florence. In 2018, she was awarded a prize in the “Eternity” art competition, curated by Maurizio Cattelan. Alongside her studio practice, she organizes wool-processing workshops for participants with and without disabilities. Recently, she received a grant from the Greek Ministry of Culture for a research-based artistic project at the lignite mines of Ptolemaida, reflecting on the mythic, ecological, and material dimensions of the landscape.

Supporting Organizations:

Inviting host & artist’s residency facilitator: Kotoki ART Space
Under the auspices of Municipality of Serifos
With the financial support of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture
(Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage)
Official travel sponsor: Aegean Sea Lines
Travel sponsor: Fast Ferries