ATHENS, GREECE (Top40 Charts) Each year around this time, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) welcomes summer with SNF Nostos, a free celebration for everyone. This year has been different in so many ways, and after the strains and losses of the pandemic, SNF Nostos 2021 will now bring joy to the end of summer rather than the beginning - a culmination rather than a kick-off. Energizing sounds, entrancing activities, easy laughter, thought-provoking discussions, and new experiences will fill the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens from August 25 to 29, getting us back into the swing of a way of living we've all missed.
At SNF Nostos leading artists, groundbreaking discussions, and lively sports activities will bring us back together and get us talking and thinking. We'll experience the thrill of live performances, dust off our sneakers for the SNF Nostos Run, and sharpen our minds with discussions at SNF DIALOGUES and at the SNF Nostos Conference on Humanity and Artificial Intelligence - a theme we've been looking forward to exploring since 2019 and previewed at our 2020 online RetroFuture edition.
Five days overflowing with events and activities await! As always, admission is free for all.
FEATURING:
SNF DIALOGUES
August 25th, 18:30-20:00
SNF DIALOGUES, will host an open discussion on the topic of Humanity-AI Symbiosis, in collaboration with the SNF Agora
Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Register today.
SNF Nostos Run
August 25th. Start time 20:30
The SNF Nostos Run returns in person with an opportunity to shake off those lockdown cobwebs. 6K and 10K courses start downtown at sunset and finish at the SNFCC, as well as a 1K course for Special Olympics athletes.
SNF Nostos Conference
August 26th -27th, 09:00 - 20:30
August 28th, 10:00-12:30
How can we ensure that artificial intelligence technology emboldens the human spirit, rather than diminishes it? How might we use AI to build a healthier, greener, and more equitable world? Can we use AI to overcome our limitations instead of simply reinforcing them?
The 2021 SNF Nostos Conference, dedicated to the theme of Humanity and Artificial Intelligence, will explore these questions and more.
Speakers include: Blaise Aguera y Arcas, VP Fellow at Google Research; artist Refik Anadol; Yoshua Bengio, founder of the Quebec
Institute of Artificial Intelligence; artist Sougwen Chung; Ted Chiang, science fiction author;
Lucas Joppa, Chief Environmental Officer at Microsoft; Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, and human rights defender; Tenzin Priyadarshi, President of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT; Κevin Rudd, former Prime
Minister of Australia and President of the Asia Society Policy Institute; and many others. Register today.
SNF Nostos Festival
August 25th -29th, 10:00 - 01:00
Music
Up-and-coming and established musicians from Greece and abroad take the stage at SNF Nostos to carry us away on a musical journey.
Experience Afrobeat rhythms from Nigerian superstar
Burna Boy (29.08), an audiovisual spectacle from The Irrepressibles (25.08), and dance to the explosive DJ sets of the Nyege Nyege Festival (25, 27, 29.08) and the Casbah Club (28.08), a DJ collaboration between Paul Simonon (The Clash) and Dan Donovan (Big Audio Dynamite, Dreadzone). Performances by ΜΕΛΙSSES (26.08), Fotini Velessiotou's (28.08), Good Job Nicky (27.08), Pavlina Voulgaraki (29.08),
Alexia (27.08), Nikos Laaris (29.08), Ergon Ensemble (28.08) and others round out the offerings.
Performing Arts & Screenings
Notable artist
William Kentridge (25, 26.08) presents Sibyl live on stage. Live performances and screenings draw inspiration from this year's theme of Humanity and AI: American choreographer Beth Corning (27.08) presents the original commissioned dance-theater project Just Human. Fritz Lang's iconic 1927 masterpiece Metropolis will be accompanied live by The
Anvil Orchestra (28.08). Films related to Humanity and AI will transport us to new worlds (all days). Actors, including Τaylor Schilling,
David Strathairn and Katerina Lehou will read stories at the AI in Fiction (25.08) event.
Visual Arts & Installations
Installations will bring humanity and technology closer to one another and to the trends at the forefront of the visual arts, including
Annie Dorsen's Hello Hi There, a performance starring two MacBooks. Through Soundwalk, award-winning artist
Ellen Reid transforms the SNFCC into a soundscape for a unique participatory experience. The Changing Room, by
Lauren Lee McCarthy, raises concerns about monitoring systems and social technologies, while Masked Reality, by Indian artist Harshit Agrawal, utilizes artificial intelligence to explore faces, tradition, gender, and identity. Through the photographic exhibition Humanae,
Angelica Dass meditates on the meaning of skin color, and Viktor Koen curates the SVA Poster Project, featuring student-designed posters inspired by the theme of Humanity and AI. Futurescape London, presented through Chatham House, offers an imagined 3D tour of London's Piccadilly Circus at various points in the future.
*All days
Events for children and families
It wouldn't be SNF Nostos without plenty of events for kids and families! Highlights include Circus Abyssinia from Ethiopia, the dynamic Chipolatas and, as every year, an expansive program of sports activities, including adventure games for all ages, capoeira, fencing, badminton, handball, ping-pong, dancing, Special Olympics activities, and more!
Technology & Education
Following the theme of Humanity and Artificial Intelligence, SNF Nostos presents the first-ever SNF Nostos Hackathon! Two different Hackathon events, ensure a challenge for all skill levels from seasoned coders to novices. Plus, join the Minecraft Challenge to build unique takes on the SNFCC! Organized in partnership with Microsoft.
*All days, online and at the Technology Lab at the SNFCC
*nostos NOUN (from ancient Greek) A homecoming, especially after a long, difficult journey, such as the return of Odysseus and other Greeks after the Trojan War.
**Details of the program are likely to change in accordance with the latest COVID-19 health measures. All events will adhere to the health protocols in place in August 2021.
