Dimitris Papaioannou is a Greek experimental theater stage director, choreographer and visual artist who drew media attention and acclaim with his creative direction of the Opening Ceremony of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
17 Facts About Dimitris Papaioannou
2.
Dimitris Papaioannou first attracted attention as a visual artist, illustrator and comic book creator.
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Dimitris Papaioannou presented his art work at a number of exhibitions, produced illustrations for numerous magazines, and designed and co-edited the countercultural fanzine Kontrosol sto Haos, one of the few publications to include openly gay content at that time in Greece.
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Dimitris Papaioannou contributed to the Greek gay activist magazine To Kraximo in the early 1980s, and gave an interview to the publication in 1993.
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Dimitris Papaioannou was awarded first prize in a competition organised by Marseille Public Transport Authority at the 5th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, held in Marseille in 1990, for his comic Un Bon Plan.
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Dimitris Papaioannou began to take an interest in dance and the performing arts while still at the Athens School of Fine Arts, training and experimenting as a performer and choreographer, as well as a costume, set and make-up designer with dance companies in Greece.
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In 1989, Papaioannou left Greece for Germany to work as an unpaid trainee assistant to Robert Wilson in Hamburg as he prepared The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets with Tom Waits and William S Burroughs.
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Dimitris Papaioannou then accompanied Wilson to Berlin to act as a stand-in for the lights for his production of Orlando.
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Beyond his work with Edafos Dance Theatre, Dimitris Papaioannou undertook a number of other projects between 1986 and 2000.
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Dimitris Papaioannou directed two operas for the Athens Megaron Concert Hall: Thanos Mikroutsikos's The Return of Helen in 1999, and Bellini's La Sonnambula in 2000.
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Dimitris Papaioannou directed two stage shows for the Greek singer Haris Alexiou, and two for Alkistis Protopsalti.
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Dimitris Papaioannou designed sets and costumes for the Greek National Opera, and a number of Greek theatre and dance companies.
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In 2001, Dimitris Papaioannou was appointed Artistic Director of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games by Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki, President of the Athens 2004 Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.
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In 2005, following the success of the Athens 2004 Olympic Ceremonies, Dimitris Papaioannou received the Golden Cross of the Order of Honour, awarded by the President of the Hellenic Republic for outstanding artistic achievement.
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On 24 November 2006, Dimitris Papaioannou premiered 2 in Athens, his first work following his creative direction of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
16.
Inside is a large-scale on-stage experiment by Dimitris Papaioannou that took place in a room set inside the Pallas Theatre in central Athens.
17.
Dimitris Papaioannou was thinking about Albert Camus, and about work as meaning in and of itself.