2003 - Saloni M swims East

Swimming to the shores of its Easterly neighbours,
seeing acts of horror in 'holy lands',
listening to West-wary outcries ...
Saloni M asks: Who are the true Barbarians?

Saloni M swims East:
Who are the true Barbarians?

Friday, December 5, 2003

at Dante's Upstairs Gallery, 150-156 Gertrude Street (cnr Napier Street), Fitzroy.

	Angela Costi and Joe De Iacovo photo by Lisa Moore

Readings:     Ali Alizadeh, Hidayet Ceylan, Angela Costi, Joe De Iacovo, Tosn Reshid, Helena Spyrou, Dimitris Troaditis, Lauren Williams

Performance:     Fotis Kapetopoulos, Titiana Varkopoulos

Film:     Abe and Dirk de Bruyn, Bill Mousoulis, Laki Sideris

Music:     Anthea Sidiropoulos, ZAZIZ

Dance:     The Fiery Angels

flyer for event         photo gallery

Website Contributions:
Gaby Bila-Günther - Who are the true Barbarians? The Governments and the Elite Religions?
Michael Elliman - The Barbarian Within
Matt Hetherington - Notes on Barbarianism
Lee Kofman - The suicide-bombing Barbie Doll
Lyn McLeod - Working the Wall
Connie Mitropoulos - barbarianspeak
po - monument

Saloni M swims East was brought to you by

Angela Costi - Co-ordinator / Artistic Director Angela Costi's words have appeared in well known print and online publications, and at a great number of stages and festivals. She was writer-in-residence at the Kensington Public Housing Estate for the reLOCATED arts project recently. contact Angela

Helena Spyrou - Co-ordinator / Artistic Director Helena Spyrou’s writing has been published in a number of literary magazines, including Meanjin, Going Down Swinging and Inside Indonesia. She is an organiser and publicist for literary events, human rights fund raisers and conferences. contact Helena

Bill Mousoulis - Co-ordinator / Web Designer / Film Curator Bill Mousoulis is an independent filmmaker based in Melbourne. Since 1982, he has made over 80 films, including 5 features. He is the founding editor of the online journal Senses of Cinema, and also works as a web designer. contact Bill

Sia Papageorgiou - Assistant / Publicist / Sound Co-ordinator Sia Papageorgiou has worked as a broadcast journalist and producer on a national radio program by and about NESB women. She has also worked on film documentaries, and as a sound technician on numerous productions. contact Sia

Lisa Moore - Stage Manager Lisa Moore has been involved in community arts projects for over 20 years in a variety of roles mainly in the production and administration areas. She is also an arts photographer, and moonlights in the public sector in grants management.

Saloni M swims East - 2003

Saloni M swims East is an event about the cultural divide from ancient to modern times, positing one race as civilised, the other as barbarian; one nation as giver of light, the other as terror of the dark.

The Ancient Greeks had a term for foreigners, for those non-Greeks they viewed as uncultured or uncouth: barbarians (barbaroi). Aristotle is said to have conceived the following syllogism:

‘No Greeks are barbarians
All barbarians are insane
(Hence) No Greeks are insane’

Whether barbarianism was born from prejudice or elitism, its legacy of civil unrest, upheaval, turmoil… national and international war… torture and death... continues.

Swimming to the shores of its Easterly neighbours,
seeing acts of horror in 'holy lands',
listening to West-wary outcries ...
Saloni M asks: Who are the true Barbarians?

The Mediterranean Sea (just like the ocean that surrounds Australia) has been the separation point for many a ‘foreigner’, many a ‘race’, many a ‘differing culture’ treated barbarically at the hands of those who call out from their safe shores ‘barbarians… barbarians!’ They may be migrants, they may be gypsies, they may be refugees, they may be asylum seekers or travellers seeking to stay indefinitely but are they truly barbarians? Shouldn’t the ‘barbaric act’ determine the barbarian? Since time immemorial, Christians and Muslims have declared each other barbaric while simultaneously cutting each other’s throats. Today, the sand shifts again in the Middle East, so close to its Mediterranean neighbour, where white Christians enter with weapons of mass destruction and the darker race, who is declared to the world as barbaric, curls in the corner, maimed, destroyed.

Was Karl Marx right when he said that the choice for capitalist societies was either socialism or barbarianism? Is what we are witnessing in Iraq in 2003 an act of barbarism? Does the new power (hegemony) fear so much this ancient land that it seeks to destroy all evidence of its history, culture... ? Will the phoenix rise from the ashes?

From the Moors in Southern Spain to the Kurds in East Turkey,
from the veil that cloaks all in darkness to beach fashion that hides nothing,
from tradition that abhors change to change that abhors tradition…
the cultural divide between barbaric and civilised is in a state of flux and open to artistic interpretation.

Who are the true Barbarians?

1999 - Saloni Mediterranean       2000 - Saloni M goes South       2005 - Saloni M presents The Shades of Love