Dimitris Papaioannou’s ‘Please Come In’ Film Installation in Hong Kong

Dimitris Papaioannou, the creative director of the 2004 Athens Olympic opening ceremony and a Greek [...]

Dimitris Papaioannou, the creative director of the 2004 Athens Olympic opening ceremony and a Greek contemporary artist known for his powerful integration of visual arts, theater, and storytelling, presents a groundbreaking performance. ‘Free Dance 2024’ brings his world tour 2011 work ‘Please Come In’, an unedited documentary film installation, alongside ‘Behind the Scenes: Please Come In’, which documents the backstage reality. It is a beautiful and fast-paced journey, allowing the audience to experience a film about life in Hong Kong, as well as the dynamics behind the scenes of a single performance.
During the live production of ‘Please Come In’, Papaioannou constructed a room of everyday life on stage with 30 performers, each returning home, and then home again. Under Papaioannou’s masterful direction, the performance resembles a collapsing human cultural courtyard. Audiences are free to enter and exit over a span of six hours, observing quietly as if witnessing one wave after another hitting the beach, reflecting on life and understanding the conditions behind the everyday.
The ‘Please Come In’ film installation is an unedited documentary of the unedited kind. It will transform into an exhibition of sugar, where audiences, like live performance viewers, enter for free and can watch oil paintings, images, or whispers, experiencing the flow of cinematic time in this space. Behind the installation is the ‘Behind the Scenes: Please Come In’ film, an hour-long recording shot by Papaioannou himself, offering a deeper understanding of ‘Please Come In’. The entire exhibition is open from 12/04 to 12/08, with performance times and durations subject to change on-site.