'I still don't know whether a protagonist of Lia Haraki's practice is herself or energy that makes the self happen. Or an energy that depersonalises us in an intimate act that discards the notion of a protagonist itself….’
Raimundas Malašauskas , Curator of the Oo exhibition of the Cyprus and Lithuanian Pavillion at the Venice Biennale 2013.
Lia Haraki (b. 1975 Limassol) is an interdisciplinary performance artist working across performance, devised theatre, choreography, song, spoken word and what she calls repetitive poetry. As a creator, she is occupied with issues related to identity, community, ecology and value and beleives in the power of art as a medium that can trigger shifts in perceptions towards a fairer world. She usually works with the moving and sounding qualities of the human body, in order to speak about its sociopolitical position, by challenging notions of normality associated to it. Beginning from self-sarcasm and working with satire, she enjoys finding performative ways to crack socially constructed narratives and reveal the illusion we have of them as ‘real’. Usually, in her pieces, sociopolitical norms and the heteronormative are questioned and challenged, while fragility and empathy are underlined as human necessary strengths.
Her work in general takes the shape of staged works, site-specific pieces, one on one experiences, sound installations, standup shows, music bands and performances in shops.
Lia studied Dance Theatre Studies (BA) at the Laban centre in London. Ever since she has been creating works for the stage and alternative spaces both locally and internationally. Her works have been presented in many European cities and festivals like Julidans Amsterdam, the Athens Festival, Royal Festival Hall London, Bozar Brussels, Unesco Paris, The Place London, Tanec Praha, Kleines Haus Dresden, Korzo The Hague, Euro-scene Leipzig and other. She has been one of the artists who represented Cyprus in the Venice Biennale for visual Arts in 2013 with the solo ‘Tune In’ curated by Raimundas Malasauskas (Special mention for the Cyprus and Lithuanian Pavilion). She has been awarded two times the choreography award at the Cyprus dance platform (2003, 2005) and her works were two times short listed by the Aerowaves network (Evergreen - 2004, Pretendance - 2009).
Ιn 2003 Lia created the non-profitable association pelma.Lia Haraki which functions as a production frame for the creation, production, presentation, research and exhibition of her artistic work. The structure is mostly funded by the cultural services of the ministry of education and culture, Cyprus. Pelma.Lia Haraki also functions as the frame which hosts the creative exchange between Lia and her long term collaborators like Αlexis Vassiliou (artist - director of dance house lemesos), Αrianna Marcoulides (performing artist), Guy Cools (dance dramaturge), Εleana Alexandrou (performing artist), Marios Ioannou (performing artist), Yiangos Hadjiyiannis (techical manager), Sakari Laurila (performing artist, cinematographer, musician), Yiannis Christofides (composer) and many more
She has been part of several EU Programme which include ‘Emotional Bodies and cities’ - 2013 (guest artist), ‘Act Your Age’ - 2013 (Artist), ‘The underwater Heart of the Mediterranean’ 2015-16 that presented the first ever underwater dance performance (Partner). The last two years she is the coordinator and mentor of the Performance Laboratory of 22 young artists in the ‘Open Up’ four-year long cultural project (2020-2023), co-funded by the Creative Europe programme. The programmes aims to bring to the surface and promote underrepresented artists, designers, craftspeople and performers located in the seven cities of the partner organisations.
She has worked as a choreographer in several theatre productions at the National theatre of Cyprus (THOC) . Her latest collaboration in a theatre production was ‘The Persians’ by Aeschylus (directed by Aris Biniaris with Kariofilia Karambeti in the leading role of Atossa), which toured Greece and Cyprus with great success at theatres like the ancient theatres of Epidaurus and the Herodion.
Lia’s largest scale project called ‘The Performance Shop Concept’ is exploring how performance is a necessary practice and should be included within daily life. The project also places questions in relation to the value of performance and immaterial art. (In 2016 The Performance shop was selected as one of 25 best practices in Europe by the EDN - European Dance House Network, which answered to the questions ‘how dance can become relevant’). The Performance Shop project attracted the attention of performance artist Marina Abramovic who in a conversation with Lia Haraki in Athens 2016 said referring to the project that ‘It is a very fresh and good idea’.
In 2005 she initiated the creation of Dance House Lemesos which is the space that supports professional contemporary dance in Cyprus and functions as a point for the development of collaborations with organizations and artists from the European dance scene.
At the same time Lia is proud to have developed several practices through the collaborative artistic research of the past twenty years in the forms of workshops, as well as coaching and mentoring methods for artists. These are ‘The onion -an artist’s tool kit’, ‘Performing biography - the stand-up practice ’, ‘IntuNition’, ‘The performance (work )shop’ and are taught in universities, festivals and dance houses internationally.
In 2007 she has been part of the core team that created the dance programme of The University of Nicosia and was a part-time lecturer until 2023. She also taught at the Theatre studies programmes of Intercollege and Satiriko theatre in Nicosia.
Lia has been the representative for the Aerowaves network (2004-2016). She has curated the events entitled ‘Aerowaves Nights’ at Dance House Lemesos (2008 και 2010) and did the programming for the 6th Open House International dance festival of Dance House Lemesos with the theme ‘SEXPECTATIONS’ with international artists such as Ivo Dimchev, Hodworks, Tabea Martin.
Her Tedx talks ‘Whatever you perform is right’ in Tedx Limassol and ‘The necessity of performance’ in Tedx Patras informed and inspired audiences to embrace performance as a ritual accessible to all.
From 2019-2021 Lia Haraki and her collaborators have been resident artists at Polis Theatre OPAP in collaboration with NiMAC (in association with the Pierides foundation), presenting their own work and curating the artistic programme by inviting the works of other artists residency programmes like ‘Bridges’ and the ‘Castle of anti-escape’.
The last few years Lia’s work is more sound centered and she is focussed in developing her repetitive poetry practice on stage and in her research.