PAPAY GYRO NIGHTS:
FROM ROOTS TO RHYZOMES
(introduction in progress and will be published soon)

“We're tired of trees.*”

exploring Folklore and Tradition as a place-specific dynamic repetition, where through increasingly complex mutations (or transmogrifications) past and future are overlayering and creating an increasingly abstract present.

We know the story, shape and rules of traditional games – “the overall effect**”, but also we’d like to see “a disequilibrium …, an instability, dissymmetry or gap of some kind… **“.

* from Gilles Deleuze. A Thousand Plateaus: capitalism and schizophrenia
** from Gilles Deleuze. Difference and Repetition


3rd edition of Papay Gyro Nights is taking place under the first full moon of February on the island Papa Westray (aka Papay) - 3 hours from Kirkwall, Orkney, 3 hours from Lerwick, Shetland, and 6 hours from Tórshavn, Faeroe, if to travel by the sea. Atlantic or Northern. 3 years of the Festival. 6500 years since Knap of Howar was build by Papay folks, or as some say – shipwrecked Egyptians. 200 years since the last Great Auk was killed here and 100 years since the last time original Gyro Nights took place in Papay.

The idea of PAPAY GYRO NIGHTS Arts Festival has originated from the ancient Papay tradition of The Night of The Gyros (or Gygr, or Gryla, or Grylur as its know in other Nordic countries), which till the beginning of 20s century was celebrated on the island in the first full moon of February.

“… on Gyro Night the young boys of the island made torches, which they set alight before venturing out into the night. The object of their foray was to entice the "gyros" out of hiding.
These gyros were usually the older lads, wearing masks and dressed as repulsive old women. If the torchbearers met a gyro, "she" would pursue the youngsters, striking at them with a piece of rope, or tangle, until they were able to outrun "her". (orkneyjar.com)

Against as reconstructing what is gone and almost forgotten, we would like to reflect on the folktale, the island as well as interpretations of tradition and ritual through experimental film, video art, sound art, architecture and storytelling

In February, when nights are long and weather can be vicious and only brave ones will dare to undertake a journey across the rough sea, the Island will be transformed into the art gallery, where works will be displayed in unconventional locations, changing perception of the timeless landscape.

All together the Festival is creating a new synthetic form, combining various medium into the MOVEMENT IN THE NIGHT WITH A FIRE, CHASE IN THE DARK, GOODBYE TO WINTER - into The Opera – The Night of The Gyros

VIDEO ART (LIMITS)
Strange assemblages of the island are giving ideas about boundaries and limits of video art: looking at the origin of moving image and latest media developments. light and silver. stop-frame. hand-crafted film rolls. hardware – software. algorithms and viruses. ..and to the film without camera, where only memory can play a role of the recording device. from the dark room with audience in front of the screen to a solitary perambulation by deserted shores under the Moon-light. Moving image is extending into performance, sound, architecture