Audience Reviews

AUDIENCE REVIEW: Coming Home: ESTIA Day Fest 2024

Company:
ESTIA Creative Home

Performance Date:
October 5, 2024

Freeform Review:

To attend ESTIA Day Fest is to submerge oneself in art of many forms and to resurface different than you were before. It is a truly immersive experience, allowing the viewer to awaken all their senses and experience art in a myriad of ways all in one remarkable evening. 

Founded by Artistic Director Lydia Perakis and Production Director LOLA, ESTIA Day Fest is an extension of ESTIA Creative Home, a platform and arts hub that draws inspiration for the Greek goddess of the home. The theme of home can be seen in all ESTIA events between their variety shows, open classes, and especially their day festival. It is at the core of their sensibility, and when artists apply to this event they are asked how their work is inspired by home and by the message of light, warmth, and refuge that the goddess provides. 

Previously the festival has been held outdoors, but this year the Day Fest took place this year inside of Brooklyn Art Haus in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This new setting allowed for multiple gallery-esque rooms that truly made the living museum come to life. Just like a museum, there were many different spaces to explore and no one telling you how to interface with them, instead leaving it up to each individual to experience the space in their own way. The doors opened into a gallery with vendors selling art pieces from crochet to collage and more, but then the path forked and the viewer had to choose where to look first. This format made every single audience member’s experience and interpretation wildly different, as it was nearly impossible to catch every happening. 

I found myself first drawn to the lounge space where artists were giving live performances, and I encountered masked figures creating gesture-filled vignettes. Their movement, crafted by dancemakers Lou Sydel and Lucia Gagliardone of slowDANCE, evoke a range of emotions through their sculpted faces and embodied physicality alike. Additionally, slowDANCE is a production company for artists by artists which embodies the idea of home by creating an artistic hub for artists and creating accessible and innovative ways to share their work. 

Following their performance I moved to the two smaller studios where film and installation work were taking place. Films by artists such as Ameeya Singh and Alexa Wilson rotated in a makeshift theater that felt like a home in and of itself, creating an almost living room feel to engage with these works by artists that also explored the idea of ESTIA in a large variety of ways. I continued my journey around the space where I would witness additional live performances from these artists as well as their films. In the following studio there were live art installations and durational performances occurring. One could stay mesmerized by artists like Let Hair Down whose fluorescent paint-covered figure moved slowly through the space, shrouded in darkness and emanating light. In fact, I found that the most difficult part of the festival was knowing when it was the right time to look elsewhere. 

All the while music and slam poetry were happening in the front lounge while table poetry and tarot readings occurred in the theater. I was particularly compelled by poet Lelani whose words about finding home and honoring homeland in fragments of a mother tongue made me feel connected to ESTIA in every line. Finally, everyone who had been roaming this living museum gathered in the theater for a main stage performance. Even our gathering felt like a homecoming of sorts, a place for reflection and communing, a place for home. 

Each of the mainstage pieces created worlds and many of them crafted homes as well thorough scenery and subject matter alike. Rosa Allegra Wolff’s piece truly embodies home as the dancers even crafted a living room from scratch in the center of the theater with rugs and pillows. As they moved and played across the stage, I was reminded once more of our purpose for gathering, celebrating art and artists and creating a home and hub for work like this to be shared. At one point in the piece, the performers began to speak, beautifully summarizing the evening with one word leaving their lips: “home.”

Author:
Rush Johnston

Website:
www.rushjohnston.com

Photo Credit:
Stephlemes