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Programme
The first route of the museum ship will be the Mediterranean, an area of millennia of history and exchange, which has always mobilized and nourished the inspiration of artists, and naturally invites intercultural dialogue.
Discover the programme of activities on the quayside and in the towns: performances, concerts, conferences, screenings, workshops, meetings and other events.
Upcoming events
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Experiences on board the museum boat
Experience on reservation. Duration: 45 min.
Kitchen workshop, Mastro Sol, Maja Escher
In this workshop, each participant shapes and decorates a cookie figure for Mastro Sol, an installation inspired by Alentejo festival rituals, where figures are hung from festive masts. Each piece carries the gesture and story of its maker, joining others in a collective artwork made by many hands. When Mastro Sol is exhibited on June 27 at 11:00 am, you can return to find your figure and see how it became part of the final piece.
Caravanserá Workshop
Before the performance (on June 27th), audiences are invited to take part in a participatory workshop where movement, sound, and collective actions gradually shape the world of Caravanserá. Inspired by historical “caravanserais” – places of encounter and exchange –, the workshop creates an informal space where participants of different ages contribute to the atmosphere of the performance, blurring the boundaries between audience and performers.
Kitchen workshop, Mastro Sol, Maja Escher
In this workshop, each participant shapes and decorates a cookie figure for Mastro Sol, an installation inspired by Alentejo festival rituals, where figures are hung from festive masts. Each piece carries the gesture and story of its maker, joining others in a collective artwork made by many hands. When Mastro Sol is exhibited on June 27 at 11:00 am, you can return to find your figure and see how it became part of the final piece.
Caravanserá Workshop
Before the performance (on June 27th), audiences are invited to take part in a participatory workshop where movement, sound, and collective actions gradually shape the world of Caravanserá. Inspired by historical “caravanserais” – places of encounter and exchange –, the workshop creates an informal space where participants of different ages contribute to the atmosphere of the performance, blurring the boundaries between audience and performers.
NEW BOWING BAND
NEW BOWING BAND is a project aimed at creating an intercontinental band that blends the musical traditions of the diverse cultures found in the municipality of Odemira. It is the stories and musical experiences of each musician that shape this soundscape, marked by a variety of influences. It is, therefore, a gathering of musicians from different countries who come together to play, sing, and, above all, create a new, contemporary, and vibrant sound.
Sopa de Pedra
Sopa de Pedra is an all-female Portuguese vocal ensemble exploring the country's oral traditions, long carried by women work songs, lullabies, romances, festive and devotional chants. Their music is built around a cappella polyphony, at times accompanied by traditional percussion such as the adufe and pandeiro. Through their multi-voice arrangements, they breathe new life into a heritage long confined to the domestic sphere, bringing it onto contemporary stages in Portugal and abroad.
PLO Man
In a DJ set shaped by dense atmospheres and subtle sonic drifts, PLO Man builds a sonic journey where house, techno, breakbeat and dub echoes intersect in a fluid way. Closely connected to the universe of Acting Press, a cult label within the underground electronic scene, he develops an approach attentive to texture, duration and the slow transformations of the dancefloor. The video projection of an original drawing by JAS expands this sensory experience.
KAI – JAS & Pedro Moura
An immersive performance where live drawing and sound unfold together. Through the collaboration between JAS and Pedro Moura, image and music merge into a shared sensory experience.
Bal Moderne
A contemporary dance event where everyone is invited to take part in a lively and joyful late afternoon full of movement. The audience learns, in just a few minutes, choreographies created by international artists, becoming performers themselves. Between learning and celebration, this collective format dissolves the boundaries between stage and audience, fostering connection, sharing, and the discovery of contemporary dance through direct experience.
CAROLF
In an immersive DJ set, CAROLF guides the audience through subtle sonic landscapes, weaving experimental textures, ethereal atmospheres, and sporadic rhythms. Her selection reveals a deep sensitivity to detail and mood. The experience is enhanced by video projections of JAS’s original drawings, creating a sensory dialogue where sound and image merge into a contemplative, ever-evolving universe.
Fiz um foguete imaginando que você vinha, de Janaína Marques
Rosa lies inside an MRI machine. She is asked to think of a happy memory, something she doesn’t have. It is time to create one, by returning to her childhood, when her mother was arrested and accused of murder. And there they are, in a realistic reverie, travelling in an old hot dog van along the dirt roads of northern Brazil. Janaína Marques’ feature debut is a guided tour through a mind in turmoil, its landscapes and its wounds.
Past events
“Dreams on waves” - Workshop on Community Radio
The workshop continues the artist’s practice on participation as a tool for investigating citizenship. The formed group of participants will learn how to produce a community radio show, narrate, discuss and record together and form questions on our everyday life and the experience of residents of Piraeus, with a focus on communities that experiences migration either in 1920’s and its legacies or very recent experiences. Through the use of sound, music and mapping, we will explore the present soundscape of Piraeus, producing for a future, through sharing experiences, poetry and music.
Klickable
Klickable is a closed-eyes photography workshop that frees photography from the dominance of vision and activates hearing, smell, touch, and the sense of atmosphere by using our largest sensory organ — the skin. It is aimed at people with or without visual impairments, as well as professional and amateur photographers. Participants will practice the method of blind photography using their digital camera or their mobile phone’s camera.
Bridges - Greek, Arabic and Turkish traditions
Christina Koza, singing in Greek, Arabic and Turkish, under the direction of master musician Kyriakos Kalaitzidis, oud and music composer, will be exploring universal traditional songs of the Mediterranean Sea. Famous violinist Zied Zouari from Tunisia will exceptionally be participating to this concert. The Mediterranean has always been a sea of encounters and exchanges. Each shore calls out to the other, constantly, inevitably, from ancient times to the present day, between East and West. It is this unique feature that will be highlighted in this concert, conceived by Kyriakos Kalaitzidis.
Orion's Belt - National School of Dance (KSOT) Young Choreographers
Darkness is hurled with a voiceless cry, a shadow that became a weight, an indelible mark. With a hand reaching out— that holds— never letting me go, without suffocating, without hurting. A path— a step that measures time, a step that erases fear. Where the weight becomes breath, and presence becomes refuge.
Glorious Epic
Glorious Epic by Sofia Mavragani is a visceral dance performance exploring the tension between heroism and vulnerability. Through the dynamic relationship of two bodies and the interplay of conflict and harmony, the piece reimagines glory as the tender strength found in collectivity.
PINK.WAV x HER Project
Exploring sound as a means of shared experience and emotional depth, pink.wav's sets fuse bass, haunting vocals, intricate breaks, and seductive percussion, offering a sonic reflection of human complexity. Organized by HER Project.
Guided Tours
Immerse yourselves to the exhibitions of Art Explora Festival with the guidance of experienced mediators.
Scola Society's Open Mediation Tours in Arabic, Farsi & Mandarin
“Open Mediation Tours at Art Explora in Piraeus” by Scola Society is a collaboration with EMST and a continuation of the action that is taking place in 2025 within the Museum. It proposes the research, outreach and implementation of mediation tours by a team of three people. The intercultural mediators from Iran, Egypt and China, will guide audiences from their respective communities in their native languages, thus Farsi, Arabic and Mandarin, through the method of situated mediation.
Postcards from the museum of me
In this interactive workshop, participants will become both artists and curators as they design their very own “Museum of Me.” Using a variety of provided materials, each participant will explore his/her personal history, identity, and imagination to create exhibitions that reflect who they are and what matters most to them. Through drawing, collage, writing, and object-making, participants will craft artifacts and displays that capture memories, dreams, and defining moments. The workshop is based on Eleni Geroulanou book “Nikiforos explores emotions, based on the Cycladic figurines.
“Dreams on waves” - Workshop on Community Radio
The workshop continues the artist’s practice on participation as a tool for investigating citizenship. The formed group of participants will learn how to produce a community radio show, narrate, discuss and record together and form questions on our everyday life and the experience of residents of Piraeus, with a focus on communities that experiences migration either in 1920’s and its legacies or very recent experiences. Through the use of sound, music and mapping, we will explore the present soundscape of Piraeus, producing for a future, through sharing experiences, poetry and music.
Radio Alhara x Art Explora - Urok Shirhan
Urok Shirhan (NL/Iraq), aka UROK, is an Athens-based artist, researcher and DJ working at the intersection of performance, visual arts and critical theory. UROK’s DJ sets unfold a polyglot club sound—where Arab, Latinx and Brazilian rhythms meet leftfield techno and deconstructed bass, blending sweet pop melodies with dark percussive drums. Throughout the Festival, during hours without live programming, the venue’s speakers will transmit the Radio Alhara broadcast.
Heavy Zeybek
The installation investigates how rhythm and sonic texture can be diverted, slowed down, or distorted through frequencies and vibrations. Eight metallic column-speakers, arranged in a circle, create a field of intensity where the dancer’s body responds to the force of sound upon a minimal marble platform. The work forms part of Panos Charalambous’s ongoing research into the expressions of popular culture in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, re-examining their forms in the present and within the specific context of Piraeus.
On Xerxes' Throne
A dystopian workplace at the Perama shipyards, where a longstanding ban on physical contact has turned human interactions into otherworldly simulations. The suppression of touch among the workers has alienated their communication, transforming the boatyard into a charged landscape of alienation and repressed sensuality beyond stereotypical heteronormative desires.
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Χαίρε
Εύα Στεφανή, Χαίρε, 2024, 2’ 23”
Μοντάζ: Παναγιώτης Παπαφράγκος, Αφήγηση: Εύα Στεφανή, Γυναίκα: Λουίζα Ντούρου
Μια νηρηίδα επιπλέει σε μια ηλιόλουστη, αμμώδη παραλία. Σα σύγχρονη Οφηλια, αφήνει το νερό με κλειστά μάτια να την παρασύρει, ενώ οι εκκλησιαστικές καμπανοκρουσίες που την περιβάλλουν μετατρέπονται σταδιακά σε αμανέ, σε ρεμπέτικους αχούς και προσευχή. Μια γυναικεία φωνή απευθύνεται ψιθυριστά στη Θεοτόκο, μέσα από ένα επαναλαμβανόμενο μάντρα που μετουσιώνει τον Ακάθιστο Ύμνο και την εμπειρία θέασης του έργου σε μυσταγωγική ιεροτελεστία. Σε ένα διαλογισμό για την εξιλέωση, την κάθαρση και τη φύση, για το νερό που μας φέρνει πίσω τις μητέρες μας, όπως χαρακτηριστικά έχει γράψει ο Gaston Βachelard (1942).
Ευγενική παραχώρηση της καλλιτέχνιδας και του PCAI
Manolis Pappos Rebetiko Night
Manolis Pappos and his collaborators take us on a journey into the world of rebetiko, the emblematic musical tradition of the port of Piraeus.
Frequently asked questions
The Art Explora Festival will take place from spring 2024 to spring 2026 in various Mediterranean cities.
Festival events take place both on the museum boat's quay and in heritage and/or emblematic sites in the stopover towns. To find out all about upcoming events in your town, consult our Agenda.
The Art Explora Festival offers a rich, multi-disciplinary program including visits to the museum ship, exhibition pavilions, virtual reality experiences, artistic performances, concerts, lectures, film screenings, creative workshops and meetings. You'll be able to discover local and international artists, as well as thinkers and cultural players exploring contemporary themes related to the Mediterranean region. To find out all about upcoming events in your city, consult our Agenda.
All Festival events are free of charge. Please note, however, that some events - such as workshops - require a reservation via the ticket office. Please consult the page dedicated to each event for more information on times and booking procedures.
To ensure that everyone has the best possible experience at the Festival, we have drawn up a visitors' charter listing a few good practices.
Yes, the boat is freely accessible on site. However, you can pre-book your time online on our website.
For reasons of safety and preservation of the boat, high heels and stilettos may not be worn on the boat.
To take part in the workshops and meetings offered during the Festival, you'll generally need to register in advance. Information on how to register will be available on the dedicated event page, where you can also find details of times and how to take part.
Yes, the Art Explora Festival also offers child-friendly activities, such as creative workshops specially designed for young participants. Take a look at the program to find out about events and activities for children and families.
The museum boat is open to all free of charge. To find out on which quay it will be moored, or to pre-book your slot, consult the page dedicated to your town.
Appropriate facilities have been set up on the Festival site for the reception and access of people with reduced mobility. The boat is equipped with a 1m-wide ramp, accessible to people with reduced mobility, but may require the accompaniment of a third party due to its gradient of over 6%. Access to the aft deck and immersive exhibition is possible. However, the upper deck is not accessible. Please inform us in advance of any special accessibility requirements, so that we can make the necessary arrangements.
Thank you for your interest in the Art Explora Festival! To find out more about our volunteer opportunities and to apply, please visit our "Become a volunteer"section of our website. There you'll find all the information you need about the roles available and the application procedure. We look forward to meeting you!
We're delighted to consider new partnerships for the Art Explora Festival. To find out how, please visit our dedicated page or write to us at contact@artexplora.org