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About Iokasti

Iokasti Mantzog, or Iokasti Kyriaki Zografou Mantzakidou (they/them), is a Pontic-Greek artist, performer and witch based in Berlin. In their practice they move between mediums of movement, choreography,voice, text and video , attempting to create chaotic poetic containers, often through queer hard femme hyperbole and disturbing personas . Holding a BA in Anthropology and History and an MA in Cultural Management, Iokasti studied Contemporary Dance and Somatic Techniques at the Bachelor of Contemporary Dance at ZZT Cologne, at Tanzfabrik and at Etage Berlin. Delving through the circular shape of time , into a body as ruins, meadows, a battlefield of comets, waves , all an eternal place of transformation, they have created an improvisation practice called "Undead" . Their work draws from mysticism, non human world, symbolism and myths , encountering the body both as an archive and a medium for connection and diviation. A medium through which, dimensions of madness, coexistence, disruption, transcendence, trouble, ancient wisdom and memory, can be channelled and explored. They are particularly interested in methodologies of field research, specifically in collecting diverse oral and embodied histories of marginalized groups as long as nonhuman encounters, in order to create counter memory dances and other speculative fabulations. At the moment, in their artistic process, they are curious, researching states of urgency and madness, transformative practices, compasses of the dream through the collective unknown and grieving lullabies. Iokasti’s choreographic work has been presented in Germany, Ukraine, Serbia, Portugal, France, Switzerland and Greece, in different venues, such as Staatstheater Mainz, Uferstudios, Theater of Greek National School of Arts, George Kolbe Museum, L’Usine ,Haus der Statistik ,Romantso, Hosek Contemporary Gallery and St Paul’s Aglican church in Athens. They have been worked with choreographers such as Dominique Tegho, Tchi Vett, Anna Nowicka and Kosmas Kosmopoulos and collaborated with artists such as Hanna Schaich, Zachary Murphy, Apothekk, Paca Faraus and Vassilina. They are currently a member of the queer diy cultural space "Failing Femmes", the performance collective "No Edges, no Corners" and of the studio collective "Kute"that is based in Neukolln, Berlin. Since ten years, they are part of autonomous ,queer feminist ,community spaces between Germany and Greece , staying in critical response-ability and prioritizing collective solidarity organizing .In their experience as a dance maker but also as an educator they prioritize improvisation, physical states , somatics and dreamwork as a tool in researching and asking questions regarding the present radiant body and its endless configurations ,connections and rebellious possibilities. At the moment they are working as a Dance, Improvisation, and Pilates trainer in different studios, elementary schools and self-organised spaces, while occassionaly also, as a freelance cultural manager.