Castle-ling

Participants: Konstantina Mantzabinou, Gosia Miernik, Katerina Kataki,

Howl Yuan, Prof Olav Harsløf, Arianna Chatzigalanou, Manuela Ciangola, Dr Gretel Taylor, Vangelis Avraam

Frankish Linear wall

Nafplio. Greece

2024

Castle-ling emerged from Space-Consciousness, a collaborative performance workshop between Professor Alberto Morell Sixto (Architect, Polytechnic University of Madrid), KIMVI (Performance Artist), and Dr Gina Giotaki (Dance, University of Peloponnese).

After a four-day workshop, the participants, dressed entirely in black, presented its outcome as a live, site-responsive performance. Using their whole bodies, they traced the physical outline of the Frankish Linear Wall. Through this embodied action, their bodies highlighted the wall’s architectural features, defining its horizon and edges. Titled Castle-ling, the performance transformed the ruin into a shared spatial encounter.

The title Castle-ling was chosen as a deliberate pun: it echoes “castling,” the chess move of tactical repositioning, and the suffix “-ling,” which suggests something diminished, residual, or lingering. Castle-ling thus names the Frankish Wall as a castle-in-ruin—a “little castle” that persists as trace and outline—while also describing the performers’ collective act of repositioning their bodies around its remains, letting the castle linger in gesture and memory. The Frankish Wall is located on the Acronauplia peninsula, rising about 85 metres above the modern town and overlooking the Argolic Gulf. Today it survives as a ruin and is a popular viewpoint offering panoramic views of the fortress, the sea, and the town of Nafplio. Flowers and trees surround the area, creating a peaceful atmosphere that contrasts with its turbulent medieval past. The Frankish section of the citadel is situated between the later Venetian additions—such as the Castello di Toro—and the Byzantine fortifications at the tip of the promontory.

The workshop was part of the 2024 Performing Space conference in Nafplion, 3–6 July, directed by Dr Pablo Berzal Atenas. It was organised by the Department of Theatre Studies, University of Peloponnese, and co-organised by the Department of Performing and Digital Arts. Special thanks to the Chair of the Scientific Committee, Dr Athena Stourna, Christina Zoniou, and Stella Sofokleous.

Performing Space Conference & Workshops aims to highlight the importance of the corporeality and physicality of space, and the interaction of our bodies and their actions with it as the only possibility for human life and development.

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