Thomas Diafas
OPERA: Self-Care Practices in Public and Private Spaces
Thomas Diafas
Friday
10–6pm
14th Street and Second Avenue
Saturday
10–3pm
14th Street and Sixth Avenue
Sunday
10–3pm
14th Street and Tenth Avenue
OPERA features a series of performative self-care actions in public spaces, led by multidisciplinary artists. This collaboration across various art forms, in a collective act of public self-care, gives the project its title—drawing on "opera" as both a blend of arts and its Latin root meaning "care." Participants might see a group of people calmly applying face cream, singing an aria, embracing, kissing, or reading poetry amid the city's hustle. These actions, in both public and private spaces, act as gentle interventions that harmonize with the city's rhythms. Audience members are invited to join the performance and practice self-care.
tomasdiafasThomas Diafas is a queer Greek-Dominican multidisciplinary performance artist and educator. His diverse background in education, cinema, linguistics, and performing arts has led to a unique hybrid approach that challenges traditional notions of art and arts education. Embracing the concept of ‘Performing the Real,’ Diafas’s practice fosters a dynamic conversation between performance art and everyday life, while critically examining their interconnectedness on both personal and political levels. His current focus centers on community-building projects that address stress, anxiety, and social inequalities, aiming to effect positive change through artistic expression and collaborative engagement. Diafas is also dedicated to exploring new educational methods that promote inclusivity and equity, transcending the constraints of capitalism.
This project is sponsored in part by Goethe Institute with the “Promoting Young Performing Artists” mobility fund.
