I RUN CONSTANTLY
NAME : ILLO GJOKA
AGE : 60
PLACE OF RESIDENCE : CENTRE ATHENS
BIRTHPLACE : SARANTA, ALBANIA
ORIGIN : ALBANIA
ON THE NIGHT OF THE PERFORMANCE HE WILL WALK FROM HIS HOME IN PAGKRATI TO HERODEION FOLLOWING THE ROUTE: VASILEOS GEORGIOU, VASILEOS KONSTANTINOU, VASILISSIS OLGAS, VASILISSIS AMALIAS AVENUES AND DIONYSIOU AREOPAGITOU. HE WILL HAVE TO TAKE 5800 STEPS.
Illo was born and grew up in Saranta, Albania. After the 9th grade he quit school: That was it, Ι had to work. My whole life, wherever Ι went, Ι worked as a carpenter: windows, roofs, shutters, floors".
He remembers that in the '80s Greek radio and television were forbidden in Albania: "If you were caught watching or listening you went directly to jail, so I had to do it secretly".
"On January 25th 1990 me, my wife and our two kids (8 and 12 years old) woke up at two in the morning, crossed the borders by foot and went to Giannena".
For 7 seven years they lived in Corfu, before moving to Athens.
"I never smoked, I never drank. I always tried to do the right thing. Today, I am waiting for my retirement".
He doesn't read ancient drama. From the Aeschylus play he identifies with Hephaestos, because : "We all have been in situations where we had to do something that we didn't want to do. But that's life, you can't have it all".
© Rimini Protokoll