VISUAL ARTS

Curator: Vassilis Amanatidis

Artwork: Απόστολος Ρίζος + Les Yper Yper

With the poets: Phoebe Giannisi, Lenia Safeiropoulou, Katerina Iliopoulou, Safiris Nikitas, Yiannis Stiggas, Marios Chatziprokopiou, Vassilis Amanatidis

+ the visual artists: Rania Emmanouilidou, Yiannis Isidorou 

‘EXULAT […poeta in terra…]’ is a poetry and performance relay race that explores the limits between written and spoken poetic language, concentrating mainly on the corporeality of poetry as well as on the variegated interaction between poet and audience.

It is a long and open presentation that also recapitulates the development of some of the most important poets that have been active since the end of the 90s (through events such as ‘Karaoke Poetry Bar’, the website ‘Greek poetry now’, and, more recently, the ‘ΦΡΜΚ’ publication), with the addition of important younger poets who are interested in the corporeality of language.

The event’s performances draw from a wide vocabulary: from performative readings to pure performance and from lectures and the use of video, lighting and costumes, singing and music. Therefore, ‘EXULAT […poeta in terra…]’ can also be seen as an indicative map of performative poetic language in Greece today.

The aim: to experience live the hybrid shift from one genre to another, from the centre to the off-centre and the off-limits, from poetic silence to sound and voice, presence, action and individuality. The ultimate goals however are two, seemingly opposing: 1. the transformative freedom acquired when exiled from a suffocating rule-bound perception of poetry - essentially, the emancipation from categories and genres, and 2. a reconsideration of our internal and external (social and political) exile: field of pain, violence and exclusion in hostile times. So that through word and action we will be able to face, at least momentarily, the chasm and the chorus of our attraction and repulsion.

 [translated by Sakis Kyratzis]