OPERA /THEATER/FILM/LITERATURE

January 21, 2020

Hans Abrahamsen’s ‘Snow Queen’ at Bavarian State Opera premiere, December 21, 2019

Rachael Wilson (Kay ) Thomas Grässle (Kay double), Kinderstatisterie der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Hans Abrahamsen: THE SNOW QUEEN | Premiere: 21. Dezember 2019 | Musikalische Leitung: Cornelius Meister | Inszenierung: Andreas Kriegerburg,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

Snow Queen (premiere, Dec 21, 2019 at Bayerische Staatsoper)

musical direction……………..Cornelius Meister
stage design……………………Andreas Kriegneburg
stage………………………………Harald B.Thor
costumes………………………..Andrea Scharaad
light………………………………..Michael Bauer
choreography…………………..Zenta Haerter
Choir……………………………….Stellario Fagone
dramaturgy………………………Malte Krasting

A musical triumph Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen, was celebrated its Danish-language world premiere, October 2019, at the Royal Danish Opera , directed by Francisco Negrin. The Bavarian State Opera produced its own version in english-language premiere, Dec 20th, 2019. So very fortunate indeed I was while landed in Munich that rainy morning on December 21st,2019 to attend an evening invitation for the premiere of this new fabulous contemporary performance, with a new star, Barbara Hanningan, a reigning soprano of contemporary music, for which the opera was originally written.

From fairy-tale to trauma drama; In the literary original, Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy-tale Die Schneekönigin, little Kai loses all emotion with a diabolical troll-mirror shard in the eye and heart, and is kidnapped by the Snow Queen. But his friend Gerda begins an arduous journey to rescue Kai. Andreas Kriegenburg places Gerda’s unconditional devotion to her friendship with Kai at the centre. With this story he is interested in the notion that, “someone in society becomes so cold that they withdraw into their very own inner snow-covered landscape.”

Joshua Baron writes at the New York Times, during the rehearsal previews, “And there is no metaphor more apt to describe Mr. Abrahamsen’s music than a snowflake: pleasantly soft and simple from a distance, mathematically precise and complex under a microscope.”He continues.. His song cycle “let me tell you” evokes a landscape as wintry as one in a Bruegel painting. And there is no metaphor more apt to describe Mr. Abrahamsen’s music than a snowflake: pleasantly soft and simple from a distance, mathematically precise and complex under a microscope.(New York times,review rehearsal, dec, 2019)

The Snow Queen: Peter Rose (Snow Queen), Rachael Wilson (Kay), Statisterie de Bayerischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Peter Rose (Reindeer),photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The role of Kai, conceived as a breeches role, is embodied by mezzo-soprano Rachael Wilson. The Snow Queen is interpreted by Peter Rose. (bass baritone). Hans Abrahamsen does not only see the Snow Queen as a negative force’s or in his case him has also a good side. The idea of choosing a bass baritone for the role of the Snow Queen came from one of the leading role of Greta, Barbara Hannigan, “a bass baritone can be very seductive.. or even moving and comforting” (Mr Abrahamsen’s interview at the Bayerischen Staatsoper magazine, 2019)

The Snow Queen: Barbara Hannigan (Gerda), Thomas Grässle (Kay double), Chor de Bayrischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

In the Munich production Gerda and Kai are a grown-up pair. Possibly traumatised, Kai has withdrawn into a silence similar to the phenomenon of mutism and refuses all communication..The Snow Queen is staged by Andreas Kriegenburg, who has already brought Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wozzeckand Die Soldaten to the stage at the Bayerische Staatsoper turns the fairy tale into a psychological drama, that oscillated between dream and reality. Gerda and Kay, in Mr. Kriegenburg’s production, are a middle-aged couple. The mirror splinters have always suggested psychological trauma; Kay’s condition is an actual mental illness. The mental institution, takes place in different way in both acts (the opera is a two act opera ); the adventure of the tale is choreographed between the large rooms of the institution and the intense lab factotum of the surgery room; Fantasy blurs with reality under Gerda’s hopes and fears.

The Snow Queen: Barbara Hannigan (Gerda), Kevin Conners (Waldkrähe), Statisterie de Bayrischen Staatsoper,photos ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Barbara Hannigan (Gerda), Ensemble der Bayerischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Peter Rose (Snow Queen), Kinderstatisterie der Bayerischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Rachael Wilson (Kay), Thomas Gräßle (Kay Double), Statisterie der Bayerischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

Mr. Abrahamsen said he had wanted to write an opera since the 1980s. But it was only after “let me tell you” that he felt ready to fulfill a commission from Royal Danish Opera. Although “The Snow Queen” was written with Ms. Hannigan in mind — and although Mr. Abrahamsen had wanted the libretto to be in English — that company insisted on it being in Danish. But the language, Mr. Abrahamsen said, is difficult to sing, with “words in the back of the mouth, and the vowels very near each other.” (Joshua Baron, New York Times, Dec 2019)

The Snow Queen: Dean Power (Prince), Barbara Hannigan (Gerda),photo ©Wilfried Hösl

Shirley Apthrop writes for the Copenhagen premier, (Det Kongelike Teater, (the Royal Danish Opera) “…Abrahamsen’s score is a work of obsessively fine detail, of immense complexity calibrated to sound beguilingly simple, of silvery, perfumed lyricism overlaid with hallucinatory effects. Everything sounds both familiar and strangely warped. There are delicate references to familiar works — Strauss, Mahler, Bach, Wagner — more like snatches of memory than quotes; but just when things seem about to become recognisable, Abrahamsen will bend away from pure tonality to warp a note or twist an interval, to stab or spike through an arpeggio, to hurt us just enough to make us come back wanting more.” (Financial Times, October 14, 2019)

The Snow Queen: Ensemble und Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, photos ©Wilfried Hösl

I treasure the beautiful book “Hans Abrahamsen_The Snow Queen”published by Bayerische Staatsoper Spielzeit 2019-2020 (Bureau Mirko Borsche) and to a wonderful surprise with photos by Mark Mahaney, and his fabulous project, ‘Polar Night’ who travelled to Utqiagvik last January, during the final days of the season’s polar night. “Landing, it looked like we were dropping down onto the moon,” he said to Coralie Craft (photo editor, contributor to the New Yorker)

Life in Alaska in the Round-the-Clock Darkness of Polar Night,published at Photo Booth/The New Yorker by Coralie Craft,Sept 29, 2019, photo ©Mark Mahaney

Mark Mahaney’s Polar Night is a passage through a rapidly changing landscape in Alaska’s northernmost town of Utqiagvik. It’s an exploration of prolonged darkness, told through the strange beauty of a snowscape cast in a two month shadow. The unnatural lights that flare in the sun’s absence and the shapes that emerge from the landscape are unexpectedly beautiful in their softness and harshness. It’s hard to see past the heavy gaze of climate change in an arctic town, though Polar Night is a visual poem about endurance, isolation and survival.

Mark Mahoney’s fabulous photo book ‘Polar Night’ has been published by the Texas-based independent art book publisher TressPasser Publications His work is represented by Kominek Gallery, Berlin

Life in Alaska in the Round-the-Clock Darkness of Polar Night,published at Photo Booth/The New Yorker by Coralie Craft,Sept 29, 2019, photo ©Mark Mahaney

The Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen is one of the most original and independent voices in contemporary music. He started his career by studying horn and composition. This was followed by the first own works that already met with international resonance, such as winter night. During a creative break of several years, which he called “Fermate”, he orchestrated and edited pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, György Ligeti, Carl Nielsen, Robert Schumann, Arnold Schönberg and Claude Debussy, whose music also influenced his own compositions. His work Snow for Chamber Ensemble was premiered in 2008. A cycle of compositions that is connected in terms of content and motivation is constantly growing around this work. His piano concerto for the left hand (left, alone) and the monodrama let me tell you, which he wrote for Barbara Hannigan and with which his music finally became known worldwide, are just as much a part of it as his first opera The Snow Queen after Hans Christian Andersens eponymous fairy tale.

Andreas Kriegenburg became a director at the Volksbühne Berlin in 1991 after training as a craftsman at the Magdeburg Theater. In 1996 he moved to the Hanover State Theater and in 1999 to the Vienna Burgtheater. From 2001 to 2009 he was senior director at the Thalia Theater Hamburg and from 2009 to 2014 chief director at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. He directed and directed the Munich Kammerspiele. a. in The Trial and Maria Stuart. After his opera debut in Magdeburg in 2006, further work followed at the opera houses in Dresden, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Barcelona, Paris and Tokyo. At the Salzburg Festival he directed Lady Macbeth von Mzensk in 2017 and Simon Boccanegra in 2019. In 2014, his production of The Soldiers at the Bavarian State Opera was voted Production of the Year by the Opernwelt magazine. He also directed Wozzeck and The Ring of the Nibelung.

Thank you Christoph Koch (Head of Press & Editorial Content, Bayerische Staatsoper)for your invitation to the premier & cooperation for submitting all photo materials on my desk. (january 20, 2020)

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July 3, 2018

Hamburg: Elbphilarmonie, June 20th,2018; Robert Schumann & Antonín Dvorák

“The Elbphilharmonie takes inspiration from three structures: the ancient theatre at Delphi, sport stadiums and tents”

Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron, architects

Visiting the captivating city of Hamburg, ‘Venezia of the North’ and thanks to a splendit invitation by Tom R. Shulz (pressesprecher), I had a blissful evening attending a concert on June 20th with my daughter Nefeli at the Grand Hall of the Elbphilarmonie, (Robert Schumann and Antonín Dvorák ) with Thomas Hengelbrock principal conductor of the NDR ElbPhilarmonie Orchestras, and lead violin Ms. Vilder Frang.

History meets modernity at the traditional port Sandtorhafen in the HafenCity in Hamburg. Approximately up to 25 historical vessels can dock along th380-meter long pontoon area of Hamburg’s first artificially built port basin. Somewhere here at the edge the ElbPhilarmonie stands spectacularly with its impressive glass facade and the wave-like rooftop rises up from the former Kaispeicher building on the western tip of the HafenCity. It is been rated as one of the largest and most acoustically advanced concert halls in the world.

Elbphilarmonie, photo ©Sophie Wolter

For the Elbphilharmonie, ( Herzog said in an interview), “one influence was the Greek amphitheater—carved out of the ground, as much geology as it is architecture. Another was the canopies used at festivals and outdoor theaters to protect people from the sun.”

Elbphilharmonie Cross-Section (unlabelled) © Herzog & de Meuron

The Theatre at Delphi, designed to stage lyrical and dramatic productions, was cut out of the hillside overlooking the temple of Apollo during the sixth century BC, probably to replace an earlier wooden theatre.

Ancient Theater at Delphi in Greece

On 11 January 2017, Thomas Hengelbrock and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra have officially opened Hamburg’s newest concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie. That first concert marked the beginning of a new era in the life of the orchestra, which has moved into the Elbphilharmonie as its resident orchestra and finally gained a permanent musical home after seventy years without a base.

NDR ElbPhilarmonie Orchester (Grand Hall); June 20th,2018 conductor: Thomas Hengelbrock,photo© Daniel Dittus

NDR ElbPhilarmonie Orchester; June 20th, 2018; violin: Vilder Frang; conductor: Thomas Hengelbrock, photo© Daniel Dittus

The renowned Japanese acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota is responsible for the perfect acoustics in the Elbphilharmonie. His company, Nagata Acoustics, has a long list of satisfied clients, including Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Toyota’s goal for the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall (Grand Saal) was that the hall should assist the natural acoustics of the music but also be sensitive to electronic sound systems so the audience might enjoy rock concerts as well. ‘Designing the hall is something like making or creating an instrument, like a violin.‘ (interview of Yashuhisa Toyota to Aaron Gonsher, April 2017)

The auditorium, the Grand Hall (Grosser Saal) with the ‘vineyard’ style seating places audience no further than 30 meters from the conductor, breaking down barriers bbetweenmusicians and audience.

Grand Hall at Elbphilarmonie, photo©Michael Zapf

This auditorium—the largest of three concert halls in the Elbphilharmonie—is a product of parametric design, a process by which designers use algorithms to develop an object’s form. Algorithms have helped design bridges, motorcycle parts….in the case of the Elbphilharmonie, Herzog and De Meuron used algorithms to generate a unique shape for each of the 10,000 gypsum fiber acoustic panels that line the auditorium’s walls like the interlocking pieces of a giant, undulating puzzle.(Wired, What happens when Algorithms design a concert hall?)

Grand Hall, white skin at Elbphilarmonie, photo ©Oliver Heissner

The described “white skin” that covers the surface of the walls and ceilings in the Grand Hall is composed of approximately 10,000 sheets of gypsum fiber panels. With the help of an expansive reflector that is suspended from the middle of the vaulted ceiling, the panels project sound into every corner of the space.’ …The 10,000 panels coalesce into a billowy, off-white skin, punctuated only by 2,150 seats and 1,000 hand-blown glass light bulbs…. beauty was only part of the architects’ intention when they began designing the building more than 13 years ago. “Every panel has a function,” says Benjamin Koren, founder of One to One, the studio that worked with Herzog and De Meuron to design and fabricate the panels.’

NDR ElbPhilarmonie Orchester; June 20th, 2018 violin: Vilder Frang; conductor: Thomas Hengelbrock, photo© Daniel Dittus

The Elbphilharmonie is located in the historic Sandtorhafen, which was Hamburg’s old working harbor for centuries. The Kaiserspeicher, Hamburg’s biggest warehouse on the water, was built in 1875. Destroyed in the Second World War, it was then rebuilt and renamed Kaispeicher where cocoa, tobacco, and tea were stored until the 1990s.

der Kaispreicher (2003)l resource;bildarchive_Hamburg

Architects Pierre de Meuron, Jacques Herzog, and Ascan Mergenthaler have been working on the Elbphilharmonie since 2003. Herzog and de Meuron established their office in Basel in 1978 and have since then designed and completed major projects such as the Tate Modern in London, the Alliance Arena in Munich and the National Stadium in Peking for the 2008 Olympic Games

Elbphilharmonie Cross-Section (unlabelled) © Herzog & de Meuron

Concertgoers can access the Grand Hall and Recital Hall foyers via stairs and lifts from the Elbphilharmonie Plaza. The Grand Hall foyer clearly defines the character of the Elbphilharmonie architecture with stairs that extend over several floors; 1,000 curved window panels, tailor-made to capture and reflect the color of the sky, the sun’s rays, the water and the city, turn the concert hall into a gigantic crystal.

Grand Hall Foyer, Elbphilarmonie, photo © Iwan Baan

Elpphilarmonie, photo ©Maxim Schulz

Hamburg is called the city of Music. The cost of the ElbPhilarmonie has escalated to 789 million euro. The current music scene in Hamburg is highly diverse; the city is home to three professional orchestras, an opera house, notable soloists and ensembles, jazz, rock and pop musicians, composers, singer-songwriters, electronic experimenters and many renowned educational institutions.

Elbphilarmonie, photo ©Michael Zapf

Roof of Elbphilarmonie, photo ©Michael Zapf

Christoph Lieben-Seutter has been the General and Artistic Director of the historic Laeiszhalle and Hamburg’s new concert hall, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg,since September 2007. His responsibilities include directing the artistic content of both venues with around 100 events of different genres annually. Lieben-Seutter is also a member of the board of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester…

Christoph Lieben-Seutter, photo © Michael Zapf

a winter morning; photo© Michael Zapf

all photos kindly have been released by the press office of Elbphilarmonie (all photographers accreditation have been noted). Thank you, dear Tom R. Schulz, for the invitation experiencing a magical evening.

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March 14, 2018

Munich “IL TRITTICO”, Giacomo Puccini at Bayerische Staatsoper_ a brilliant performance

IL TRITTICO: Il tabarro / Suor Angelica / Gianni Schicchi

Three operas in one act each: Composer: Giacomo Puccini ; Libretti by Giuseppe Adami and Giovacchino Forzano (In Italian with German and English surtitles)

IL TRITTICO (Suor Angelica): Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica), Ensemble und Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper photo©Wilfried Hösl

musical direction: Kirill Petrenko production: Lotte de Beer
Conceptual advice: Peter te Nuyl
stage: Bernhard Hammer
Costumes: Jorine van Beek
light: Alex Brok
dramaturgy: Malte Krasting
choirs: Sören Eckhoff

Last December, few days before Christmas, I had a lovely invitation for “Il Triticco, one of the most underrated opera by Giacomo Puccini, for the Bayerische Staatsoper_Munich, one of the most triumphant opera houses of our contemporary time.

Three radically different sets being demanded for this 3-act opera and a balanced ‘marriage’ of Ms Lotte de Beer ( production /stage design), the music direction by Kirill Petrenko and the performers, principally Ermonela Jaho on the role of Suor Angelica emanated to an astonishingly outstanding performance.

Simply stunning, simply gorgeous….And then something very rare happens: De Beer takes the stage, and instead of the usual boos the applause gets even louder. The spinning spaceship has done it to the audience. “(Sueddeutsche Zeitung”)

These three self-contained operas whose stories have nothing to do with each other act as strange neighbors; First, ‘Il Tabarro’ (The Cloak), a melodramatic slice of life and marital sleaze, a chill drama on the Seine; then follows the delicate tragedy of Suor Angelica, a religious tale set in a convent, (location:near Siena), featuring an entirely female cast; and the third act comes a devilish comedy of Gianni Schicchi (location; Florence) in which a family of hypocrites are duped out of their inheritance by a perfect villain.

Giacomo Puccini has summarized under the art historical term “triptych” – Il tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi – three one-act operas, scenes of reality. Puccini ventures to narrate the world as a whole in a grand opera as in a great novel. Puccini sets three historical highlights, bundled by a music that understands the human impulses of relentless coldness to glowing passion.

Ms. de Beer doesn’t think operas should abandon the audiences they already have in favor of new audiences, but “I think they should get a second brand, like a younger version run by young artists who get a chance to try and communicate with their contemporaries.” (NY Times, 2014, Breaking the Rules of Opera for a New Generation)

Il trittico (Sour Angelica): Michaela Schuster (Die Fürstin), Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica) photo ©Wilfried Hösl

Around 1904, Puccini first began planning a set of one-act operas, largely because of the success of Cavalleria Rusticana. Originally, he planned to write each opera to reflect one of the parts of Dante’s Divine Comedy However, he eventually based only Gianni Schicchi on Dante’s epic poem; the link in the final work is that each opera deals with the concealment of a death.

Il trittico (Sour Angelica): Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica) photo©Wilfried Hösl

“Il Trittico is not only a showcase of some of Puccini’s best writing, but it can also be a showcase for a director who is unable to resist the temptation to try to link them at least thematically, since there is little common convergence of tone, period or character between the three short works. Lotte de Beer connects the three pieces in only the most abstract of ways for the new production in Munich. Each of the one-act operas remains in the period of its original setting, and plays out closely to the libretto, but each take place within the wide opening of what looks like a large tunnel. The concept behind this is something to do with time, connecting the past with the future, but it’s not something that makes a great impression or present the works in any new or revelatory way.” (Opera Journal, Puccini, Il Trittico, Munich 2017)

Il trittico (Sour Angelica): Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica) photo©Wilfried Hösl

After the extensive music dramas of Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi, the music world occupied itself with the question of what can follow those form-perfect opera dramas with leitmotif technique and a duration of many hours of performance; an increase no longer seemed possible. In Italy, therefore, people around the year 1880 recollected the short form of one-act play, which was not completely unknown. As early as the 16th century, it was customary to insert smaller and stand-alone “mini-comedies” as intermedia between the acts of tragedies, in order to make the evening evenings more varied. Over time, the comic intermezzi between soprano and bass buffo developed out of these, while in France they created variety through ballet inserts between the tragedy files. (Amelie Langermantel, Il Trittico-Die Kunst Des Einakters, 12.20.2017)

IL TRITTICO (Il tabarro): Eva-Maria Westbroek (Giorgetta), Wolfgang Koch (Michele), Yonghoon Lee (Luigi); photo©Wilfried Hösl

The idea of the one-acter Puccini did not seem to have let go since then. At the turn of the century, he focused more intensively on the idea of three co-ordinated short operas dedicated to various episodes of the Divine Comedy Dante, each depicting the areas of Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso (Hell, Purification Mountain and Paradise). Both the unsatisfactory libretto search for three matching stories, and in crucial instance Puccini’s publisher Giulio Ricordi spoke against the implementation of this fabric idea. However, Puccini thus laid the foundation for his Trittico, which should unite as well as the Divine Comedy in three initially independent parts under a theme. Over the years, the composer tried repeatedly to implement the idea of the three separate acts and thought, for example, in 1907 to set to music by Maxim Gorki. Again publisher Ricordi expressed his concerns that those topics would not be suitable for an opera and would never sell to the public.

IL TRITTICO (Suor Angelica): Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica), Ensemble und Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper photo©Wilfried Hösl

Many thanks to Christoph Koch (Head of Press & Editorial Content /STAATSOPER) for his invitation and support and patience to finalize this post.

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October 8, 2017

New York: Carey Young “Palais de Justice” and Franz Kafka ‘Before the Law’ 1915 parable at Paula Cooper gallery

SEPTEMBER 7 – OCTOBER 14, 2017 at Paula Cooper gallery, 21st street, Chelsea

published:(VK) October 8th, 2017, Berlin

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice,2017,single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound;17 mins 58 sec,Photo: Steven Probert © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Carey Young presents a challenging, quitely stunning 18 minute video, and poetic exhibition at Paula Cooper’s space on 21st street. The piece, a new video ‘Palais de Justice’ develops Young’s interest in law, gender and performance, and considers the complex relations between lenses, surveillance and ideas of framing or being framed.

Carey Young (London-based British -American visual artist,b.1970, Lusaka, Zambia) takes her inspiration in part from “Before the Law” by Franz Kafka (1915) parable Focusing on “gateways” to the law, both architectural and human, Young’s work here—a quietly stunning 18-minute video shot in the Brussels court building in which the protagonist is continuously denied access to ‘the law,’ the series depicts these doorways as metaphors for the legal system itself.

Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks about it and then asks if he will be allowed to come in later on. “It is possible,” says the gatekeeper, “but not now.” At the moment the gater to the law stands open, as always, and the gatekeeper walks to the side, so the man bends over in order to see through the gater into the inside. When the gatekeeper notices that, he laughs and says: “If it tempts you so much, try it in spite of my prohibition. But take note: I am powerful. And I am only the most lowly gatekeeper. But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other. I can’t endure even one glimpse of the third.” (exerpt “Before the Law” (1915) by Franz Kafka, transl.by Ian Johnston)

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, 2017,single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound;
17 mins 58 secs,Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Palais de Justice was filmed surreptitiously at the Palais de Justice in Brussels, a vast 19th century courthouse designed in an ornate late Neo-Baroque style. Contradicting the familiar patriarchal culture of law, Young’s concealed camera depicts female judges and lawyers at court. Sitting at trial, directing proceedings or delivering judgments, female judges are spied through a series of circular windows in courtroom doors.(gallery’s press release).

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, 2017,single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound;
17 mins 58 secs, Paula Cooper Gallery © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

“…..Examined through the lens of contemporary politics, both within the United States and abroad, the film acts as a critical counterpoint to regressive trends towards autocratic government and limited civil rights, particularly those belonging to women….”

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (9/7 – 10/14/17) © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

The exhibition includes a series of photographs, images of courthouse doorways….Carey Young in continuous analysis based on Before the Law, after Franz Kafka’s 1915 parable, which the protagonist is continuously denied access to ‘the law,’ depicts these doorways as metaphors for the legal system itself.

As Carey Young told Elephant in an interview earlier this year, the law “beckoned as an institution that had been little explored by artists, and one which had such a relevant philosophical literature in terms of art—Derrida, Agamben, Deleuze, Foucault, Butler etc. … In so many ways, mainly to do with its lack of visuality and lack of understanding of creativity, law is an “other” to art, and yet when one takes an artistic subject—ideas of site, space or landscape, for example—law offers me a way to reframe it in a playful and unfamiliar way, in which I can also conflate it with ideas of control, rhetoric, power and neoliberalism.”(Jeffrey Kastner, on Vice, sept 28th, 2017)

“…. Courtrooms are glimpsed in various ways – a red glow emanating from one entices us with its surprising warmth and seductiveness; a red velvet curtain in another calls to mind law’s reliance on aspects of theatre; in a third, a courtroom visible through a frosted glass window glows like an abstract painting, as if law’s abstractions may connect with artistic thinking in ways which have not yet been fully considered…..”

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, 2017 single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound;
17 mins 58 secs,Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Few days after the opening of the exhibition, September 8th, Anthony Allen, director of Paula Cooper gallery organized a challenging and intellectual panel discussion with Carey Young, Colby Chamberlain and Joan Kee , where many questions were raised on law, patriarchal society and barriers…

Carey Young (b. 1970) is a British-American artist based in London, England. Her work has been exhibited in prominent national and international exhibitions and has been the subject of numerous one-person exhibitions including at the Dallas Museum of Art, curated by Gavin Delahunty (2017); the Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Raphael Gygax (2013); Eastside Projects, Birmingham, England (2010), which traveled to Cornerhouse, Manchester and MiMA, Middlesborough; Le Quartier, Quimper, France (2013); The Power Plant, Toronto (2009); and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2009). Young’s work has also been presented at the Taipei Biennial (2010), Tate Britain (2009), Moscow Biennale (2007), Modern Art Oxford (2007), Performa 05 and the Venice Biennale (2003).

Colby Chamberlain is Lecturer in Discipline in Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University and is a founding editor of Triple Canopy. His scholarship and criticism focuses on intersections of art and other fields of professional practice, in particular the law.

Joan Kee is Associate Professor in the History of Art at the University of Michigan. A contributing editor for Artforum, she received a J.D. from Harvard Law School and has recently completed a book on the relationship between contemporary art and law in post-sixties America. In 2016, she guest edited a section of the Brooklyn Rail on art and the law whose contributors included Carey Young.

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May 28, 2017

New York; Clarice Lispector ‘Selected Crônicas’

‘I only achieve simplicity with enormous effort’,

‘so long as I have questions to which there are no answers, I shall go on writing’,

Clarice Lispector

One of my favourite visits in New York is the 192 Bookstore in Chelsea. A lovely afternoon my eyes came on the “Selected Crônicas’ (translated by Giovanni Pontiero, published by New Directions Publishing Corporation, New York). Clarice Lispector (December 10, 1920 – December 9, 1977) is widely recognised as the most original and innovative Brazilian woman writer of this century.

photo (source;WikiCommons)

The ‘Crônicas’ or Chronicles presents about two-thirds of the chronicles contained in “Descoberta do Mundo); in 1984, seven years after she died of cancer, Lispector’s son edited those chronicles which she published in the Saturday edition of the Journal do Brazil from August 1967 until December 1973. It is arranged in a chronological order, and is a miscellaneous collection of aphorisms, diary entries, reminiscences, travel notes, interviews, serialized stories and essays.

Varied and unpredictable, the chronicles allow us to piece together the life and career of this singular personality. The chronicles register contrasting moods, one moment whimsical, the next grave and questioning, but whatever the theme, disarmingly frank. (Giovanni Pontiero’s note, translator & publisher)

photo (source;WikiCommons)

The intimate revelations of the crônicas takes us through the various stages of womanhood from innocence to awakening perceptions of good and evil. The transition from adolescence to maturity is one of solemn rites, at once delicate and vulnerable. One of the stories I love ‘Miraculous Leaves’ (written Jan 11, 1969)

No miracles never happen to me. I sometimes hear people discuss them and that give me hope. But it also makes me rebel: why do they never happen to me? Why do I only hear about them? For I have heard conversations about miracles such as the following: ‘He told me that if such and such a word were to be spoken, some valuable object would smash into pieces.’ The objects in my house are broken in much more humdrum fashion, usually by one of the maids. I have even come to the conclusion that I am one of those people who roll stones throughout the centuries. I mean bought stones, not the smooth polished kind. Although I do have fleeting vision before falling asleep – could those be miraculous? But it has already been patiently explained to me that the phenomenon even has a name: cidetismo, which means been able to protect unconscious images into the sphere of hallucination. (Clarice Inspector, Jan 11, 1969, Crônicas, page 56)

Brazil’s other great writer of this century, João Guimarães Rosa, once told her” ‘ ‘Clarice, I don’t read you just for the literature, but in order to learn about life.’ Her dramatic isights can surprise and shock, amuse and distress. Such is the intensity and vehemence of her prose that it unleashes everything which is gentled violent in this world of ours. And as herself confided: ‘Everything affects me.. I see too much, heart too much, everything demands too much of me.’

‘The elusive genius who dramatised a fractured interior world in rich synthetic prose’ (Megan O’Grady, Vogue)

At the request of Clarice Inspector, this interview, which was granted on January 1, 1977, to TV Cultura’s Panorama program, only aired ten months later, at the time of her death. (source: Obviousmagazine)

photo@ Claudia Andujar, 1961

Testimony of the photographer Claudia Andujar, recounting how she portrayed the writer in 1961. The photo illustrated the cover of the biography “Clarice”, by Benjamin Moser, released in 2009 by Editora Cosac Naify. This photo (in detail illustrates as well the Crônicas)

‘I went to the house of Clarice Lispector to photograph it at the request of the magazine Claudia, who wrote a report about the writer in 1961. I do not remember that day lost in time, but there are details that I keep forever. I wanted to make her comfortable for the photo, and I asked her how she would like to stand. If I’m not mistaken, the idea of sitting before the picture Typewriter and start working on some text was from Clarice.And then she let herself be absorbed by the act of writing, completely delivered, without hardly noticing my presence. “ (Source: Obvious)

Clarice Lispector (December 10, 1920 – December 9, 1977),born to a Jewish family in Podolia in Western Ukraine, she was brought to Brazil as an infant, amidst the disasters engulfing her native land following the First World War…She left Brazil in 1944, following her marriage to a Brazilian diplomat, and spent the next decade and a half in Europe and the United States. After returning to Rio de Janeiro in 1959, she began producing her most famous works, including the stories of ‘Family Ties’ (Laços de Família), the great mystic novel ‘The Passion According to G.H’.(A Paixão Segundo G.H.), and what is arguably her masterpiece, Água Viva. Injured in an accident in 1966, she spent the last decade of her life in frequent pain, steadily writing and publishing novels and stories until her premature death in 1977.

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May 20, 2017

Münchner Kammerspiele: Daina Ashbee ‘s new dance piece “Unrelated’

“Unrelated”

Artistic Direction, Concept, Choreography and Scenography: Daina Ashbee

Interpreters and Performers: Paige Culley and Areli Moran

Lighting Design: Timothy Rodrigues

Music: Bashar C#

Length: 70 minutes

Production: Daina Ashbee, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts; the British-Columbia Arts Council; the First Peoples’ Cultural Council; the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels); Circuit-Est; and Studio 303.

photo@Sarah Marie (courtesy of the Int’s Dance Festival press office

Last Sunday afternoon, entering the Kammerspiele theater, a dancer welcomed us lying on her back, naked, arms and legs slightly stretched. She looks relaxed, breathes quietly, palms up; her skin is adorned with a her skin is adorned with a variety of tattoos, …..a deep roar creeps out of nowhere into the room, becomes louder and lays down over us.

photo @Venetia Kapernekas

….The white wall in the back of the stage becomes a place of refuge and the object of the aggressive unloading and recharge when the performer throws at her with all her strength. Her body becomes a place of ambivalence between anger, self-assertion and self-hatred – the hair to the curtain behind which she hides her face. The good news: everything that the two dancers suffer during the Munich Kammerspielen during this hour is choreographed and staged. The bad news: the stories behind Daina Ashbee’s production are true. The choreographer, living in Montréal, deals with the disappearance of indigenous women and girls in North America in “Unrelated.” The gravity and brutality that such a theme brings with it is not a trivial task. Daina Ashbee finds a language which satisfies the seriousness of the matter and is at the same time poetic enough not only to shock us but also to touch us (in translation, Karen Kovacs, dance-muenchen blog)

photo @Daina Ashbee (courtesy of the Int’s Festival press office)

photo @Sarah Marie (courtesy of the Int’s Festival press office)

photo @Venetia Kapernekas

…the audience towards the 2/3 of the performance is involved in small, ritual actions with the two performers, a piece of fur goes through the ranks, a hand touches me, all happens very slowly, slow motion, with great caution, direct and honest…

photos @Venetia Kapernekas

“Unrelated” is a dark work that expresses the cruelty and vulnerability confronted by Aboriginal women in Canada, while exploring the self, cultural destruction, violence and self-destruction. With a disconcerting lucidity, “Unrelated” boils with feelings of emptiness and erupts with violence suggesting the loss of culture, identity and community. (Daina Ashbee website )

In Unrelated, the first decision we needed to make was that the dancers needed to be nude. No question about it. That for me was the first layer of vulnerability the performers need to have in order to represent how vulnerable aboriginal women are. A lot of my stuff is about insistence and duration and repetition. With a time constraint, you can accentuate something that is really insistent. (Daina Ashbee on interview on Cult Montreal,)

Photo: Annik MH de Carufel Le Devoir (published at Le Devoir)

Dans Unrelated (2012), la chorégraphe abordait la violence présente dans son propre corps et la tendance à l’autodestruction tout en dépeignant la vulnérabilité et la cruauté auxquelles les femmes autochtones font largement face. Toujours personnelles et teintées de son expérience de jeune femme d’origine crie et métisse, ses créations troublantes ne manquent pas de faire leur marque dans les esprits. (‘Les séismes intimes’de Daina Ashbee, Le Devoir, Libre de Penser)

Daina Ashbee & the performers Paige Culley and Areli Moran; photo@Venetia Kapernekas

My choreography is an investigation of the body in order to address the subconscious. A deepening of my own consciousness. The art of dance brings me closer to my own body and to the awareness of my own thoughts and processes. Articulating this awareness through choreography helps to uncover my connection to the environment, the earth and to my ancestors. (Daina Ashbee statement)

…In a mixture of contemporary and traditional dance she contrasts the terrible aspects of the history with an inner powerfulness, vulnerability, and sensitivity. In a disturbing and expressive piece two dancers embody how unknown physical strengths in the body can manifest themselves. This is a recurring theme, like a thread, in the work of this artist living in Montreal. She became known internationally following an invitation to Geneva, where she presented her work in 2015 at the Global Alliance Against Female Genital Mutilation at Musée d’ethnographie de Genève (MEG). (press release of the Int’ l Festival Tanz, Munich)

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March 18, 2017

Delphi and Ithaka:a spring pilgrimage

photo @VK Feb.24th,2017_ 10 am

Departing Munich with my daughter that rainy morning on February 23rd and arriving to Athens on sunny afternoon and driving directly to Delphi it was indeed a pilgrimage to Light.

Delphi was an important ancient Greek religious sanctuary sacred to the god Apollo. It is located on Mt. Parnassus about 178km northwest of Athens

Delphi at a very early stage was a place of worship for Gaia, the mother goddess connected with fertility and also home to the panhellenic Pythian Games. The sanctuary was home to the famous oracle of Apollo which gave cryptic predictions and guidance to both city-states and individuals.

Architecture: The first temple in the area was built in the 7th century BCE and was itself a replacement for less substantial buildings of worship which had stood before it. The focal point of the sanctuary, the Doric temple of Apollo, was unfortunately destroyed by fire in 548 BCE. A second temple, again Doric in style, was completed in c. 510 BCE with the help of the exiled Athenian family, the Alcmeonids.

The oracle of Apollo at Delphi was famed throughout the Greek world and even beyond. The oracle – the Pythia or priestess – would answer questions put to her by visitors wishing to be guided in their future actions. The whole process was a lengthy one, usually taking up a whole day and only carried out on specific days of the year. First the priestess would perform various actions of purification such as washing in the nearby Castalian Spring, burning laurel leaves, and drinking holy water. Next an animal – usually a goat – was sacrificed. The party seeking advice would then offer a pelanos – a sort of pie – before being allowed into the inner temple where the priestess resided and gave her pronouncements, possibly in a drug or natural gas-induced state of ecstasy.( Mark Cartwright at Ancient History Encyclopedia)

photo @VK Feb.24th,2017_ 11 am

“…The oracle of Apollo at Delphi was famed throughout the Greek world and even beyond. The oracle – the Pythia or priestess – would answer questions put to her by visitors wishing to be guided in their future actions. The whole process was a lengthy one, usually taking up a whole day and only carried out on specific days of the year. First the priestess would perform various actions of purification such as washing in the nearby Castalian Spring, burning laurel leaves, and drinking holy water. Next an animal – usually a goat – was sacrificed. The party seeking advice would then offer a pelanos – a sort of pie – before being allowed into the inner temple where the priestess resided and gave her pronouncements, possibly in a drug or natural gas-induced state of ecstasy.” (Mark Cartwright at Ancient History Encyclopedia)

The ancient theatre at Delphi was built further up the hill from the Temple of Apollo giving spectators a view of the entire sanctuary and the valley below ; photo@VK

Archaeological Museum of Delphi, designed by Alexandros Tombazis, photo@VK

The site was ‘re-discovered’ with the first modern excavations being carried out in 1880 CE by a team of French archaeologists…all survive as testimony to the cultural and artistic wealth that Delphi had once enjoyed.

(from left to right): “Column of the Dancers “,the three daughters of Cecropos, about 13 m_”Aghias”, son of Agonios, champion at many Panhellenic games in the 5th century BC _ the twin marble archaic statues – the kouroi of Argos (c. 580 BCE) and the marble Sphinx of the Naxians (c. 560 BCE), (in museum) ;photo@VK by permission

splendid metope sculptures from the treasury of the Athenians (c. 490 BCE) and the Siphnians (c. 525 BCE) depicting scenes from Greek mythology ; in museum , photo@VK by permission

Staying in Delphi for 2 days, we continue driving to Astakos to catch the ferry for Ithaka.. An incredible island this time of the year as the spring arrived early. The island has been inhabited since the 2nd millennium BC. It may have been the capital of Cephalonia during the Mycenaean period and the capital-state of the small kingdom ruled by Odysseus. The Romans occupied the island in the 2nd century BC, and later it became part of the Byzantine Empire. The Normans ruled Ithaca in the 13th century, and after a short Turkish rule it fell into Venetian hands (Ionian Islands under Venetian rule). more here…

I rest for a moment on the poem “Ithaka” by C.P.Cavafy,

Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard (C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

We stayed for a week at the most beautiful yoga retreat in Greece and beyond. http://itha108.com/gallery/

Ana-Nefeli saving a 3 week baby goat from the sea

Megaro Drakouli at Vathi

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October 13, 2016

Athens “Young Lear” by Ioli Andreadi at Thissio Theater

“Young Lear” directed by Ioli Andreadi
Based on William Shakespeare’s King Lear ; written by Ioli Andreadi and Aris Asproulis

An old, very old tale
About a naked King who, giving away his heavy duties,
Was devoured by the snake of Life
And found out everything the man knows when he succumbs.

I read about the success of the “Young Lear” presented for the first time on the 17th and 18th of July 2016 at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. Unfortunately I was not in Athens to experience this play but I was gladly informed by Ioli and Aris that it will be presented on limited engagement this October at Thissio theater. October 1st, in Athens, opening night. Joy and admiration for this young and much promised new voice in theater, Ioli Andreadi.

I met Ioli Andreadi and Aris Asproulis a hot August afternoon in Sifnos island; they brought me a small gift the book “Young Lear”(Kapa Ekdotiki); enjoying a glass of cold greek wine, I enjoyed listening their future plans and talking to me about the play… later that night I read in one breath the book; I was trying to imagine this beautiful young woman, Ioli Andreadi, a fragile figure like Audrey Hepburn, how she managed to engage herself in such a difficult play and bring it under a modern light. Indeed, Ioli has done it.

young-lear-1

photo@Panos Michail

‘Young Lear” is honest, clear and bold. A strange, imaginative dual narration begins. A new ‘postmodern’ rapprochement. Ioli and Aris selectively transfer parts of King Lear, creating two levels, one that is written now, at present, and the other inhaling thru the Shakespearean chosen text(s). Having as a guide the King Lear, they brilliantly bring the audience to experience a modern family tragedy. The dramaturgy of the actors in equal levels alters from the spoken words of the careful text to the well orchestrated actors’ movements expressing and indicating their intentions. The balance is superb. The minimal and austere set design (waiting room of a hospital) by Dimitra Liakoura is managed miraculously by the actors;

photos@Kiki Papadopoulou

Ioli Andreadi and Aris Asproulis are determined to question bold questions : Are the protagonists of King Lear depositaries of family structures and conflicts? Representatives of good or evil? Archetypes for the characters we invent for our ancestors, whose fulfillment burdens us our whole lives long? And what about these fears that seem to be ours but are not? Can the Shakespearean language serve as a substitute for what is left unsaid at the dinner table? Can poetry return what was never fulfilled?

photos@Kiki Papadopoulou

Concept – Direction – Translation – Movement: Ioli Andreadi
Text: Ioli Andreadi & Aris Asproulis
Set & Costume Design: Dimitra Liakoura
Sound Design: Yiannis Christophides
Lighting Design: Christina Thanasoula
Constructions – Artwork: Pericles Pravitas
Photos: Panos Michail and Kiki Papadopoulou
Production Design: Art Minds

Cast (in an alphabetical order): Christina Garbi, Eleana Kafkala, Thimios Koukios, Maria G. Proistaki, Nektarios Smyrnakis, Miltiadis Fiorentzis

2016. At a hospital. Somewhere.

synopsis: In the waiting room of the surgery, five brothers and sisters are waiting, while their father is going through a high-risk surgical operation. The hours go by. After many moments of fear, silence and agony, one of the sons starts speaking. He takes over the ‘part’ of the father. His are King Lear’s words. His siblings are hesitant. Why should someone want the ‘part’ of the father? Gradually, they give in and follow his lead. They undermine him. They provoke him. Young Lear is a new play based on the well-known tale of the King of Britain who divides his fortune to his two daughters who do not love him, but know how to win, and disowns the third daughter who loves him but does not know how to show it. This is the renowned story of the king who was fooled and became vulnerable, who lost his mind and became wise. (Young Lear, press )

photos@Kiki Papadopoulou

Ioli Andreadi was born in Athens. She studied directing at RADA and King’s College London (MA), where in 2014 she completed her PhD on Theatre and Ritual as an Alexander S. Onassis Foundation grantee. She lived in London and New York for seven years. She is a graduate of the Art Theatre Karolos Koun and the Theatre Studies Department of the University of Athens (BA) and holds an MA in Cultural Politics, Communication and Management from Panteion University. She has directed more than 25 productions in Athens, London, Edinburgh, Berlin, Rome and New York. She was a founding member of the international platform of theatre directors “World Wide Lab” that was created at Bob Wilson’s Watermill Center in 2011 and served as Artistic Director in New York in 2013 and in 2015 – the year when with her own initiative the Lab was hosted and organized at the island of Syros. Since then, Ioli works intensively in Greece. She has written with Aris Asproulis and directed in Greece the following shows over the past two years: “Artaud-Van Gogh / avec un pistolet”at Theatre Semio, “Cenci Family” at the Michael Cacoyiannis Foundation, “210.000 oka of cotton” at the Historical Archive of the Pireaus Bank, “Young Lear” at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival and “Murder in the Cathedral” at the Filippi Festival.

A first draft of Young Lear was staged by Ioli Andreadi in October 2014 at Teatro Due Roma, with the help of American director Annie Levy, as part of the international platform of directors “World Wide Lab”

http://www.kapaekdotiki.gr

Ειναι οι ηρωες του Βασιλια Ληρ θεματοφυλακες των οικογενειακων δομων και συγκρουσεων? Εκπροσωποι του καλου και του κακου? Αρχετυπα των χαρακτηρων που επινοουμε για τους προγονους μας και που η εκπληρωση τους μας βαραινει μια ζωη? Κι αυτοι οι φοβοι που μοιαζουν δικοι μας κι ομως δεν ειναι? Μπορει, αραγε, η γλωσσα του Σαιξπηρ να υποκατστησει οσα δεν λεγονται στο οικογενειακο τραπεζι? Η ποιηση να επιστρεψει οσα δεν εκπληρωθηκαν ποτε? Κι αν ειναι η συγκρουση του παροντος με το παρελθον η αδιαφιλονικητη καθημερινοτητα μας ? (Ιολη Ανδρεαδη, Μια πρωτη σκεψη, Λονδινο, 2013)

Ioli and Aris, Sifnos, August 2016 photo@Venetia Kapernekas

……σπεύδω να τονίσω πως η ιδέα και η γραφή της Ιόλης Ανδρεάδη με συνεργάτη τον Αρη Ασπρούλη είναι τίμια, διαυγής και τολμηρή. Εκαναν επιλεκτική μεταγραφή μέρους του Βασιλιά Ληρ, υπηρετώντας τη δική τους επαναπροσέγγιση με όρους οικονομικούς και ματιά κοινωνικο-ανθρωπολογική. Τα δύο επίπεδα στα οποία γράφτηκε το έργο, ένα σημερινό κι ένα μέσα από τα σαιξπηρικά αποσπάσματα, λειτουργούν και συμπορεύονται τόσο νοηματικά όσο κι ερμηνευτικά κερδίζοντας το δύσκολο στοίχημα. (Αννυ Κολτσιδοπουλου στη Kathimerini, ” Παλιοι μυθοι σε νεα μορφη” )

Ο “Young Lear” δεν είναι μια κατά γράμμα μεταφορά του γνωστού σαιξπηρικού έργου, ωστόσο είναι πανέξυπνος ο τρόπος που ο Σαίξπηρ κουμπώνει με μια σύγχρονη οικογενειακή τραγωδία, ακόμη πιο ιδιοφυής είναι ο συμβολισμός που οδήγησε στη δημιουργία αυτής της παράστασης: όταν χάνουμε τους γονείς μας, αλλάζει η ταυτότητά μας, ολόκληρη η ύπαρξή μας, σταματάμε να είμαστε ο γιος ή η κόρη και περνάμε σε ένα άλλο στάδιο, αυτό της οριστικής και αμετάκλητης ενηλικίωσης – και τότε καλούμαστε να ανταπεξέλθουμε σε αυτή τη σκηνή, την γεμάτη τρελούς, απροστάτευτοι και μονοι. Το αποτέλεσμα, ωστόσο εδώ, είναι φρέσκο και απρόσμενα διασκεδαστικό. Η δραματουργία είναι εξαιρετικής σημασίας στην παράσταση, γιατί εφόσον τα αδέρφια χρησιμοποιούν τα λόγια του Σαίξπηρ για να εκφράσουν τα πάθη τους, οι κινήσεις τους είναι που μας κάνουν να βλέπουμε τις προθέσεις τους. Σε αυτό το επίπεδο, είναι δύσκολο να διαχωρίσεις τη σκηνοθεσία της Ιόλης Ανδρεάδη από την δραματουργία γιατί είναι ένα και το αυτό. Η κίνηση αποκτά λόγο Γιαννης Μοσχος clickatlife.gr

Θεατρο Θησειον, Τουρναβιτου 7, Ψυρρη

“The Return of the exile” (2011) Devised and directed by Ioli Andreadi; The Yard Theatre, London, Review by Howard Loxton

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May 16, 2016

London; Christiana Soulou “The Book of Imaginary Beings After Jorge Luis Borges” with an essay by Donatien Grau

Few days ago this amazing gift/book arrived at my door step. An extraordinary book with 50 drawing by the artist that I admired for years, Christiana Soulou. The drawings greatly inspired by Soulou’s love and admiration of Jorge Luis Borges and Margarita Guerrero’s book “The Imaginary Beings (1957) – a fantastic anthology of “strange creatures conceived down through history by the human imagination.” The project has evolved and expanded over more than two years, originating in a presentation at the 2013 Venice Biennale, where Soulou’s drawings were presented as part of ‘The Encyclopedic Palace’. Published on occasion of the exhibition “The Book of the Imaginary Beings After Jorge Luis Borges, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 26 January -20 February 2016.

Christiana Soulou ‘Lion cerf’, 2015, colour pencil on paper
site size: 21 x 29.6 cm / 8 ¼ x 11 ⅝ in, unique
Exhibited: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 26 January – 20 February 2016
Illustrated: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges, (Colour Illus. (p.65))
Copyright the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

In the 1967 foreword to ‘The Book of Imaginary Beings’, Jorge Luis Borges and Margarita Guerrero, his co-author, presented the change of title from Handbook of Fantastic Zoology to its current denomination: “the title of this book would justify the inclusion of Prince Hamlet, of the point, of the line, of the surface, of n-dimensional hyperplanes and hyper volumes, of all generic terms, and perhaps of each of one of us and of the godhead. In brief, the sum of all things-the universe. We have limited ourselves, however, to what is immediately suggested by the word ‘ imaginary beings’; we have compiled a handbook of the strange creatures conceived through time and space of the human inspiration.” (Donatien Grau, ‘Credo Quia..’)

Christiana Soulou ‘Thorny Devil and Dragons’, 2013, colour pencil on paper
site size: 21 x 30 cm / 8 ¼ x 11 ¾ in, unique
Exhibited: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 26 January –20 February 2016
Illustrated: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges, (Colour Illus. (p.44))
Copyright the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

Executed in coloured pencil, Solou’s drawings are at once evanescent and insistent, elusive and precise. They appear to be timeless – emerging out of subtlety of tone and exacting line – and in their precision, they invoke the works of Renaissance draughtsmen such as Pisanello and Dürer. As writer and critic Donatien Grau has observed, “..the precision of the artist’s line is fundamental; every line she draws is a careful decision, seemingly light and perfect, but in fact burdened with responsibility. The existential weight of drawing an imaginary being in a particular fashion is enormous; these beings will never see the light if she does not draw them. As she draws them, she conceives them, and when they are set on the sheet of paper, she has given them to the world; she has added new figures to the population of beings that exist on this earth.”

Christiana Soulou,’Dragon gracilis’, 2013, colour pencil on paper, unique
site size: 21 x 30 cm / 8 ¼ x 11 ¾ in
Exhibited: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 26 January – 20 February 2016
Illustrated: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges, (Colour Illus. (p.43))
Copyright the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

Borges invites us to explore that zone of indecision where the material goes into the feeling. The same is not the same anymore and the other is not the other anymore as in the half-crocodile half-lion eats up the integrity and the other way round. Here is it not about the imitation or resemblance; “is required on the opposite the power of ground basis, able to dissolve forms”, to destroy identities and impose the existence of such a zone where we do not know anymore what is crocodile and what is lion – because something rises up as the triumph of their in distinctiveness. My drawings occupy that space. They are the paintings of that zone. Neither their resemblance not their difference. In the drawings of those animals it is not that the one is transformed into the other. It is the extreme contiguity in the dissimilar, the confluence of dissimilar elements under the same light, and the fact that something goes from one to the other. ( Christiana Soulou, 2014, translated from the french by Donatien Grau).

Christiana Soulou ‘Monstre’, 2015, colour pencil on paper
site size: 15 x 20.5 cm / 5 ⅞ x 8 in, unique
Exhibited: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 26 January – 20 February 2016
Illustrated: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges,(Colour Illus. (p.45))
Copyright the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

Classical art gets away from arbitrary reality by applying a system that is based entirely on the natural (and is mysterious logic), on the contrary to Northern art which has not been refined by the knowledge of the natural, abstract language and the reproduction of reality, where classical art proceeds without any constraint with the direct representation of the real. Borges’ images seem to relate more to Villard de Honnecourt’s drawings, where the real is absolutely not identical to the natural. As a consequence, the subtraction of an order happens on a space there this order does not exist. (‘Resemblance as an order’, Christiana Soulou)

Christiana Soulou, ‘Sky Blue Licorne Horses’, 2014, colour pencil on paper
site size: 21 x 29.6 cm / 8 ¼ x 11 ⅝ in, unique
Exhibited: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 26 January – 20 February 2016
Illustrated: The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Luis Borges, (Colour Illus. (p.75))
Copyright the artist, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London

Christiana Soul’s drawings are the exemplification of the situation contemporary subjectivity is left in, after the destruction symbolised by Nietzsche; if we believe, we are absurd; but if we do not believe, then we are left with the absurd. What are we, existentially, to do, in order to navigate the world we were born into, and in which we will die? .….To credo quia absurdum, or credo via impossible, Christiana Soulou replies with credo quit line eat, ‘I believe because there is the line’. The fact that there would be such a thing as a line, drawn by human hand, signifies that perfection, however, tenuous, can be reached; that the miracle of representation can be realised by a human being, by a human hand. (Donatien Grau, ‘The reasons of belief’)

……..As much as resemblance deforms, the in distinctiveness becomes the best definition of resemblance. It is exactly the point Borges introduces the zone of indistictiveness that holds as the only space where those beings can get closer to what they are (to themselves). Foucault’s unthinkable space then becomes the only true space and the actual work of art; a space where the same and the other, the familiar and the foreign converge in an extreme contiguity without any resemblance, and produces resemblance. To admit the misled character of phenomena is not fatality; it i on the contrary the certainty that, beyond every evolution, every progress and every knowledge, there is a feeling of a world that places itself not before, but above knowledge. (Christiana Soulou, ‘Indecision and Space, on her book, athens, october 2014, translated from he french by Donatien Grau)

A remarkable notice is made in the book by Donatien Grau about Margarita Guerrero, co-author on “The Absent Author”… Most often, Borges is cited as the only author of “The Book of Imaginary Beings”, but in fact there were two: Jorge Luis Borges, whose eminence as one of the very few late encyclopaedic minds of the twentieth century is unparalleled, and Margarita Guerrero, his co-author, with whom he wrote the book. In the english edition. Guerrero never appears as Borge’s co-author, even though the prefaces of the two editions in Spanish are co-singed by him and her; even though the French edition lists her as a co-author; even though the édition de la Pléiade, which was prepared under Borge’s own guidance, doe not include Le Livre des être imaginaries as a work fully by Borges. Guerrero was an important figure in Borge’s life; … she was there for him when Borges, already suffering from the ocular illness that would end up leaving him blind, had to dictate The Book of Imaginary Beings.

Published on occasion of the exhibition “The Book of Imaginary Beings after Jorge Louis Borges, Sadie Coles, HQ, London, 26 January-20 February 2016, ©2015 Christiana Soulou, Sadie Coles HQ, Donatien Grau, published in a limited edition of 300. Designed by Frase Muggeridge Studio, Printed by Albe De Coker, Belgium

Thank you Sadie Coles gallery with your generous permission to publish images of the amazing drawings in my blog and use some of the extraordinary texts by Christiana Soulou and Donatien Grau.. (V.Kapernekas)

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May 5, 2016

Munich; “Elektra” at Bayerische Staatsoper; a tragedy in one act of violence and darkness

It was through ‘Elektra’ that Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal met in 1906. Already famous and mid-way through their careers, both were recognised as heirs of the great Germanic tradition. On April 22, 2016 I had the honour to watch a fabulous performance “Electra “with the amazing soprano ladies, Gabrielle Schnaut and Evelyn Herlitzius conducted by the fantastic orchestra conductor, Ms Simone Young.

Composer Richard Strauss , libretto Hugo von Hofmannsthal , stage design-costumes and lighting by Herbert Wernicke

Players: Gabriele Schnaut, Evelyn Herlitzius, Anne Schwanewilms, Ulrich Reß, René Pape, Christoph Stephinger ( In German without surtitles- Duration: 1 hours 50 minutes)

Elektra: Evelyn Herlitzius (Elektra), Gabriele Schnaut (Klytämnestra), photo@Wilfried Hösl

“Over the course of a slow twilight.” This is the scenic indication which Hofmannsthal gives for Elektra, a tragedy in one act of violence and darkness.

“Elektra” is a difficult, musically complex work which requires great stamina to perform. The role of Elektra, in particular, is one of the most demanding in the dramatic soprano repertoire. The evening I attended the opera, April 22nd, Electra was Evelyn Herlitzius and Gabriella Schnaut as Klytaemnestra who celebrated her 40th anniversary on stage this year.

Despite being based on ancient Greek mythology, the opera is highly modernist and expressionist. Hofmannsthal and Strauss’s adaptation of the story focuses tightly on Elektra, thoroughly developing her character by single-mindedly expressing her emotions and psychology as she meets with other characters, mostly one at a time. The other characters are Klytaemnestra, her mother and one of the murderers of her father Agamemnon; her sister, Chrysothemis; her brother, Orestes; and Klytaemnestra’s lover, Aegisthus. These characters are secondary, and typically remain one-dimensional.

Elektra: Evelyn Herlitzius (Elektra), Gabriele Schnaut (Klytämnestra), photo@Wilfried Hösl

Synopsis: On his return from the Trojan War, King Agamemnon was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. Electra, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, wishes to avenge her murdered father. She is awaiting the return of her brother, Orestes, who was removed from the court as a child after the murder of his father…..

Elektra: René Pape (Orest), Evelyn Herlitzius (Elektra);photo@Wilfried Hösl

…….Her sister, Chrysothemis, warns Electra that their mother, Clytemnestra, is planning to have her locked up. Chrysothemis, who longs passionately for love and a life of fulfilment, is afraid that she might meet with a similar fate.

……..Electra is determined to carry out her plan for revenge on Clytemnestra and Aegisthus with the sole help of Chrysothemis. But Chrysothemis refuses to become involved.

Elektra: Edith Haller (Chrysothemis), Evelyn Herlitzius (Elektra); photo@Wilfried Hösl

Elektra: Golda Schultz (Fünfte Magd), Evelyn Herlitzius (Elektra);photo@Wilfried Hösl

Elektra: Anna Rajah (Die Schleppträgerin), Gabriele Schnaut (Klytämnestra), Maria Marzo (Die Vertraute); photo@Wilfried Hösl

impressive stage design-costumes and lighting by Herbert Wernicke

………Aegisthus now returns. Electra greets him with feigned friendliness, confirms the news of Orestes’ death and accompanies Aegisthus into the palace, where Orestes awaits him.

………In her joy at the vengeance which has been wreaked, Electra is hardly aware of Chrysothemis when the latter comes to tell her that Orestes has arrived and has killed Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

(Bayerische Staatsoper/translation: Susan Bollinger)

“A gigantic orchestra, vocals pushed to their limits, post-Wagnerianism reaches its extreme limits and bursts into flames once and for all in this lyrical work.”

Gabriele Schnaut celebrates her 40th anniversary on stage this year…. In the premiere of Herbert Wernicke’s iconic production by 1997 and in many subsequent performances, she sang the title role. …Gabrielle Schnaut states that “Electra is my role identification” She was Electra on the original premiere recording on October 27, 1997 at the Nationaltheater in Munich. here on the Bayerische Staatsoper Blog, you may listen the original recording from that time. On this occasion of its fortieth stage anniversary leading dramaturgist Rainer Karlitschek held a small audience discussion by the central box in Tier 1 and invited the audience of the April 22 evening.

Tochter und Mutter: Gabriele Schnaut als Elektra und Marjana Lipovsek als Klytämnestra ..

Elektra: Evelyn Herlitzius (Elektra), Gabriele Schnaut (Klytämnestra);photo@Wilfried Hönl; source:staatsoperblog

Elektra vs. Klytämnestra: Sie haben beide Rollen bereits verkörpert. Inwiefern können Sie sich mit beiden Charakteren identifizieren?
Gabrielle Schaut Es ist meine Überzeugung, dass jede Sängerin und jeder Sänger eine “Identifikationsrolle” hat. Das war bei mir definitiv die “Elektra”. Der Schritt von der Tochter zur Mutter ist mit zunehmendem Alter und veränderter körperlicher Disposition folgerichtig.

Elektra vs. Clytemnestra: You have embodied both roles already. To what extent you can identify with both characters?
Gabrielle Schnaut : It is my belief that every singer and every singer has a “role identification”. This was definitely with me the “Elektra”. The step from the daughter to the mother is consistent with age and altered physical disposition.

Elektra: René Pape (Orest), Evelyn Herlitzius (Elektra);photo@Wilfried Hösl

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Category: OPERA /THEATER/FILM/LITERATURE

Rachael Wilson (Kay ) Thomas Grässle (Kay double), Kinderstatisterie der Bayerischen Staatsoper, Hans Abrahamsen: THE SNOW QUEEN | Premiere: 21. Dezember 2019 | Musikalische Leitung: Cornelius Meister | Inszenierung: Andreas Kriegerburg,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

Snow Queen (premiere, Dec 21, 2019 at Bayerische Staatsoper)

The Snow Queen: Peter Rose (Snow Queen), Rachael Wilson (Kay), Statisterie de Bayerischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Peter Rose (Reindeer),photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Barbara Hannigan (Gerda), Thomas Grässle (Kay double), Chor de Bayrischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Barbara Hannigan (Gerda), Kevin Conners (Waldkrähe), Statisterie de Bayrischen Staatsoper,photos ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Barbara Hannigan (Gerda), Ensemble der Bayerischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Peter Rose (Snow Queen), Kinderstatisterie der Bayerischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Rachael Wilson (Kay), Thomas Gräßle (Kay Double), Statisterie der Bayerischen Staatsoper,photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Dean Power (Prince), Barbara Hannigan (Gerda),photo ©Wilfried Hösl

The Snow Queen: Ensemble und Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, photos ©Wilfried Hösl

Life in Alaska in the Round-the-Clock Darkness of Polar Night,published at Photo Booth/The New Yorker by Coralie Craft,Sept 29, 2019, photo ©Mark Mahaney

Mark Mahoney’s fabulous photo book ‘Polar Night’ has been published by the Texas-based independent art book publisher TressPasser Publications His work is represented by Kominek Gallery, Berlin

Life in Alaska in the Round-the-Clock Darkness of Polar Night,published at Photo Booth/The New Yorker by Coralie Craft,Sept 29, 2019, photo ©Mark Mahaney

Thank you Christoph Koch (Head of Press & Editorial Content, Bayerische Staatsoper)for your invitation to the premier & cooperation for submitting all photo materials on my desk. (january 20, 2020)

“The Elbphilharmonie takes inspiration from three structures: the ancient theatre at Delphi, sport stadiums and tents”

Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron, architects

Elbphilarmonie, photo ©Sophie Wolter

Elbphilharmonie Cross-Section (unlabelled) © Herzog & de Meuron

Ancient Theater at Delphi in Greece

NDR ElbPhilarmonie Orchester (Grand Hall); June 20th,2018 conductor: Thomas Hengelbrock,photo© Daniel Dittus

NDR ElbPhilarmonie Orchester; June 20th, 2018; violin: Vilder Frang; conductor: Thomas Hengelbrock, photo© Daniel Dittus

Grand Hall at Elbphilarmonie, photo©Michael Zapf

Grand Hall, white skin at Elbphilarmonie, photo ©Oliver Heissner

NDR ElbPhilarmonie Orchester; June 20th, 2018 violin: Vilder Frang; conductor: Thomas Hengelbrock, photo© Daniel Dittus

der Kaispreicher (2003)l resource;bildarchive_Hamburg

Elbphilharmonie Cross-Section (unlabelled) © Herzog & de Meuron

Grand Hall Foyer, Elbphilarmonie, photo © Iwan Baan

Elpphilarmonie, photo ©Maxim Schulz

Elbphilarmonie, photo ©Michael Zapf

Roof of Elbphilarmonie, photo ©Michael Zapf

Christoph Lieben-Seutter, photo © Michael Zapf

a winter morning; photo© Michael Zapf

Three operas in one act each: Composer: Giacomo Puccini ; Libretti by Giuseppe Adami and Giovacchino Forzano (In Italian with German and English surtitles)

IL TRITTICO (Suor Angelica): Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica), Ensemble und Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper photo©Wilfried Hösl

musical direction: Kirill Petrenko production: Lotte de Beer

Conceptual advice: Peter te Nuyl

stage: Bernhard Hammer

Costumes: Jorine van Beek

light: Alex Brok

dramaturgy: Malte Krasting

choirs: Sören Eckhoff

Il trittico (Sour Angelica): Michaela Schuster (Die Fürstin), Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica) photo ©Wilfried Hösl

Il trittico (Sour Angelica): Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica) photo©Wilfried Hösl

Il trittico (Sour Angelica): Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica) photo©Wilfried Hösl

IL TRITTICO (Il tabarro): Eva-Maria Westbroek (Giorgetta), Wolfgang Koch (Michele), Yonghoon Lee (Luigi); photo©Wilfried Hösl

IL TRITTICO (Il tabarro): Eva-Maria Westbroek (Giorgetta), Wolfgang Koch (Michele), Yonghoon Lee (Luigi); photo©Wilfried Hösl

IL TRITTICO (Suor Angelica): Ermonela Jaho (Suor Angelica), Ensemble und Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper photo©Wilfried Hösl

SEPTEMBER 7 – OCTOBER 14, 2017 at Paula Cooper gallery, 21st street, Chelsea

published:(VK) October 8th, 2017, Berlin

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice,2017,single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound;17 mins 58 sec,Photo: Steven Probert © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, 2017,single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound; 17 mins 58 secs,Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, 2017,single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound; 17 mins 58 secs, Paula Cooper Gallery © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (9/7 – 10/14/17) © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, 2017 single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound; 17 mins 58 secs,Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Colby Chamberlain is Lecturer in Discipline in Modern Art and Theory at Columbia University and is a founding editor of Triple Canopy. His scholarship and criticism focuses on intersections of art and other fields of professional practice, in particular the law.

‘I only achieve simplicity with enormous effort’,

‘so long as I have questions to which there are no answers, I shall go on writing’,

Clarice Lispector

photo (source;WikiCommons)

photo (source;WikiCommons)

At the request of Clarice Inspector, this interview, which was granted on January 1, 1977, to TV Cultura’s Panorama program, only aired ten months later, at the time of her death. (source: Obviousmagazine)

photo@ Claudia Andujar, 1961

Testimony of the photographer Claudia Andujar, recounting how she portrayed the writer in 1961. The photo illustrated the cover of the biography “Clarice”, by Benjamin Moser, released in 2009 by Editora Cosac Naify. This photo (in detail illustrates as well the Crônicas)

“Unrelated”

Artistic Direction, Concept, Choreography and Scenography: Daina Ashbee

Interpreters and Performers: Paige Culley and Areli Moran

Lighting Design: Timothy Rodrigues

Music: Bashar C#

Length: 70 minutes

Production: Daina Ashbee, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts; the British-Columbia Arts Council; the First Peoples’ Cultural Council; the MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels); Circuit-Est; and Studio 303.

photo@Sarah Marie (courtesy of the Int’s Dance Festival press office

photo @Venetia Kapernekas

photo @Daina Ashbee (courtesy of the Int’s Festival press office)

photo @Sarah Marie (courtesy of the Int’s Festival press office)

photo @Venetia Kapernekas

photos @Venetia Kapernekas

Photo: Annik MH de Carufel Le Devoir (published at Le Devoir)

Daina Ashbee & the performers Paige Culley and Areli Moran; photo@Venetia Kapernekas

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, 2017,single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound;
17 mins 58 secs,Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, 2017,single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound;
17 mins 58 secs, Paula Cooper Gallery © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Installation view, Carey Young, Palais de Justice, 2017 single-channel HD video (from 4K); 16:9, color, quadrophonic sound;
17 mins 58 secs,Paula Cooper Gallery, New York © Carey Young. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

An old, very old tale
About a naked King who, giving away his heavy duties,
Was devoured by the snake of Life
And found out everything the man knows when he succumbs.