PRESS RELEASE
5h “Patras World Poetry Festival”
“From Hippocrates to poetry therapy”
1 – 4/09/2022 PATRAS – ANCIENT OLYMPIA
Along with many other important international participations and a rich event programme, this year, the 5th “Patras World Poetry Festival” is going to be held between the 1 and 4 of September, in different cultural locations of Patras and not only.
After two years of online realization of the Festival, Patras is again glad to receive in person 65 important poets from 13 different countries, 20 among them, being poets from abroad. This year’s programme has in store many surprises for the participants and for the audience, with visits and poetry recitations in particular places and in alternative ways.
The subject area of PWPF2022 concerns the healing properties of art and especially of poetry and it is entitled “From Hippocrates to poetry therapy”, so the complete action programme was planned with the purpose of creating a back – to - back interaction of arts, poetry and psychology.
The events are going to take place in the mornings and in the evenings in different locations of Patras every time, such as the Epikentro Theatre, the Foundation of Hellenic Diaspora, Achaia Clauss Winery and the Villa of Kolla, while the last recitation is going to take place in Ancient Olympia through an all – day excursion of experiential character. The programme includes further guided tours, food and wine tasting and activities of cultural tourism, in order for the visitors to obtain the best possible experience from our land!
Ιmportant guests participate at the events, among them ambassadors of collaborating countries, internationally renowned academics, belletrists and representatives of entities.
Special moments of the Festival are the tribute to the poet Titos Patrikios, the Round Table with the subject “Healing through Poetry”, the visit at the “Foundation of Hellenic Diaspora” with its art exhibitions from important emigrant Greek artists and the set to music poetry event, entitled “Like a Shiver...”, which is going to take place at the Honorable Evening of the Festival.
All the events are open for the audience with FREE entrance.
At the same time. The Festival converses with visual arts and hosts two visual and one photographical project.
In passing of the collaboration of the contemporary art gallery “Cube Gallery” and Liana Zoza as a curator, with Patras World Poetry Festival, the art platform “Lagrange Points” was created.
The idea came up simultaneously with the proposition for the presentation of the two on going art projects “Open Studio” and “Invisible cities”, during the Festival and under the common title “L3 point”, at the same time with the desire for the continuation of the creative meetings of all forms of art.
Even if the term is a loan from the mechanics of celestial bodies, which discusses the rules of equilibrium and affinity of their relationship and coexistence, it also works with the same equilibrium at the coexistence of different art forms.
During the Festival, the photographer Peny Delta is going to create the portraits of the participant at the Festival poets and poetesses, which are going to be used at the archive of the Poetry Office and in the related publishing of the Festival.
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The World Patras Poetry Festival is organized by the “Poetry Office” of Patras and the CultureBook (Culturebook.gr), with the support of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Region of Western Greece, the Regional Union of Municipalities of Western Greece, the the University of Patras, the University of Western Macedonia, the Hellenic Open University, the Poetry Festival of Larnaka, the Embassy of Hungary, the Embassy of Czech Republic and the Athens Czech Center, the Embassy of Poland, the Greek Library of London, the World Poetry Movement, the Epikentro Theatre, the Cube Gallery and other entities. It is under the evaluation of Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Tourism.
Patras World Poetry Festival forms one of the greatest literature institutions in Greece, the greatest of the Region, and has already stood out amongst the most estimable Festivals all over the world. Each year it receives important names of world literature and it offers an abundant programme of events, including poetry readings, presentations, meetings and cultural galas. Its vision is to promote the Greek literary creation globally and to popularize the capital of West Greece as a European literature center. Through its actions, it communicates with Chairs of Hellenic studies all over the world and it catalogues the recent poetry production.
*The organising of the Festival has a non-profitable character in every aspect and the participation of the people is costless.
CONCERT IDENTITY
POETRY SET TO MUSIC
“Like a Shiver...”
Like the way a note touches the word,
And oxygen life.
Music fights against verse, in a fight for love, man, society, existence, love, hate, passion and nature.
Participants:
Yorgos Georgiadis, Mandolin (evikoon melos)
Sani Peta, Mandolin (evikoon melos)
Yannis Anagnostopoulos, Guitar
Thomas Pallas, Guitar
Andreas Zafiropoulos, Piano
Themis Martekas, Percussion
Interpretation:
Hristos Konstantopoulos
Dora Mpeleri
Artistic curation
Yannis Anagnostopoulos
Orchestrations
Yannis Anagnostopoulos
Yorgos Georgiadis
PROGRAMME
5th PATRAS WORLD POETRY FESTIVAL
THURSDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2022
20.00 // Theatre Epikentro+
Welcome Drink
1st Cycle of Poetic Readings
Presentation L3 point: on going art projects “Open Studio” & amp “Invisible Cities”
Dinner for the participants
FRIDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 2022
11.00 // Theatre Epikentro
2nd Cycle of Poetic Readings
Round Table on the subject “The Healing Properties of Poetry”
Free Programme – Knowing the City
19.00 // Winery Achaia Clauss
Guided tour at the Winecastle
3rd Cycle of Poetic Readings
Dinner for the participants
SATURDAY 3 SEPTEMBER 2022
11.00 // Foundation Greek Diaspora, Kastritsi
Guided Tour at the Exhibition of Greek artists of Diaspora
4th Cycle of Poetic Readings
Lunch for the participants
20.00 // Villa Kolla
Formal Ceremony
Greetings – speeches
5th Cycle of Poetic Readings
Honorable Evening for Titos Patrikios
Concert with Poetry set to Music “Like a Shiver...”
Official Reception at Achaia Clauss
SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2022
09.00-20.00 // Ancient Olympia
Excursion to Ancient Olympia
Guided Tour at the archaeological site
Visit of the Digital Museum 1821 – Krestena
15.00 // Lunch for the Participants
17.30 // 6th Cycle of Poetic Readings
The programme also includes:
- Tribute “meet the poets” from Culturebook.gr: presentation of the participants and diffusion in social networks
- Anthology of the Festival. Offspring of the organization and a literature consignment constitutes the collective trilingual Edition (and e- book) with the poems of the participants, in each one’s language, in Greek and in English.
- Art Platform | Lagrange Points / simultaneously with the presentation of the participants at the Culturebook.gr the art platform Lagrange Points is created
- Peny Delta poet portaits / During the Festival, the photographer Peny Delta is going to create the portraits of the participant poets and poetesses, which are also going to be used at the relevant publication of the Festival
PARTICIPANTS
ALBANIA Alma Braja
BULGARY Roman Kissiov, Nadya Radulova
ITALY Matthias Tarantino
CZECH REPUBLIC Josef Hrdlička, Jan Škrob, Tim Postovit
CROATIAN Marija Dejanović
CYPRUS Eleni Artemiou-Fotiadou
HUNGARY Weiner Sennyei Tibor, Izsó Zita, Bek Timur
NORTH MACEDONIA Michailo Svidersky, Andrej Al Asadi, Gjoko Zdraveski
POLAND Anna Adamowicz, Antonina Tosiek
SERBIA Ana Marija Grbić
SLOVENIA Petra Kolmancic
USA Don Schofield
GREECE
Kyriaki-Koula Adaloglou, Giannis Alexandropoulos, Popi Aroniada, Anna Afentoulidou, Spyros L. Vrettos, Thanos Gogos, Yiannis Doukas, Lena Kallergi,, Dimitris Kalokiris , Kostas Kanavouris, Menelaos Karalis, Christos Katroutsos, Nikos Katsalidas, Giorgos Kozias,, Alexandros Kordas, Elsa Korneti, Dimitris Kosmopoulos, Giorgos Koutouvelas, Chloe Koutsoumpeli, Kostas A. Kremmydas, Triantafyllos H. Kotopoulos, Vasilis Ladas, Konstantinos Ch. Loukopoulos, Alexandra Bakonika, Theocharis Bikiropoulos, Konstantinos Bouras, Vasilis Pandis, Theofanis Papageorgiou, Sotirios Pastakas, Titos Patrikios, Aggeliki Pechlivani, Eleni Sigalou, Angeliki Sidira Papakosta, Antonis D. Skiathas, Yannis Stefanakis, Manos Stefanidis, Vangelis Tasiopoulos, John Tolias, Lina Fitili, Thanassis Hatzopoulos
Statement of Antonis Skiathas (President of the Poetry Office)
The Patras World Poetry Festival has created an international institution of literature that honors Greek letters, promotes Greek poetry and brings in contact Greek poets and poetesses with related poets and poetesses from all over the world.
Along its way, poets and poetesses from fifty countries have conversed at the Patras World Poetry Festival.
It is extremely important for all of us at the Poetry Office that the Festival is a matter of the whole town, as panhellenic, regional, local, institutions, businesses, citizens stand for the organising by every means.
The Ministry of Culture, the Region of Western Greece and the University of Patras are some of the institutions that support it.
The publishing that is been organized and the events at emblematic locations of the wider area like Achaia Clauss, the museum Diaspora, form the Festival’s identity.
At the same time, the synergism with cultural institutions and the connection of Poetry with other arts like music, visual arts, photography create all things that make the Festival unique.
© Foto de Stefhany Rojas Wagner - Patagonia Argentina 2022
El diario inédito del filósofo vienés Ludwig Wittgenstein
1
(Fragmentos)
1. La realidad está limitada por la totalidad de la poesía. La poesía no tiene límites.
1.1 La poesía es un jardín: un jardín que habla de otros jardines.
1.11 Poesía, en una palabra, señor entrevistador, es requiem.
1.12 Pero la mejor definición de poesía es la siguiente proposición: Poesía no es ni lo uno ni lo otro; quizá tampoco lo tercero.
1.13 El lenguaje es la flor, dijo Mallarmé. Si esto es así, entonces, la poesía es la floración: encantamiento de la flor.
1.2 Under the Winter: quizá su madriguera más cálida, más productiva.
1.21 El único enemigo de la poesía es el poeta: allí, es él contra él mismo.
1.22 & ese silencio… ( ) Es el lenguaje que reclama su propia poesía.
1.3 El mundo siempre ha sido una colección de murallas, & el lenguaje no es más que una de esas inquisiciones del cielo. La poesía solo comete la osadía de saltarla.
1.31 La poesía es como el almendro: sus flores son perfumadas y sus frutos amargos.
1.32 Anudar una palabra a otra, con la esperanza de unir un hombre a otro.
1.33 La poesía que no extiende los brazos es una poesía mutilada.
1.4 Lo meta-poético son las arañas que se comen a su madre
The Unpublished Journal of Viennese Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
1.
(Fragments)
1. Reality is limited by the totality of poetry. Poetry does not have limits.
1.1 Poetry is a garden: a garden that speaks of other gardens.
1.11 Poetry, in a word, Mr. Interviewer, is requiem.
1.12 But the best definition of poetry is the following proposition: Poetry is neither one thing nor the other; perhaps it is not the third thing, either.
1.13 Language is the flower, says Mallarmé. If that is so, then, poetry is its flowering: enchantment of the flower.
1.2 Under the Winter: perhaps its warmest, most productive den.
1.21 The only enemy of poetry is the poet: there, it is he against himself.
1.22 & that silence… ( ) is language reclaiming its own poetry.
1.3 The world has always been a collection of walls, & language is nothing more than one of those inquisitions from heaven. Poetry alone has the daring to leap over it.
1.31 Poetry is like the almond tree: its flowers are sweet-smelling and its fruits bitter.
1.32 To knot one word to another, with the hope of joining men together.
1.33 Poetry that does not open its arms is a mutilated poetry.
1.4 The meta-poetic are the spiders that eat their mother.
Translation by Richard Gwyn
2
2.031 La blasfemia, el insulto: agrietan el aire.
20232 El desdentado está más cerca de la Libertad. No le pone obstáculos a lo que viene de adentro.
2.0233 Toda la mudez inexplicable es el recuerdo: el sintagma que se ha quedado anclado a la sal del pasado.
2.027 El pensar es numérico. Los números: imaginación enjaulada.
2.0271 Todos somos contadores de sí-la-bas. El que quiera el oficio del aire: tiene que contar sílabas; debe saber más del número que del sonido.
2.0272 Es tan difícil llegar a la Nada. Es tan atlánticamente imposible dejar de nombrarse.
2.0277 Pero aún más difícil es decir el sueño: esa llanura de carneros misteriosos.
2.0279 ¿& qué hace la palabra, si no es luchar por el hombre, reverdecer al hombre?
2.02791 Porque el hombre tiene fe en las palabras, por eso es que creemos entendernos.
2.028 Cierro la boca: & me quedo solo.
2
2.031 Blasphemy, insult: they break up the air.
2.0232 A toothless man is closer to Freedom. He doesn't curtail what comes from within.
2.0233 All the unexplainable muteness is remembrance – the string of words that has remained anchored to the salt of the past.
2.027 Thinking is numerical; numbers are the caged imagination.
2.0271 We are all counters of syl-la-bles. Whoever is after the occupation of the air has to count syllables – they should know more about numbers than sounds.
2.0272 It is so difficult to reach Nothingness. It's so Atlantically impossible to stop mentioning our names.
2.0277 However, it's even more difficult to tell the dream – that prairie of mysterious rams.
2.0279 & what is the good of so many words, if we don't fight for humanity, for the new man?
2.02791 Because we have faith in words we believe we under¬stand each other.
2.028 I close my mouth. . . and I am left alone.
Translated by Miguel Falquez-Certain
The Poet
Fredy Yezzed (Bogotá, Colombia, 1979). Writer, poet and Human Rights advocate. After traveling throughout Latin America for six months, he settled in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His books of poetry are «La sal de la locura», (Macedonio Fernández National Poetry Prize, Buenos Aires, 2010), «El diario inédito del filósofo vienés Ludwig Wittgenstein» (Buenos Aires, 2012), «Carta de las mujeres de este país», (New York, 2019), Mention of Poetry in the Literary Prize House of the Americas 2017, La Habana, Cuba, and «La orilla de los heterónimos» (Bogotá, 2020). As a literary critic he has compiled and introduced the following books, «Párrafos de aire: Primera antología del poema en prosa colombiano» (Editorial de la Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, 2010), «La risa del ahorcado: Antología poética de Henry Luque Muñoz» (Editorial de la Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, 2015), and he is coauthor of «Yo vengo a ofrecer mi poema. Antología de resistencia» (Bogotá, 2021).