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 5^th “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.

• Art Platform | Lagrange Points

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.

• Peny Delta poet portraits

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

5^th PATRAS WORLD POETRY FESTIVAL

THURSDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 2022

20.00 // Theatre Epikentro+

Welcome Drink

1^st 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

2^nd 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

3^rd 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

4^th Cycle of Poetic Readings

Lunch for the participants

20.00 // Villa Kolla

Formal Ceremony

Greetings – speeches

5^th 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 // 6^th 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.