Church of Saint Anna, Amorgos, Greece – Αγία Άννα, Αμοργός

This is a painting I finished a few days ago. It depicts the small church of Saint Anna, on the island of Amorgos in Greece.

The barren landscape is in complete harmony with the humble structure, which balances on the edge of a cliff. The blue sea and the sky provide the complement to a background that requires no additional description.

agia_anna_amorgos_201908.JPG

Saint Anna, Amorgos, Acrylic on canvas, Nikos Moropoulos, August 2019

You can see some of my paintings in this gallery.

 

The windmills they called Skopje… (in Greek) – Οι ανεμόμυλοι που τους λέγανε Σκόπια…

This is an article I wrote for CNN Greece on the current negotiations between Greece and FYROM to settle the name of the neighbouring country. You can read the article by following the link below.

http://www.cnn.gr/focus/apopseis/story/114721/oi-anemomyloi-poy-toys-legane-skopia

Church of Chrysospiliotissa, Kato Graikiko, Tzoumerka, Greece – Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα

Στο Κάτω Γραικικό Τζουμέρκων, στην κοινότητα Γουριανά υπάρχει μια χωμάτινη διαδρομή (περίπου 3 χιλιόμετρα) που σε πηγαίνει στη Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Σήμερα υπάρχει μόνο η εκκλησία, χτισμένη στον χώρο που παλιά ήταν το μοναστήρι. Φθάνοντας στον χώρο, η πινακίδα σε στέλνει σε μια κατωφέρεια που στο βάθος της βρίσκεται ο ναός.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Υψόμετρο περίπου 900 μέτρα, καταπράσινα όλα. Η εκκλησία είναι μονόκλιτη σταυρεπίστεγη θολωτή βασιλική με τρούλο, ο πιο διαδεδομένος τύπος ηπειρωτικού ναού κατά την Τουρκοκρατία.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Η εκκλησία χτίστηκε τον 11ο αιώνας, καταστράφηκε κάποια στιγμή, και – όπως δείχνει η αναμνηστική πλάκα – ξαναχτίστηκε το 1663.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Ο βράχος αγκαλιάζει την εκκλησία, και αφήνει ένα μικρό πέρασμα για να φτάσει ο επισκέπτης σε ένα κοίλωμα όπου κατά την παράδοση βρέθηκε η εικόνα της Παναγίας που εδωσε το όνομα της στην μονή.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Σήμερα στην εσοχή υπάρχουν εικόνες προσφορές των πιστών. Οι τοιχογραφίες του ναού έγιναν το 1801.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Δεν υπάρχει καμπαναριό, μόνο αυτό το λιτό σήμαντρο με την καταπληκτική θέα απέναντι.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος
Θέα από τη Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Το τοπίο είναι μαγευτικό. Η ηρεμία σε καθηλώνει.

Αξέχαστη επίσκεψη.

Δείτε επίσης τα ακόλουθα άρθρα για τα Τζουμέρκα:

Μιχαλίτσι

Ροδαυγή

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michalitsi, Tzoumerka, Greece – Μιχαλίτσι, Τζουμέρκα

Βολτάροντας στα Τζουμέρκα, πέρασα από ένα χωριό που το λένε Μιχαλίτσι.

Ήτανε πρωί, ο ήλιος έλαμπε, κι ο οργανισμός μου ζητούσε ένα ωραίο καφέ.

Μόλις φτάνω στην μικρή πλατεία παρκάρω, και βγαίνω.

Μιχαλίτσι, Κεντρική Πλατεία – Η εκκλησία του Αγίου Νικολάου. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Το πρώτο που με εντυπωσίασε είναι ότι το καμπαναριό της εκκλησίας είναι στο κέντρο της πλατείας, και όχι δίπλα στην εκκλησία. Η εκκλησία του Αγίου Νικολάου χτίστηκε το 1870 από τους ντόπιους μάστορες. Το χωριό ήτανε ένα από τα μαστοροχώρια της Ηπείρου.

Μιχαλίτσι, Κεντρική Πλατεία -Το καμπαναριό. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Το καμπαναριό στέκει μοναχό στη μέση της πλατείας, και είναι εντυπωσιακό.

Μιχαλίτσι, Κεντρική Πλατεία -Το Κρυφό Σχολείο. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Δίπλα το καφενείο, ταβέρνα, ξενώνας “Το Κρυφό Σχολείο”. Πέτρινο, πεντακάθαρο, με μαυροπίνακα ενημερωμένο και με όλα τα καλά. Εκεί θα πιώ και τον καφέ μου. Παραγγέλνω τον καφέ και  ακολουθεί η στοχομυθία.

ΕΓΩ: “Έχετε ωραία εκκλησία εδώ.”

“Εκκλησία έχουμε, κόσμο δεν έχουμε.”

Μιχαλίτσι, Κεντρική Πλατεία -Καφεπαντοπωλείον Μιχαλιτσίου. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Η λιτή απάντηση με χτύπησε κατακούτελα. Κοίταξα απέναντι, σε ένα ισκερό μέρος κάτω από τα δέντρα, καθόντουσαν μια παρέα από ηλικιωμένους άντρες και παίζανε χαρτιά. Όλοι ντυμένοι καλοκαιρινά αλλά με επιμέλεια, σιδερωμένο παντελόνι, πουκάμισο, παπούτσι και κάλτσα.

Το καφεπαντοπωλείον Μιχαλιτσίου παραδίπλα ενοικιάζεται. Απόλυτη ησυχία.

Μιχαλίτσι, Κεντρική Πλατεία -Ηρώον Μιχαλιτσίου. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Δίπλα στους χαρτοπαίκτες το Ηρώο του χωριού, αφιερωμένο στους νεκρούς των πολέμων 1912 – 1922.

Μιχαλίτσι, Κεντρική Πλατεία -Προτομή Δημητρίου Γ. Κοσμά. Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Κοντά στο ηρώο βρίσκεται η προτομή του Δημητρίου Γ. Κοσμά, Δασκάλου, Ακροναυπλιώτη που εκτελέστηκε από τους Γερμανούς το Μάιο του 1944 στην Καισαριανή. Με αυτή την αφορμή διάβασα για τους Ακροναυπλιώτες. Ήτανε κομμουνιστές που φυλακίστηκαν από τον Μεταξά. Με την έναρξη του πολέμου το 1940 δεν αφέθηκαν ελεύθεροι, παρόλο που ζήτησαν να πάνε να πολεμήσουν.  Παραδόθηκαν στους Γερμανούς από την κατοχική Κυβέρνηση και το 1943 μεταφέρθηκαν στο Στρατόπεδο του Χαϊδαρίου,από όπου έκαναν το τελευταίο τους ταξίδι για την Καισαριανή.

Αργότερα έμαθα ότι το Μιχαλίτσι είναι δύο κοινότητες, μία βόρεια και μια νότια. Εγώ επισκέφθηκα τη νότια. Η απόσταση ανάμεσα στις δύο πλατείες είναι περίπου 3 χιλιόμετρα.

Τέλειωσα τον καφέ μου κι αποχώρησα.

Στο δρόμο σκεφτόμουνα πόσο διαφορετικό είναι το Μιχαλίτσι από τη Ροδαυγή.

Στη Ροδαυγή είχε κόσμο, είχα ανοιχτά μαγαζιά, είχε ζωή. Το Μιχαλίτσι ήτανε ήσυχο, μα πολύ ήσυχο. Ακόμη και οι χαρτοπαίζοντες δεν κάνανε θόρυβο.

Δείτε επίσης τα ακόλουθα άρθρα σχετικά με τα Τζουμέρκα:

Ροδαυγή

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ruins of Greece – Τα ερείπια (χαλάσματα) της Ελλάδος

“Only ruins remain and the beauty of the natural environment.” Lord Byron

Amfissa Castle, Greece
Amfissa Castle, Greece

ΧΑΛΑΣΜΑΤΑ

Γύρισα στα ξανθά παιδιάτικα λημέρια,
γύρισα στο λευκό της νιότης μονοπάτι,
γύρισα για να ιδώ το θαυμαστό παλάτι,
για με χτισμένο απ’ τών Ερώτων τ’ άγια χέρια.
Το μονοπάτι το ‘πνιξαν οι αρκουδοβάτοι,
και τα λημέρια τα ‘καψαν τα μεσημέρια,
κ’ ένας σεισμός το ‘ρριξε κάτου το παλάτι,
και μέσ’ στα ερείπια τώρα και στ’ αποκαΐδια
απομένω παράλυτος· σαύρες και φίδια
μαζί μου αδερφοζούν οι λύπες και τα μίση·
και το παλάτι ένας σεισμός το ‘χει γκρεμίσει.

ΚΩΣΤΗΣ ΠΑΛΑΜΑΣ

Ασάλευτη ζωή, 1904
‘Απαντα, τομ. Γ´, σελ. 72

Amfissa Castle, Greece
Amfissa Castle, Greece

RUINS

I RETURNED TO MY GOLDEN PLAYGROUNDS,
I RETURNED TO MY WHITE BOYHOOD TRAIL,
I RETURNED TO SEE THE WONDROUS PALACE,
BUILT JUST FOR ME BY LOVE’S DIVINE WAYS.
BLACKBERRY BUSHES NOW COVER THE BOYHOOD TRAIL,
AND THE MIDAY SUNS HAVE BURNED THE PLAYGROUNDS,
AND A TREMOR HAS DESTROYED MY PALACE SO RARE,
AND IN THE MIDST OF FALLEN WALLS AND BURNED
TIMBERS, I REMAIN LIFELESS; LIZARDS AND SNAKES
WITH ME NOW LIVE THE SORROWS AND THE HATES;
AND OF MY PALACE A BROKEN MASS NOW REMAINS

Costis Palamas
Translated by A. Moskios

 

Amfissa Castle, Greece
Amfissa Castle, Greece

INTERVIEWER
On the question of the Greek poet’s relation to his tradition, it has always seemed to me that the Greek poet has an advantage over his Anglo-Saxon counterpart who makes use of Greek mythology and sometimes even of Greek landscape. I remember years ago when I was writing a thesis on what I thought were English influences in the poetry of Cavafy and Seferis, I asked you about certain images that crop up in your landscape, for example, the symbolic meaning of the statues that appear in your work. You turned to me and said: “But those are real statues. They existed in a landscape I had seen.” What I think you were saying is that you always start with the fact of a living, actual setting and move from there to any universal meaning that might be contained in it.

SEFERIS
An illustration of that from someone who is a specialist in classical statues came the other day from an English scholar who was lecturing about the statuary of the Parthenon. I went up to congratulate him after his lecture, and he said to me, as I remember: “But you have a line which expresses something of what I meant when you say ‘the statues are not the ruins—we are the ruins.’” I mean I was astonished that a scholar of his caliber was using a line from me to illustrate a point.

George Seferis
The statues are not the ruins—we are the ruins

From an Interview to “The Paris Review”, 2005 (epopteia)

Amfissa Castle, Greece
Amfissa Castle, Greece

 

“Unless we can relate it to ourselves personally, history will always be more or less an abstraction and its content the clash of impersonal forces and ideas. Although generalizations are necessary to order this vast, chaotic material, they kill the individual detail that tends to stray from the schema. . . . Afterwards all that remains of entire centuries is a kind of popular digest.”

Czesław Miłosz, Native Realm

 

Amfissa Castle, Greece
Amfissa Castle, Greece

Ruins come out of ruins. The story of the Acropolis is a good example. The original temple of Athena has been destroyed at least nine times in its two-and-a-half-thousand-year history. Burned by Heruli barbarians in ad 267, it was restored by Julian in ad 360, and then in 438 Christian priests hacked away at the nude sculptures and crowned the temple with a cross. The Ottoman Turks in 1456 replaced the cross with a minaret. There are still-bitter feelings about the damage done by the Venetians in 1687 when they bombed the Parthenon on September 26 under Francesco Morosini. Then there was also the sale of seventy-five sculptures by the Ottomans to Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to Greece, in 1802.

Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Ruin

 

Amfissa Castle, Greece
Amfissa Castle, Greece

You said: “…Wherever I turn, wherever I happen to look,
I see the black ruins of my life, here,
where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally.”
The City

C.P. Cavafy

Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard

 

Objects that tell a story: (2) A poetry book in English

“During the First World War Hoelderlin’s hymns were packed in the soldier’s knapsack together with cleaning gear”.

Martin Heidegger, “The Origin of the Work of Art”.

Demonstration in Athens, March 1942
Demonstration in Athens, March 1942

Today’s object is not available to me.

As a matter of fact, I have never seen it.

Today’s object has no photograph that I can show you.

Military Academy of Athens
Military Academy of Athens

Today’s object has been destroyed.

Today’s object is a poetry book in English.

Today’s object is a book without a title.

At some unknown point in time, it became a possession of my uncle George.

Allied forces in Gazi, Athens, 1944
Allied forces in Gazi, Athens, 1944

This might have been the result of a gift or a loan or a purchase.

But it is not important to dwell on that.

It was sometime before or during the second world war that George got hold of it.

Greek Civil War 1944-1949
Greek Civil War 1944-1949

Shortly after the Germans withdrew from Greece in October 1944, another War started, the Greek Civil War that lasted until 1949.

At that time George was an officer of the Greek Army, and served at the front line.

Map of Grammos
Map of Grammos

It was during a long engagement of the Greek Army with the communist – supported “Democratic Army of Greece” in the Northwestern area near Konitsa, called “Mastorohoria”, that the story with the poetry book unfolded.

George had taken the book with him.

During one of the skirmishes with the enemy, George’s unit had to cross in a haste the river Sarantaporos; in the process he lost the book.

Pyrsogianni - Πυρσογιαννη
Pyrsogianni – Πυρσογιαννη

When George’s unit took the offensive again, they crossed the river going north, and succeeded to push their opponents further to the north.

During this successful offensive, at the end of an operation they went by a machine gun bunker.

There was smoke coming out of it.

As a standard procedure, they had to go in and ensure that it was safe.

Sarantaporos River, Northern Greece
Sarantaporos River, Northern Greece

They went in and found that all inside were dead.

In the middle of the burning debris and the dead bodies, the officer in charge found a and picked up bloodstained book.

Much to his surprise, inside the book he saw an inscription with George’s name.

After the officer finished his inspection of the burned bunker he came out carrying the poetry book in his hands and went straight to George.

Plagia (Zerma)
Plagia (Zerma)

“George, is this your book?” he asked.

George took the book in his hands: “Yes, it is mine”

“Do you want to take it?” the officer asked.

George did not take the book.

He left it there.

By the (breaking) sea wave: A “Fluxus Eleatis” Discourse

Mr. FFF: Παρα θιν αλος. By the breaking sea wave.

MM: I see Priest Chryses praying. For his daughter Chryseis has been kidnapped by Agamemnon who does not want to release her.

βή δ’ ακέων παρά θίνα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης…

πήρε βουβός του πολυτάραχου γιαλού τον άμμον

Ομηρου Ιλιας, Ραψωδια Α34

Without a word, he went by the shore of the noisy sea (or ‘sounding sea’)

Homer, Iliad, A34

Mr. FFF: The priest Chryses prayed to Apollo to punish the Greek army, so that Agamemnon is forced to return to him his daughter, Chryseis.

Mrs. T: The deep sound of the sea is in stark contrast with the priest’s silent suffering.

Είπε, και την ευκή του επάκουσεν ο Απόλλωνας ο Φοίβος,
κι απ᾿ την κορφή του Ολύμπου εχύθηκε θυμό γεμάτος

Ομηρου Ιλιας, Ραψωδια Α43-44

He spoke, and Apollo Phoebus listened to his wish

and from the top pf Olympus he rushed away full of wrath

Homer, Iliad, A43-44

MM: Apollo shot the plague to the Greek Army, and Agamemnon had to return Chryseis to her father.

Mrs. T: As a compensation for his loss, Agamemnon took Bryseis from Achilles.

Mr. FFF: Achilles is furious at the loss of Briseis.

Briseis returns, sculpture by Michael Talbot

Δακρυσμένος τότε ο Αχιλλέας απ᾿ τους συντρόφους του μακραίνει και καθίζει

μπρος στον ψαρή γιαλό, το απέραντο το πέλαγο θωρώντας,

κι απλώνοντας τα χέρια ευκήθηκε στην ακριβή του μάνα

Ομηρου Ιλιας, Ραψωδια Α348-352

Achilles in tears strays away from his comrades and seats

on the beach, and looking at the vast sea,

unfolded his arms and prayed to his mother

Homer, Iliad, AHomer, Iliad, A348-352

Mr. FFF: Greeks of any age, starting with Homer, have a special relationship with the sea.

Mrs. T: The sea was considered to be the home of many deities.

MM: The sea was also a place of catharsis, a cleansing place for mortals.

Wie Meerekuesten, wenn zu baun

Anfangen die Himmliwschen und herein

Schifft unaufhaltsam, eine Pracht, das Werk

Der Woogen, eins uns andere, und die Erde

Sich ruester aus, darauf vom Freudigsten eines…

Wie Merekuesten…

Friedrich Hoelderlin

As upon seacoasts, when the gods
Begin to build and the work of the waves
Ships in unstoppably wave
After wave, in splendour, and the earth
Attires itself and then comes joy
A supreme, tuneful joy, setting …

(translation by David Constantine)

Wie Merekuesten…

Friedrich Hoelderlin

MM: I see the beach walking and…

Stephen Daedalus: Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount strand? Crush, crack, crick, crick.

MM: Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and shells.

Leopold Bloom: I am wandering around, avoiding to go home. I am on Sandymount strand. Following Stephen’s steps.

(young) Gerty: It is almost dusk. Roman candles are fizzing through the air.

Leopold Bloom: I cannot get my eyes off her!

(young) Gerty: I pulled my skirt up and revealed my garters.

Leopold Bloom: I surrender, I am too weak to resist.

(young) Gerty: I behaved as an exhibitionist. Will I ever be as important as Molly is?

Leopold Bloom:  I behaved as a true voyeur. I am aging.

Mr. FFF: I like garters.

Mrs. T: The description of the episode with Bloom and (young) Gerty made the US Courts to ban the book as indecent.

 

The beach shines like a mirror, swallowing the confusion of forms, creating whatever it likes.

Here by the beach, I will be covered, in whole, by a layer of sugar, like snow.

It is a sin to be absent from the present.

Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis, Mrs. Ersis’ Novel

Ο γιαλος στιλβει σαν καθρεφτης, καταπινοντας τη συγχυση των μορφων, σχηματιζοντας ο,τι θελει αυτος.

Εδω στην ακρογιαλια, ολοκληρον, θα με καλυψει σαν χιονι ενα στρωμα απο ζαχαρη.

Αμαρτια η απουσια απο το παρον.

Νικος Γαβριηλ Πεντζικης, Το Μυθιστορημα της κυριας Ερσης

Πῶς δύναται τὶς νὰ γίνει ἀνὴρ χωρὶς ν᾿ ἀγαπήσει δεκάκις τουλάχιστον, καὶ δεκάκις ν᾿ ἀπατηθεῖ ;

How could anyone become a man without falling in love at least ten times, and betrayed ten times?

Alexandros Papadiamantis

MM: I see the kissing-on-the-beach sequence where Lancaster and Kerr roll around in the Pacific Ocean’s frothy waves, lips locked as the surf washes over them.

Mrs. T: Lancaster’s sergeant (Milton Warden) with Deborah Kerr playing Karen Holms, another officer’s wife

Mr. FFF: The American censors deleted four seconds from that provocative love-making scene.

Mrs. T: From Here to Eternity was nominated for 13 Oscars and won eight, including best film and best director. It won rave reviews and became one of the highest-grossing films of the Fifties.

Du musst das Leben nicht verstehen,

dann wird es werden wie ein Fest.

You should not understand Life,

then it will be like a celebration.

Rainer Maria Rilke

MM: I see the beach swimming after sunset

Mrs. T: I have never done this.

Mr. FFF: I had a friend who rejoiced every time she had a chance to swim during the night. She could stay up all night swimming.

Τα πρωτα μου χρονια τ’ αξεχαστα τα’ ζησα κοντα στ’ ακρογιαλι,

Στη θαλασσα εκει τη ρηχη και την ημερη,

στη θαλασσα εκει την πλατιεα, τη μεγαλη…

Στη θαλασσα εκει…

Κωστης Παλαμας

I have lived my first unforgetable years by the beach,

There by the shallow and quite sea,

the wide, the great sea, there…

There by the sea

Kostis Palamas

MM: I see the Hotel des Roses in Rhodes.

Mrs. T: I like roses.

Mr. FFF: This is where I was going to swim when I was a kid. For hours on and on. 10am to 7pm. Full time job.

MM: I see the bay of Ladiko, near Kolymbia in Rhodes.

Mrs. T: Looks great!

Mr. FFF: It was even better when there was nobody there! Years ago, access to the bay was blocked and the man who had the keys was a good family friend.

MM: I see food and drinks by the beach.

Mrs. T: Allow me. First stop is Damianos Fishtavern, Ambelas, Paros island, Greece.

Mr. FFF: Wonderful setting, and dedication to serving good seafood all year round.

Mrs. T: It is amazing how different food tastes when you smell the sea breeze!

MM: I see food and drinks on the cliff.

Mrs. T: Second stop. Akelare Restaurante, San Sebastian, Basque Country.

Mr. FFF: Up on a cliff, overlooking the Atlantic, stands one of the shrines of gastronomy in the wonderful land of the Basque people.

Mrs. T: The place is full of the joy of life.

Η θέα

MM: I see seafood by the beach at night.

Mrs. T: Third stop. Ristorante Uliassi, Senigallia, Marche, Italia.

Mr. FFF: Now we are in the Riviera Romagnola, where the ITalians have invented the “beach without the sea”. Nevertheless, in this riviera, where everything happens, where the high and the low co-exist peacefully, Uliassi does his magic. It is worth the trip. Even if you do not make it to the sea.

MM: I see seafood on a balcony overlooking the beach.

Mrs. T: Aristodimos Fishtavern, Pachi, Megara, Greece.

Mr. FFF: Back to the homeland. An unassuming small seaside town 40 km from Athens presents the goods of the sea in a way that honors centuries of eating seafood.

Κουκλι σκετο, με το κλωναρι συκιας να βγαινει μεσα απο την προβλητα!

MM: I see Death encounters by the beach.

Mrs. T: Disillusioned knight Antonius Block and his squire Jöns return after fighting in the Crusades and find Sweden being ravaged by the plague. On the beach immediately after their arrival, Block encounters Death.

Mr. FFF: Black and White. The agony of Man in front of the inevitable. But the sea makes everything look natural. This is why the sea gives another meaning to life.

Mrs. T: (reading from a book): “The whole beach, once so full of colour and life, looked now autumnal, out of season; it was nearly deserted and not even very clean. A camera on a tripod stood at the edge of the water, apparently abandoned; its black cloth snapped in the freshening wind.”

Mr. FFF: (reading from the same book): “Some minutes passed before anyone hastened to the aid of the elderly man sitting there collapsed in his chair. They bore him to his room. And before nightfall a shocked and respectful world received the news of his decease.”

“Prayer does not change God, but it does change the one who prays.”
Soren Kirkegaard

“The essence of truth is freedom”

Martin Heidegger

Participants

Achilles

Ingmar Bergman, Swedish Film Director

Leopold Bloom

Briseis

Priest Chryses

Chryseis

Stephen Daedalus

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Caspar David Friedrich, German Painter

Martin Heidegger, German Philosopher

Friedrich Hoeldrlin, German Poet

(young) Gerty

Homer, Greek Poet

Soren Kirkegaard, Dane Philosopher

MM, partner

Kostis Palamas, Greek Poet

Alexandros Papadiamantis, Greek Writer

Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis, Greek Writer and Painter,

Otto Preminger, American Film Director

Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian Poet

Mrs. T, gourmant

References

Akelare Restaurant, San Sebastian, Basque Country

Aristodimos Fishtavern, Pachi, Megara, Greece

Damianos Fishtavern, Ambelas, Paros Island, Greece

From Here to Eternity, A Film by: Otto Preminger

A Hole in the Head. A Film by: Frank Capra

Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite), A Film by Fatih Akin

Restaurante Uliassi, Senigallia, Marche, Italia

A transitional government is not the right answer to Greece's problem

There is a new government in Greece.

There is a new Prime Minister in Greece.

The new Prime Minister is a technocrat, a banker and certainly not a politician of the mainstream political scene in Greece.

Spiros Papaloukas: Burned Village

Greece is in deep trouble.

Greece is almost bankrupt.

Greece is for all practical purposes bankrupt.

Spiros Papaloukas: Houses on the cliff

There is a sense of relief in the air.

European leaders are expressing their congratulations.

The Greek public hopes that the new Prime Minister will do good things.

But the mainstream political parties call this a “transitional” government.

Yannis Tsarouhis: Angel

A transition to what?

To elections in February 2012?

Quite frankly, I find this “transition” a totally unsatisfactory approach.

The country today does not need a “transitional” government.

The country today needs a real government.

Yannis Tsarouhis: Memento

The mainstream political parties of PASOK and New Democracy simply try to preserve their position in the political arena, even though it is quite clear that they have failed to perform adequately and serve the country when both of them were given their chance.

But by doing so they only serve their own narrow interests and do not give a damn about the country. They have failed the country, they have failed their constituencies and now perform this “transition” manouvre in order to recover from their wounds and return to claim power in the very near future.

This is why the new Government is a monster of 48 ministers!

This is the monster that the new Prime Minister, Mr Papademos must govern with.

Moaic from Hadrian's Villa

In my humble view he will fail if he continues on the path that has already been drawn out by PASOK and New Democracy.

Greece today needs a real Government, not the failed puppets of PASOK and New Democracy.

Mr Papademos has and will have for a short time power that he may not be aware of. He has the power to force the two mainstream parties to do whatever he tells them to do, whether they like it or not. This is a unique privilige that only Mr Papademos has and he should not squander it by playing small political games that are in any case useless and meaningless.

The Greek public today is aware of the bankruptcy of the mainstream political parties. The ultra right of Mr Karatzaferis is surely capitalizing on his success to be part of the “transitional” government, but he will never achieve primary status in the country. The parties of the left are well within the confines of their rigid thinking and they cannot go beyond. In a way, the majority of the Greek people today want to go ahead without political parties. Because they know that the political parties of the country have failed them.

Pantokrator with Angels

This is what Mr Papademos must understand and use to the full so that he governs until the country is in a stable condition and has a solid platform for growth and development. This will take at least three years to achieve. But must be done if we want Greece to have a future without serious complications.

This is also something that the Eurocrats must undserstand. Until now they have been playing with Mr George Papandreou, assuming that he will get the job done. They now know they were wrong. To their credit, they are the ones who pushed for the new government’s formation. However, they must not stop now. They must support and promote the idea that the new government needs to solve acute problems, keep Greece in the Euro while the haircut of maybe 80% takes place,  and then create the conditions for the economy’s growth and development.

This cannot be done by a country that will go to elections in a few months’ time, only to elect New Democracy who will also fail to do anything substantial.

Manouel Panselinos: Virgin with Child

The economic crisis of the country has exposed the huge political crisis, and the solution to this is not general elections. The solution to this is hard work under a solid government that has as its objective to save the country, not to restore the interests of the mainstream political parties and the bankrupt political system they represent.

Real Greece – Part IV: Aegean Sculpture – A Church in the village of Marpissa, Paros, Greece

I was for a few days on the island of Paros, Greece, where one night I saw under the weak lunar light the Aegean Sculpture I present today. The white church looked like something much more than a religious building, and I pronounced it “a sculpture”. Next morning I went to the village in order to photograph the “sculpture”. It was there, bathed in the morning sunlight, in the middle of the small community that was still resting. This emotional experience led me to present the church as sculpture and sculpture as a working work of art, in the sense originally discussed by Martin Heidegger.

I find particularly interesting the notion of a “working” work of art, in the sense that it is a work that participates and in a way effects and reflects real life. I will therefore quote extensively from Heidegger’s work but also from scholars who have tried to interpret Heidegger after his “turn” to aesthetics and art.

I will conclude with some thoughts on the significance of the Aegean Sculpture in the context of the ever developing Greek drama, a combination of financial and cultural bankruptcy.

{In his article, “The Origin of the Work of Art” Heidegger explains the essence of art in terms of the concepts of being and truth. He argues that art is not only a way of expressing the element of truth in a culture, but the means of creating it and providing a springboard from which “that which is” can be revealed. Works of art are not merely representations of the way things are, but actually produce a community’s shared understanding. Each time a new artwork is added to any culture, the meaning of what it is to exist is inherently changed.}

(Source: Wikipedia)

{Heidegger’s basic insight is that the work of art not only manifests the style of the culture; it articulates it. For everyday practices to give us a shared world, and so give meaning to our lives, they must be focused and held up to the practitioners. Works of art, when performing this function, are not merely representations of a pre-existing state of affairs, but actually produce a shared understanding.}

(Source: Hubert L. Dreyfus, Heidegger on Art)

Heidegger articulates his thoughts by discussing an ancient Greek Temple:

{It is the temple work that first fits together and at the same time gathers around itself the unity of those paths and relations in which birth and death, disaster and blessing, victory and disgrace, endurance and decline acquire the shape of destiny for human being….(The temple thus) gave things their look and men their outlook on themselves.}

(Source: Martin Heidegger, The Origin of the Work of Art)

{Heidegger is considering art in terms of its cultural founding significance, and cultural founding art work acts as a paradigm for the event of truth’s happening. The happening of truth is described as the projection of truth, and all art is defined by Heidegger as Dichtung, or poetry.  However, this does not restrict the definition of Dichtung to include only the linguistic expression of “poetry.” Rather, he envisages Dichtung as referencing all creative, projective  events of truth’s happening. Therefore, Dichtung occurs in many forms of art: painting, sculpture,  architecture, music, and poetry. Due to art’s unique nature, it opens the space of disclosure in  such a way that it “breaks open an open place, in whose openness everything is other than  usual.”34 Heidegger stresses the potential of great art to ecstatically displace Dasein from the realm of its everyday, ordinary ways of existing by transforming “anew” its accustomed ties to the world and Earth.}

(Source: James Magrini, The Work of Art and Truth of Being as “Historical”: Reading Being and Time, “The Origin of the Work of Art,” and the “Turn” (Kehre) in Heidegger’s Philosophy of the 1930s)

The work of art is not something that works out its truth merely by laying it bare and plain for all to see. On the contrary, great works of  art outshine others in their unfathomableness, (i.e. their depth). That is, anything which lends itself to conveniently summed up—described and explained away—is not thus preserved in its being let ‘stand-initself’, but rather leveled off and disabled in its capacity for bringing about wonder and estrangement; it is dragged down in connoisseurship to the realm of commonality (i.e. the unextraordinary) and commodity (i.e. the ‘art business’). It is masticated so as to be served up as fodder for idle talk.

(Source: Shawn Moi, Perplexity and Passion in Heidegger)

In the Heideggerian framework of viewing Art, the Ancient Greek Temple is “non-working Art”, in the sense that the work of art no longer has and maintains a dynamic interplay with the surrounding community. the reasonable question that emerges having seen the Aegean sculpture, is:

Is the Aegean sculpture working art, in the sense that it performs the three essential functions? (see Dreyfus):

  • Manifesting a World
  • Articulating a culture’s understanding of Being
  • Reconfiguring a culture’s understanding of Being

I believe it is, and as long as it remains, I also believe that there is hope in the contemporary drama of Greece.

The hope is that Greeks will eventually accept to be themselves (ourselves) and stop trying to become a pathetic immitation of others. There is no survival without identity, and the Aegean Sculpture is part of the Greek’s multifaceted  identity. The acceptance of identity will also start the process of maintaining it and embellishing it, and this is where the Aegean Sculpture also comes in, with its stunning simplicity and harmony of being an integral part of the space around it.

The white structure engages the blue sky and the sea of the Aegean in an eternal embrace.

Its whiteness pays tribute to the famous marble of Paros, but beats it at the same time, as its humble and simple material reminds us that we can do wonderful things, and thus be wonderful ourselves with very “cheap” materials. The Aegean Sculpture could never be made of gold, or covered with precious stones. It would not be itself.