Programme SYN_ENERGY_BERLIN_ATHENS
(As of August 2018, may be subject to change)
Free entry at all events
17.10.2018
7 PM Lange Lesenacht (Long Reading Night), Official Opening event
Hosted by: Cornelia Jentzsch and Jan Wagner
Speaker: Denis Abrahams
A night of reading and literature with over 20 authors from Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Switzerland and Austria – translations will be provided. The Jazz-Trio „The Grix Trio“ (Floros Floridis and Yorgos Dimitriadis) feat. Achim Kaufmann and the artist Andreas Karaoulanis accompany the evening.
With: Phoebe Giannisi (GR), Dirk Uwe Hansen (DE), Dagny Gioulami (CH), Jochen Schmidt (DE), Vassilis Amanatidis (GR), Katerina Iliopoulou (GR), Dalibor Markovic (DE), Dominique Macri (DE), Lilly Jäckl (AT), Jazra Khaleed (GR), Kyoko Kishida (GR), Kai Pohl (DE), Maria Topali (GR), Gerasimos Bekas (GR/DE), Nina Rapi (GR), Achim Wieland (DE/CY), Jorgos Kartakis (GR), Adrian Kasnitz (DE), Jan Kuhlbrodt (DE), Elena Pallantza (DE/GR), Lily Michaelides (CY), Simone Kornappel (DE), Andrea Schmidt (DE), Yiannis Baskozos (GR)
To attend the symposium: Please register for free by 16.10.2018 via syn-energy@lettretage.de
18.10.2018
09:30-10 AM: Welcome-coffee
10 AM-1 PM, Panel 1: Myths as a performative act
Moderation: Ellen Katja Jaeckel
Speakers:
Phoebe Giannisi (GR)
Dagny Gioulami (CH)
Dirk Uwe Hansen (DE)
Jochen Schmidt (DE)
The participants have re-interpreted ancient myths in a performative way through text installations, the interplay of voice and text, and further lyrical performances.
Giannisi („Homerika“) goes beyond the word with video and visual art. Hansen, a classical philologist, translator from the old and modern Greek and poet, and Gioulami, a writer of theatre and prose, are building bridges between antiquity and today, and ask themselves the question: what role does the ancient myth play in the German and Greek contemporary poetry and drama? How can he reach a young literary audience? It is important to explore the innovative potential of the Greek heritage and to reassess it in the light of current debates?
The history of mind of the German-language is inconceivable without the Greek myth. But where do we stand now, in times of „crisis“? Jochen Schmidt, who recently learned ancient Greek, gives a very contrary reply with his book „Schmythologie“, that was published in collaboration with the graphic artist Line Hoven.
Dagny Gioulami is a Swiss author, opera librettist, songwriter and actress. Her first literary work „All the stories I Know“, a literary road-movie, came out at weissbooks press. In her work she uses various forms of presentation of literary texts and deals with the Greek myth in her theatrical work.
1-2 PM Lunch break
2-5 PM, Panel 2: Rhythm, words, music
Moderation: Thomas Plaul
Speakers:
Vassilis Amanatidis (GR)
Katerina Iliopoulou (GR)
Dominique Macri (DE)
Dalibor Markovic (DE)
The participants are experts in the field of lyric performance, sound poetry and slam poetry. Katerina Iliopoulou and Vassilis Amanatidis are Greek representatives in this innovative approach, which are gathered around the magazine „Farmako [FRMK]“ and the initiative greekpoetrynow.com. They use the performative potentials of the literary scene(s) and their traditions from different language spaces. Since September 2013, Macri, a slam-poet, theatre woman and trainer for creative writing and performance, works as a freelancer for the European project „ThesSLAMoniki“ in Greece. Markovic, with Croatian roots, questions the languages, examines them for their still undiscovered possibilities and thereby illuminates the context of language and identity.
For all participants the spoken word is a creative potential, and the reaction of the audience is part of their art. Literature becomes a performative event and that extends beyond the written word.
7 PM: Readings with the panels‘ participants
Hosted by: Ellen Katja Jaeckel and Thomas Plaul
19.10.2018
10 AM-1 PM, Panel 3: Poetrypolitics
Moderation: Spiros Moskovou
Speakers:
Lilly Jäckl (AT)
Jazra Khaleed (GR)
Kyoko Kishida (GR)
Kai Pohl (DE)
The poetic „underground“ has developed special forms of communication in both language spaces, in which the subversive and revolutionary power of poetry can unfold itself. There is a special affinity between the East Berlin lyric scene and the Athens underground. For example, Jazra Khaleed and Kyoko Kishida have developed a performance with relevant translations, among others by Kai Pohl.
Lilly Jäckl, author, film- and performance artist, questions the anti-aging and Beautymania, the pharmaceutical- and oil industry, corporations like Veolia, Monsanto, Suez or Google. Jazra Khaleed has given a poetic voice to the furious political protest, works with multimedia, and cooperates with others with filmmakers. Topics of interest for Khaleed and Kishida are right-wing extremism, racism, antifeminism and the handling of refugees. Kishida is cofounder of the print-literature magazine „Teflon“, which focuses in a special way on the transfer of foreign and marginalized language.
The panel participants questions whether poets can still write love poems and landscape poetry today, or if the poem only has a right to exist when it calls for action and protest. Are poets per se anarchists? It is about the relationship between poetry and politics, the role of committed and responsible literature nowadays and the question how capitalism and the criticism of racism express itself in poetry in the German and Greek space.
1-2 PM Lunch break
2-5 PM, Panel 4: Race-Gender-Class
Moderation: Astrid Kaminski
Speakers:
Gerasimos Bekas (GR/DE)
Nina Rapi (GR)
Maria Topali (GR)
Achim Wieland (DE/CY)
Race, gender and class are omnipresent topics in both language spaces, fuelled by economic crisis, migration and refugee flows. The widening gap between rich and poor, growing racism and antisemitism as well as strong right-wing populist parties are the background for their literary creation.
Artists such as Nina Rapi, Maria Topali and Achim Wieland, who have grown up between different cultures and sometimes write in several languages, work as poets and in the theatre field, but also expose these questions in their prose writing. Does political activism harm art or does it inspire? Gerasimos Bekas, a young author who writes prose and plays, prepares his German-language debut novel for Fall 2018. A good example of how literary offspring deals with gender and class issues.
The participants explore the relevance and radiance of literary intervention in the overall social space based on their different origins.
7 PM: Readings with the panels‘ participants
Hosted by: Astrid Kaminski and Spiros Moskovou
20.10.2018
10 AM-1 PM, Panel 5: Bridge-builders
Moderation: Angie Saltampasi
Speakers:
Jorgos Kartakis (GR)
Adrian Kasnitz (DE)
Jan Kuhlbrodt (DE)
Elena Pallantza (DE/GR)
Where economic developments thwart the publishing landscape massively, as in Greece, or literary productions foreseeably remain without public due to non-market-compatible aesthetics and spellings, authors often become active themselves in shaping the reception conditions of their texts
Cross-language and transnational cooperation are playing an increasingly important role: not only to the own work, but also that of the artists ‚ colleagues needs to be translated by private initiatives, independent small publishers or literary journals to make it publicly accessible.The double or even three-fold role of the author as translator and possibly at the same time publisher, magazine editor or literary organizer, creates a specific type in the literary landscape.
Jan Kuhlbrodt (Leipzig) and Dirk Uwe Hansen (Greifswald) have presented a number of Greek authors in German-language magazines such as fixpoetry and poetenladen. Elena Pallantza (Bonn) and her translation group LEXIS as well as Adrian Kasnitz (Cologne) with his 2017 published anthology of contemporary Greek poetry (parasitenpresse) are supporting German-Greek public cultural exchange events. Jorgos Kartakis and the portal poein.gr show how digital instruments can act as transfer alternatives.
1-2 PM Lunch break
2-5 PM, Panel 6: Writing practices and forms of presentation
Moderation: Thomas Plaul
Speakers:
Yiannis Baskozos (GR)
Simone Kornappel (DE)
Lily Michaelides (CY)
Andrea Schmidt (DE)
Digital technologies are increasingly integrated into the artistic production process by many authors. Simone Kornappel e.g. linked digital with real locations with the help of QR codes using the example of the Tempelhofer Feld („QR Feldein“). When we have a look at public presentations on digitally produced literature, it is noticeable that other artistic disciplines such as performance, music and visual arts are playing an increasingly important role.
The boundaries between production and presentation often become blurred. Lily Michaelides focuses on the political division of Cyprus and its impact on artistic production, including it in her own writing. She also gets active when it comes to the establishment of festivals and individual events in Cyprus itself and international. Yiannis Baskozos is the editor of the magazine „O Anagnostis“/The Reader, an online magazine for literature and art that emerged from the legendary print magazine „Diavazo“/Lesen. In the wake of the financial crisis and the slump in sales and advertising revenues, Greece need to rethink. Beside the Greek state award for literature, the annual prizes awarded by „O Anagnostis“ are the most important included for contemporary cultural production.
Andrea Schmidt, typographer, designer and illustrator, belongs to the publisher trio of the publishing house „Verlagshaus Berlin“, which focuses on special editions and projects. This publisher was also confronted with decisions on digitization, blogging, print edition and the publication of a magazine. What ways and means are there to make contemporary literature and rediscoveries from the German and international space heard? We expect an exciting exchange with authors and magazine makers!
7 PM: Readings with the panels‘ participants
Hosted by: Angie Saltampasi and Thomas Plaul
21.10.2018
10-12 AM Café/καφενείο: Interested authors, translators and organizers are invited to a get-to-know coffee!
During the symposium a series of portraits of the photographer Kanella Tragousti will be exhibited in the rooms of Lettrétage. Her portraits have been part of the exhibition „Greek in the neighborhood“: Eight persons, eight stories, eight Berlin based Greeks. With the kind support of the Greek Embassy Berlin
