Saturday, June 25, 2016


I am wondering, when did witchcraft begin
And Ι answer with certitude : at the same time that desperation did.
Jules Michelet


Some years ago I was forced to.. swallow a bitter cockteil 
of frustrated love and friendship betrayd, all at the same time. 
And on top of that, having my leg in plaster cast! 

This sudden state of immobility, both of my body and soul
urged me to invent some kind of impromptu invocations
that had no actual addressee : dispersed words, or small extracts of poems 
that I would constantly repeat, for hours, as if in prayer. 
But in this case.. a prayer to whom? 


In fact, it was the only solution that my mind could find
- instinctively reacting - in order to save itself from madness. 
Because this unconscious and totally arbitrary mystic sense of this experience 
     acted as a substitute of hope.

Many years later, when I was reading about witchcraft in ancient Greece,
I was stunned when I realised that there was some similarity between this and my own experience.

So can actually Music and Poetry be used
as a kind of atypical personal ritual
so that someone "exorcises" bad things?

An in this case 
act as an  a n t i d o t e  to desperation?

Everyone will give their own answer.
We are just posing the question.


Music - Selection of texts : Katerina Fotinaki
Spells' voice over : Aglaia Pappas

Artwork : Irini Gonou, Miltos Pantelias
Consultation historique : Giorgos Andrikopoulos

Direction : Fotini Papachristopoulou

                              COMPOSITIONS :                              
Jay Hawkins, Violent Femmes, 
Guillaume de Machaut,  Georges Aperghis,
Loudovikos of Anogia,  Manos Hadjidakis, Barbara,
Katerina Fotinaki

TEXTS:
Orphic Hymns, Ancient greek spells, Sappho
T.S. Eliot, William Blake, Alfred Tennyson,
Od. Elytis, K. Palamas, D. Solomos



extracts of SPELL














































    Photo : Miltos Pantelias  http://miltospantelias.gr/  Artwork : Irini Gonou http://irinigonou.gr/ 
Handmade guitar : http://www.alectorguitars.com/

Photos of the preparation of "Spell"







 



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