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"
