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"