Basic HTML Version
59
“A Journey in Time: George Seferis, Poet and Citizen”
40 years since the death of George Seferis, 22 September 1971
T
o mark 40 years since the death of George
Seferis, the ARTos Foundation –in collab-
oration with the Ministry of Culture and Tour-
ism of Greece and the Embassy of Greece in
Cyprus, and with the support of the Ministry of
Education and Culture in Cyprus, the Nicosia
Municipality, OPAP Cyprus and EAC– organ-
ised a series of events entitled, “A
Journey in
Time: George Seferis, Poet and Citizen”, which
commenced on 22 September 2011. As the
great poet not only made Cyprus his home but
found inspiration on the island for some of his
greatest poetry, it was of great importance that
this event was held in Cyprus.
22 September 2011
The series began at the ARTos Foundation
with the opening of a multimedia exhibition,
“George Seferis: Poet and Citizen”. The
exhibition, which included photographs and
video, presented the life and work of the Nobel
laureate poet; the exhibition had been presented
previously at the Frankfurt Library, in Smyrna
(within the framework of the international
conference on George Seferis), at the Greek
Cultural Center in Beijing in celebration of
the 2008 Olympic Games, in Athens and many
other Greek cities, and in Constantinople. The
Ambassador of Greece in Cyprus, Mr Vasilis
Papaioannou, inaugurated the exhibition, which
was introduced by Mr Athanasios Marantos,
Head of Arts and Cultural Activities of the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Greece,
and by Mr Pavlos Paraskevas, Director of the
Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education
and Culture in Cyprus.
Also on the 22
nd
, Cypriot director Andreas
Pantzis screened his documentary,
Seferis in the
Country of the Eclipse
. The documentary was a
journey through time and space, a history of the
inspiration Seferis found in occupied Cyprus,
and an attempt to find a relationship between
his photography and his poetry. Pantzis found
tracing Seferis’s path quite difficult, as many
of the places that were a source of inspiration
for the great Nobel Laureate are no longer the
same.
29 September 2011
On 29 September 2011, George Kalogirou and
Argyro Christodoulou performed a concert of
works by George Seferis set to music at the open
theatre at Famagusta Gate. The event was held
in collaboration with the Nicosia Municipality.