Greeting by the General Director & Vice President, Board of Directors of MCF, Xenia Kaldara
Greeting by the General Director and Vice President, Board of Directors of Michael Cacoyannis Foundation
Grand Narratives / The Return_A journey to the future
Do we return to the Grand Narratives or they come back to us?
Do we go back or move forward?
The step is not backwards, but forwards. It is not about the return of the classic, but the need for meaning and the debate on Politics in Life and Art that are re-activated.
The 2019 edition of the MCF programme on Ancient Drama is registered in the contemporary theater’s tendency towards the ‘grant narratives’, highlighting the need for meaning, unification and synthesis of the fragmented world experience. This ‘return’ though is not backwards to the classic model, but a move forwards to new narrative forms. By employing the myth, experimenting with a constant parallel between the modern and the ancient, we achieve the control, arrangement, formulation and signification of the enormous panorama of contemporary politics.
What will be the dramaturgy of the future? Might be that the mythical method, the reinvention of the political, the grand narratives, challenge the partial and extremely individualistic and subjective, as well as the easy generalizations.
The political and the theatre. The timely and the contemporary. Is there any difference? From the stereotypical emotional discourse to the subjectivity of personal history and the populistic generalizations and normalizations. Are these the ends of the same chain? Issues that are open and urgent.
We aim to put into dialogue (and/or in debate) the Ancient Drama and the Political Sciences. Poiesis as Creation and Politics as Science, weave the thread of thought and artistic experimentations, acting as the rhapsodists of the present.
Xenia Kaldara
Adress by the Minister of Culture and Sports
Michael Cacoyannis Foundation completes this autumn its first decade of operation, with a rich and versatile contribution to cultural creation and research, matching the erudition and cosmopolitanism of the late Michael Cacoyannis. For the third consecutive year, the Foundation runs an extremely interesting program that explores diverse interpretations of the Ancient Drama and how they interact with art and science.
Michael Cacoyannis excelled in Ancient Drama, both with the theatre performances he directed, and the adaptation of Euripides’ tragedies to the big screen. His cinematic trilogy which includes ‘Electra’, ‘Trojans’ and ‘Iphigeneia’, made worldwide known the poetic discourse, the “imitation (mimesis) of a great and perfect action (praxis)”.
In the space he envisioned, designed and founded, the program ‘Great Narratives’ continues and completes an ongoing study of the reception of Ancient Drama through the performing arts in our time.
This year’s program presents and activates ‘paradox’ synergies between art and science. These include the Academic Forum, which explores the relationship between Ancient Drama and Political Theory, the reading of Dimos Avdeliodis on ‘Iketides’ (by Euripides), as well as the different take of Aeschylus’ trilogy ‘Oresteia’ by 22 modern comic artists. The program ‘Grand Narratives’ is a wonderful example of the endless wealth of the Ancient Drama and how it constitutes a constant source of inspiration for various art disciplines.
Michael Cacoyannis Foundation has an extensive experience in organizing such events. I wish every success and I am confident that this program will become the setting for a fruitful, creative and vivid dialogue.
Lina Mendoni