Between Tragedy and Horror
A pioneering event encompassing webinars, workshops, forums, art exhibition and three live performances
Held by the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation from September 12th to September 26th, 2024
A pioneering program regarding Ancient Greek Drama is organized by the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation from September 12th to September 26th ., making interesting social, cultural and historical allusions, as well as subtle, indirect references to the challenges of the modern era, whether referring to terror attacks and slaughtering or wars.
Held in Athens, at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, in conjunction with McGill University, this ten day event (17-26 September 2024), encompassing hybrid webinars, workshops, art exhibitions, and live performances, considers how contemporary horror aesthetics can be a useful starting point for reinterpreting Greek tragedy today, while also examining how contemporary horror both responds to and recreates Greek tragic elements.
For the first time in recent years, a group of 22 scholars from some of the most prestigious Ivy League universities in the world, such as McGill University, University of British Columbia, University of California Berkley, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Edinburgh, etc. is meeting in Athens on the initiative of the Michael Cacoyannis Institution, to discuss the relevance between tragedy and horror. The students of an American school will attend the event, bringing youth energy to the meeting, and proving that ancient drama is modern and timeless.
Since 2012 the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation has been implementing an EU program on Ancient Drama in collaboration with acknowledged Academic Institutions, such as Stanford University, the University of Leeds, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Helsinki Academy in partnership with the Aalto College of Art and Design, la Fundación de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the LabexArts-H2H (ArTeC) – Département Arts et Technologies de l’Image, Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis, the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft of the University of Bonn and more.
The program activates and presents interdisciplinary synergies related to Ancient Drama and aims to promote the dialogue and enhance the way ancient drama is presented through performing arts in the 21st century.
This year, the MCF is implementing the act titled “Ancient Drama: Interdisciplinary and Cross-Art Approaches”, co-funded by the European Union and the European Regional Development Fund, through the Regional Program “Attika”, within the frame of the Partnership Agreement 2021-2027.
For this year’s edition, the MCF has invited McGill University to contribute as the academic curator, aiming to compose an interdisciplinary team of scholars and artists from Greece, Canada, and abroad. This year’s program, “Drama: Between Tragedy and Horror”, explores the affective and aesthetic connections between ancient Greek tragedy and contemporary horror media, bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives from Canadian and international scholars working in the theoretical spaces where the two genres overlap.
Live performance and comic art exhibition
Inspired by “The Trojan Women” of Euripides, Tutto Brucia is a live performance that will be also held in September by the award-winning Italian theatrical group MOTUS.
At the same time a comic art exhibition titled «Trojan Women/ Struggle in Ruins» is organized at the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, opening on September 12th with the participation of 25 artists.
The events organized by the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, aiming to demonstrate the inner connection between tragedy and horror, could become a springboard, giving a new meaning to the ancient drama and in the meantime decoding the terror and the outbreak of violence in our everyday life.
“I mourn for the sons who died in war. For the women made slaves. For the lost freedom
Oh beloved creatures, come back, come, come and take us away!”
Hecuba whispers these words, raising questions.
“Which lives matter? What makes a life grief-worthy?”
Never more than now does mourning appear to us as a political issue.
Yet, it is through pain that the protagonists in the tragic scene are materially transformed – they become other than themselves, processing the violence suffered.
A metamorphosis that opens to other possible forms. And writes about the world to come.
For the end of the world is but the end of a world.
The program “Ancient Drama: Intercultural –Interdisciplinary Approaches” offers a learning experience for artists, students, and activists, as well as for people interested in which way the two genres could be engaged, to create synergies and raise questions regarding contemporary crisis.
As stated by Dr Lynn Kozak, professor of the Mc Gill University, head of the scholars (in conjunction with Professor Eric Lewis) coming to Athens: “As modern readers or spectators of dramatized texts rooted in ancient Greek drama, we are not familiar with terror, not only regarding the story or the plot but also as regards the vivid descriptions of violence and cruelty, being so terrifying that they reach a traumatizing level for the spectator.”
Nevertheless, the notion of fear is undoubtedly an indissoluble element of the ancient drama, even if it might seem, on the surface, as something awkwardly irrelevant. Fear and horror are not just forms of the ancient drama but they could be defined as descendants of the Greek Tragedy.
“A few work has been done in the field of classical studies regarding the connection between tragedy and terror”, underlines Alexandra Georgopoulou, artistic director of the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation. “For the first time the program “Ancient Drama: Interdisciplinary –Intercultural Approaches, held by the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, makes a creative dialogue implementing all the modern scientific trends, researching the connection between tragedy and terror and pointing out pioneering researchers’ views and combining them with a variety of cultural events such as theatrical performances and comic art exhibitions.”
Notions such as punishment, cruelty, and sacrifice, but also the inescapable nature of human destiny, the terrifying narratives of messengers, and the curses rouse the spectator’s terrified reaction not only towards the hero but also towards himself. Slaughter of children and women abused by men, a foreshadowing of evil and plight are some of the main elements of Greek Tragedy bringing together the ancient and the modern era. Tragedy can clean the spectator’s heart through pity and terror, through catharsis, as argued by Aristotle. And this can be achieved by suffering.