Patterns of Trauma – Arts and History

How does a contemporary text sound when it engages in dialogue with an older one, such as an excerpt from Odysseus Elytis’ poem Axion Esti (Worthy it is), after an oral testimony? How could all these elements come together in an emblematic composition by Dmitri Shostakovich about World War II? Musicians Faidon Miliadis, Laertis Kokolanis, Enkela Kokolani, and Angelios Liakakis will perform Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 in an open dialogue with actor Dimitris Mandrinos. A new theatrical monologue by Thodoris Iosifidis, intended for the Ancient Theatre of Pleuron,  will attempt to express through words what music conveys as experienced emotions. The sources for this piece, which converses with music, include survivors’ accounts, as well as earlier and more recent literary texts associated with war. Literary and musical motifs blend in an effort to acknowledge the collective trauma caused by World War II.