And so much intensity in Greek phraseology

The project “And so much intensity in Greek phraseology ” is an artistic research on Kavafis’ phraseology. The particular linguistic behaviour of Kavafis, the mix of dialects and words shapes his unique poetic world.

For the research of the project his poetic worlds of 150 recognised works were translated to a database and through an algorithmic mechanism the repeated words were identified.

In this way while the poet’s phraseology is recorded as an independent tool, simultaneously the repeated words could be characterized as the kernel of Kavafis’ mythology.

The words that a poet chooses to work with is the body of his creative production. Words are carefully chosen to handle the language in a sensory function. However repeated words throughout the work are those that express parts of his psyche, visions, ideals or ribs while are elements which reflect the social conditions beneath which he lived and created.

The project “And so much intensity in Greek phraseology ” lists these words. The design parameters of the composition of the moving image are determined by computing frequencies in all of Kavafis’ documents. Abstraction, the non-structured narrative and the semantic game which is created lead to a redefinition of the linguistic material.

What is a poetic word, what is poetic language, what is the relation between poetic language as the common language?
The poet creates a system and a relationship of a whole and its parts. The system as poem and words as parts create a dynamic relationship in which reflect one another.

The project “And so much intensity in Greek phraseology” examines the case when the words isolated from the original set, are able or not to maintain the “colour” that the poet originally gave them?
Do the reactivation of the verbal elements and the new relationship created manage to find balance that lead to a sense of a whole?

The title “And so much intensity in Greek phraseology.” is a verse from Konstantinos Kavafis’ poem “‘This One” (1909).

The project was completed with the support of Onassis Cultural Center for the exhibition “Visual Dialogues 2013”

• dimensions

  Frame width:1920px , Frame height: 1080px , ratio: 16:9

• technical specifications

  Format: MPEG-4

• exhibition

  Visual Dialogues 2013 - Akadimia Platonos Parc / Onassis Cultural Center

• year

  2013

• acknowledgements

  Marinos Koutsomichalis, Konstantina Soulioti, Thodoris Chiotis