158 years have passed from the birth of C. P. Cavafy: Four poems written by the Alexandrian poet and infused with a new life, on Onassis YouTube Channel

158 and 88 years after the poet’s birth and death respectively, the Onassis Foundation invites a young Greek rapper to recite four poems written by C. P. Cavafy. Saske immerses himself in Cavafy’s lyrics, navigating the thoughts that the poet captured on paper. Next to this, the internationally acclaimed animator Andreas Karaoulanis invests these readings with image and sound, rounding off the experience. A contemporary artist specialized in animation and visual installations in the field of audiovisual technology, a long-standing pioneer of sound and image compositions, a teacher of visual effects and art video content, whose work has been widely exhibited in museums in USA, London, Moscow, Paris, as well as in several galleries around Europe, presents four animated video collages. The poems “Body, remember… ,” “The Windows,” “The City,” and “Since Nine O’Clock” arrive with a new impetus to breathe new life into Cavafy’s work, guided by the voice of the Greek rapper and the works of the internationally acclaimed animator.

The poet Constantine Cavafy was born in Alexandria, Egypt, on April 17, 1863 and passed away on April 29, 1933, creating a notable coincidence in the registry: a full life circle. Already from the beginning of the 20th century, he started writing poems about love, death, violence, the intoxication of power and the failure of high ideals. The particularity of his poetry, his quirky character and his solitary living, deprived of electricity and telephone, comprised a unique case that deviated from his era’s usual standards. Slowly but steadily, his poetry started expanding both to the Egyptian communities and the Greek mainland alike, engaging fervent supporters, but also fanatic opponents.

C. P. Cavafy collected and archived his work on a systematic basis, hence creating a unique literary and personal archive. The CAVAFY ARCHIVE consists of manuscripts of poems, hand-compiled printed editions, prose literary works, articles, studies and notes by the poet. The CAVAFY ARCHIVE was acquired by the ONASSIS FOUNDATION at the end of 2012, thus safeguarding the archive’s continued presence in Greece and preventing a potential fragmentation. the mission of the cavafy archive is to provide free and open access to researchers as well as the wider public, and to promote cavafy’s work and the international character of his poetry through the digitisation and complete re-documentation of the archive’s materials.

Tune into Onassis Channel on YouTube on April 29 Απριλίου, 2021, and listen to C. P. Cavafy’s poems “Body, remember… ,” “The Windows,” “The City,” and “Since Nine O’Clock,” infused with their new life.