The Onassis Foundation collaborates with Athens Surreal on a campaign for the anniversary of the birth and death of C. P. Cavafy

Through each collaboration, festival, and initiative of the Cavafy Archive and the Onassis Foundation, we embed C. P. Cavafy into the contemporary age and the here and now, in an age that involves everybody, beyond age, gender, and nationality.

In this universal condition, to come into contact with the poet and his body of work, it is not necessary to become accustomed to his poetry. You can simply visit the Cavafy Archive at Plaka, see his personal items and portraits painted by great Greek and international artists, listen to his verses through the voices of Laurie Anderson and Rufus Wainwright, and, mostly, discover why C. P. Cavafy still concerns you today.

Timelessly contemporary, political, sensual, and profound, but always relevant, the internationally acclaimed poet C. P. Cavafy compiled and archived his work on a systematic basis, hence creating a unique literary and personal archive. The Cavafy archive consists of more than 2,000 items, including manuscripts of poems, hand-compiled printed editions, prose literary works, articles, studies, and notes by the poet, along with his personal archive rich in correspondence, texts, and photographs.

The Onassis Foundation acquired the Cavafy archive at the end of 2012. This acquisition safeguarded its preservation in Greece and prevented its potential fragmentation. The aim of the Onassis Foundation is to ensure openness and free access to the archive by the public and researchers, as well as to disseminate the universal nature of Cavafy’s poetry.The Onassis Foundation proceeded with digitizing, classifying, and fully documenting the entity of the Cavafy archive contents in Greek and English, and in May 2019, the digital collection of the archive was published at cavafy.onassis.org, rendering it accessible to all. Responding once again to the need for openness, accessibility, and dissemination of the poet’s work, the Onassis Foundation invested in the creation of the Cavafy Archive, a tailor-made space in Athens dedicated to the poet’s archive, which was inaugurated in November 2023. Yet another international cultural heritage attraction opens for all residents, researchers, and visitors under the architectural design of Flux-office by Eva Manidaki and Thanassis Demiris.The Cavafy Archive in the historical center of Athens hosts the poet’s literary and personal archive, 966 books from his library, and a collection of documents and works of art with references to Cavafy. The aim was to create a space for the poet’s writings and books, his personal items and furniture, surrounded by artworks that enable us to gain an in-depth understanding of his growing impact on world literature and art from his era until today―a space open to researchers and the public, open to all.