THE ILLUMINATION OF BLACKNESS

This notebook, produced by Porphyra Publications, is a darkly  melancholic work, relieved here and there by a few brighter brushstrokes. The Illumination of Blackness consists of dictums taken from more than 40 major Greek poets and thinkers from different epochs.

Month by month, there are verses by, among others, Constantine Cavafy, Zoe Karelli, George Seferis, Kiki Dimoula, Kostas Karyotakis. Here, for example, are some representative lines by Nikos Karouzos: ‘If you have seen loneliness behind the window pane/threatening you/with a knife-like silence/which will slowly cut into your own breast/ like a ghost coming through the door/with its bulging cheeks laughing/and standing there/you will love me…’.  Or Kostas Montis: ‘The danger is not the solitude, the danger lies in  getting used to the solitude.’

The calendar contains pictures as well as words: 12 important Greek artists have contributed their own ‘notes’ specifically for this publication. These are: Maria Yannakaki, Markos Kampanis, Yorgos Kordis, Alekos Kyrarinis, Tasos Mantzavinos, Emmanuel Bitsakis, Chronis Botsoglou, Christos Bokoros, Angelos Papadimitriou, Konstantinos Papamichalopoulos, Eduardos Sakayan, Anna Maria Tsakali. Everyone, individually and together, employing the written word or the image, has contributed their own version of what loneliness is. Some enjoy it, others find it liberating, and others again see it as a human tragedy.