Mikis Theodorakis - Songs of resistance

As promised in my previous post here are four songs by Mikis Theodorakis.


To Gelasto Pedi (The laughing boy)





Written in honour of Irish revolutionary hero Michael Collins, this song has come to stand for various resistance figures in Greek history. It was linked with Sotiris Petroulas who was killed, aged 22, when police attacked demonstrators in July 1965. Since Kosta Gavras's film Z about the assassination of MP Grigoris Lambrakis, the song has been identified with Lambrakis.  It's very popular and one of the most recognised songs in contemporary Greece.



T'was on an August morning, all in the dawning hours,
I went to take the warming air, all in the Month of Flowers,
And there I saw a maiden, and mournful was her cry,
'Ah what will mend my broken heart, I've lost my Laughing Boy.
So strong, so wild and brave he was, I'll mourn his loss too sore,
When thinking that I'll hear the laugh or springing step no more.
Ah, curse the times and sad the loss my heart to crucify,
That an Irish son with a rebel gun shot down my Laughing Boy.
Oh had he died by Pearse's side or in the GPO,
Killed by an English bullet from the rifle of the foe,
Or forcibly fed with Ashe lay dead in the dungeons of Mountjoy,
I'd have cried with pride for the way he died, my own dear Laughing Boy.
My princely love, can ageless love do more than tell to you,
Go raibh maith agat for all you tried to do,
For all you did, and would have done, my enemies to destroy,
I'll mourn your name and praise your fame, forever, my Laughing Boy.

It was on an August morning, all in the morning hours,
I went to take the warming air all in the month of flowers.




The Slaughterhouse





The beatings have started in the office
I count the beatings, the blood I count
I am being fattened up, shut in a slaughterhouse
today you, tomorrow me.

In the evening they are beating up Andreas in the terrace
I count the beatings, the pain I count
behind the wall we will be together again

Tap tap from you, tap tap from me
Which, in this mute language, means
I am holding strong, I am holding on

In our hearts the festival begins
tap tap from you, tap tap from me.

Our slaughterhouse has started smelling of thyme
and our cell of red sky

(music and lyrics by M. Theodorakis)

This song is about the notorious headquarters of the security police at Bouboulinas Street in Athens where torture of political prisoners was an everyday occurrence. Theodorakis was in solitary confinement for 60 days there. He joined a hunger strike but fell unconscious and was taken to Averoff prison hospital with an internal abscess.

'I heard the cries of men undergoing torture. I saw comrades who had been so badly tortured with the falanga (beating of the soles of the feet) that they could not walk. In the Averoff prison hospital I saw men who had had the bones in their feet broken by the severity of the torture. I was a man called Petropoulos, a member of the Lambrakis Youth Movement (which Theodorakis founded) with the bones in his feet broken in this way and with no nails left in his toes' says Theodorakis, recalling these awful days.  (from the Guardian )


O Antonis (from the Mautsausen album)

 

The lyrics are by Iakovos Kabanellis who was incarcerated in the Mauthausen Nazi concentration camp for four years.


Asma Asmaton (The Song of Songs)

Another song from the Mauthausen album.






Oh! How beautiful my beloved is
With her care in her daily dress
And with the comb in her hair.
No-one knew she's so beautiful.

Maidens from Auschwitz,
Maidens from Dachau,
Have you seen my love, perchance?

We saw her on her long journey.
She no longer wore her dress
Not the comb in her hair.

Oh! How beautiful my beloved is
Pampered by her loving mother,
And her brother's kisses.
No-one knew that she's so beautiful.

Maidens from Mathausen,
Maidens from Belsen,
Have you seen my love, perchance?

We saw her standing in the frozen courtyard,
With a number on her white arm,
And a yellow star over her heart.

Kyriakos Katzourakis - A Retrospective: political works

 

Kyriakos Katzourakis, at the Benaki Museum, Pireos Street Annexe.

 

 

I am doing three posts of this very thought-provoking exhibition, since Katzourakis is such a prolific artist. This second post is about his overtly political work. You can see the first one here .

 

 

 

 

 

'My own small revolt began with the murder of Sotiris Petroulas (Petroulas was murdered during a demonstration in 1965) and the murder of Grigoris Grigoropoulos (the 15-year old was murdered by a policeman in 2008) reinforced my view that any sort of protest will be put down by authority'.

 

Living under the dark shadow of the military junta, his early work reflects the state of Greece at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

Since the advent of the economic crisis and the rise of the neo-Nazi party, and the relentless persecution of immigrants and asylum seekers in the streets of Greece by the fascists and by the government, Katzourakis has mourned what he sees as the mutation of a democratic nation into a matrix of violence and bigotry. Not only does he see this violence as unacceptable, but he also despairs about the apathy that characterises the majority of the Greek population: fear, unease and repulsion are not enough, according to the artist. Empathy is what is needed, the ability to put ourselves in the shoes of the weak and to view the world through their eyes - it's the only way to regain our lost dignity. He has consequently put the Immigrant centre stage in his work, the immigrant as Other, Foreigner, on the edge of society, misunderstood, scared, persecuted, a victim of exploitation, bearer of a tragic experience that can only be understood if that experience becomes part of our own existence.

 

 'Greek citizens in today's society have no voice, they are mute, they are powerless in the face of a strong repressive state that is determined to quash the welfare state, education, empathy, everyday life, civilisation as we know it. Our times are marked by the rise of fascism, racism, the triumph of evil. People expect some sort of Messiah to come and save them, whereas it is only people themselves who can stamp out evil'.

 

 

 



 

Junta, 1968 (oil on canvas)

Greek Family, 1973 (acrylic on canvas)

The Conference Participant, 1969, (oil on canvas)

Che, 1968 (oil on canvas)

The Exception, 1968, (oil on canvas)

Politician, 1968 (oil on canvas)

The Banquet, 1971, (oil on canvas)

'68, 1968, (oil on canvas)

Days of '68, 1968 (acrylic on canvas)

Greeting, 1968, (oil on canvas)

Soldier, 1969 (oil on canvas)

Abuse of Power, 1973, (oil on canvas)

Prison II, 2010 (oil on canvas)

Prison III, 2009, (oil on canvas)







Finally, a certificate from the United Nations thanking Katzourakis for the work he has done for immigrants and asylum seekers.

Kyriakos Katzourakis - A Retrospective

 

 

 

Kyriakos Katzourakis, at the Benaki Museum, Pireos Street Annexe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An extremely thought-provoking exhibition. Katzourakis is a prolific artist who has experimented with all kinds of styles and genres, not just in painting, but also photography, film, video art and theatre stage sets. The publication of his latest book, 'Order into Chaos', coincides with the exhibition, and his latest film 'Small Revolts' was screened at the Benaki while we were there.

 

He lived and worked under the dark shadow of the junta in the 1960s and then moved to London in 1972 where his work took a different direction and led to an attempt to combine the two different worlds that he inhabited.

 

 

 

 

 

Part of the New Greek realist group, his work is imbued with a very strong political flavour. His art is a mixture of painful, almost clinical recording of reality but also an anarchist explosion of unordered images emanating from the land of dreams, instinctive association and nightmare. An able, critical reader of the narrative of the Hellenic 1930s generation, he entered into dialogue with those artists, as well as others that have influenced his work such as Bacon, Velasquez, Picasso. His greatest influences have been Tsarouchis and Caravaggio's chiaroscuro.

 

'Everything starts with painting', he says. 'People drew before they spoke. Our visual experience of the world comes first before everything else'.

 

 

                                                                   *   *   *

 

 

Instead of recording this exhibition in chronological order, I felt I had to make my own categories, ones that made sense to me. This is the first of three posts on his work.

Polaroid with my Shadow, 1972 (acrylic on canvas)

401 Hospital, 1975 (acrylic on canvas)

Three Mirrors, 1990, (oil on canvas)

Ippokrateio Hospital, 1990, (oil on canvas)

Menidi, 2001, (acrylic on canvas)

A Story, 1993, (acrylic on canvas)

 

A closer look at one of the panels

 



 

 

 

 

ditto

ditto

ditto




Dialogue with Other Artists:

Bacon, 1966 (oil on canvas)

Café Velasquez, 1976 (acrylic on canvas)

Yvonne Poussin, 1976 (oil on canvas)

Les Mademoiselles d'Avignon, 2012 (oil on canvas)

Bacon's Entrance, 2010, (oil on canvas)

The Massacre of the Innocents, 2012, (oil on canvas)

Las Meninas, 1976 (oil on canvas) - this painting was not part of the exhibition but is in the National Gallery in Athens.



An exploration of, and dialogue with, the 1930s Greek School of Painting:

Hydra, 1966 (oil on canvas)

Mirror, 1965 (acrylic on canvas)

The Mountain, 1976 (oil on canvas)

A re-working of Tsarouchis

Chrysanthi, 1980, (oil on wood)

A conversation with Tsarouchis, again.

Katia with Mirror, 1987 (oil on canvas)

Penelope, 2013 (oil on canvas)

Alexander in Veria, 2012 (oil on canvas)

Giorgione - Portrait, 1980 (oil on wood)



Faiyum:

Gypsy, 1973 (oil on wood) on the left,  and Myrto, 1973 (oil on wood) on the right


Stage Sets:

Iphigenia at Aulis, 1990

Women of Troy, 1992

Alcestis, 1992

Happy End, 1997.




Sketches and Prints:

A print about Rigas Ferraios, one of the Greek freedom fighters during the 1821 Revolution which led to the liberation of Greece from the Turks.



Feature Films:

Katzourakis has made three feature films. 'Small Revolts' (2009) , the last of the trilogy whose theme is 'how much can women bear' was showing while we were in the gallery. In the first film of the trilogy 'The Way West' , Irina, the protagonist commits suicide. Things are equally grim for the second Irina, the protagonist of the second film. 'Small Revolts'  is about Anna, who was abused by her father and who then marries a man who is into trafficking and who abuses her. She manages to escape from him, so this film has a more optimistic ending.