Cavafy Archive and the Onassis Library at the 53rd Cairo International Book Fair

Visitors to the Greek pavilion will have the opportunity to discover various aspects of contemporary publishing in Greece, and Greek culture more broadly thanks to a range of books it will present on select topics. Among them is the children’s book “Little Rigas and the Secret Symbols of the Charta” created by the writer, illustrator and performer Lida Varvarousi and the Onassis Library. The landmark map of the Modern Greek Enlightenment and Greek cartography is unveiled in all its glory in this illustrated book for children that seeks to unravel its secrets.

The Onassis Foundation presents – in partnership with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Hellenic Foundation for Culture – a tribute to C. P. Cavafy that includes a series of specially-selected videos, the Cavafy Archive Digital Collection, the handwriting of C. P. Cavafy digitized in the form of a typeface, and four video animations by the internationally acclaimed animator Andreas Karaoulanis that breathe new life into four of his poems – “Remember, Body…”, “The Windows”, “The City”, and “Since Nine O’Clock” – recited by Greek rapper Saske.

C. P. Cavafy gathered and arranged his output with great care, thus creating a unique literary and personal archive. The Cavafy Archive was acquired by the Onassis Foundation at the end of 2012, thus averting the threat of its dissolution and dispersal, and ensuring the entire collection remained in Greece. Our mission has always been to provide free and open access to both researchers and the general public, and to further promote the internationally relevant work of this poet from Alexandria. The Cavafy Archive consists of poems written in Cavafy’s own hand along with makeshift printed pamphlets, prose literary texts, articles, studies, and notes written by the poet, as well as his rich personal archive of correspondence, texts, and photographs, all available as part of the Cavafy Archive Digital Collection.

Can a children’s book capture all the riddles, symbols and myths to be found in an incredible work that continues, to this very day, to be open to new readings and offer up new surprises? In this commemorative edition created by the writer and illustrator Lida Varvarousi for children aged eight to twelve, the Charta of Rigas Velestinlis is laid out and introduced anew, ready to embrace novel ideas and interpretations. A pioneering figure and leading light of the Greek Revolution of 1821, and one of the first to die for the cause, Rigas created a map – his famous Charta – that not only became a landmark work in pre-Revolutionary cartography and geography, but also encapsulated the Greek people’s thirst for freedom. It now forms the subject of a book sure to fascinate both young and old alike as it solves the map’s riddles and uncovers its hidden secrets. The book – created in partnership with the Onassis Library and the Cartographic Heritage Archives of the General State Archives of Greece – is accompanied by a scale reproduction of the Charta, as well as an augmented reality (AR) app for Android phones through which fifteen symbols on the map are brought to 3D life.