Onassis
What’s On
Festival

"Archive of Desire"

A festival inspired by the poet C. P. Cavafy

Dates

Location

New York

On the 160th anniversary of the birth of C. P. Cavafy, the Onassis Foundation in New York presents a week-long festival that traces the influential character of the Alexandrian poet and the impact of his work on a global breadth.

C. P. Cavafy travels to New York. “Archive of Desire” is a festival that involves a multitude of actions inspired by the life and work of the Alexandrian poet, seeking to turn the spotlight on his work through an array of contemporary artistic endeavors that extend across the city. From April 28 to May 6, the interdisciplinary festival’s program includes a series of performances, digital art presentations, short film screenings, poetry readings, literary discussions, a visual rave, and many more live events curated by composer Paola Prestini, Artistic Director of National Sawdust, a non-profit organization for the promotion of contemporary music, and under the creative direction of Afroditi Panagiotakou, Onassis Foundation’s Director of Culture.

A festival that focuses on the poet as well as the man Cavafy, refracting him through an interdisciplinary kaleidoscope that renders him contemporary and timely, as well as political, sensual, and profound.

DOWNLOAD FULL FESTIVAL EVENT CALENDAR

Festival Highlights

Summoning the creative talents of internationally established artists, such as Nick Cave, Bob Faust, Julianne Moore, Laurie Anderson, Rufus Wainwright, Robin Coste Lewis, Julie Mehretu, Vijay Iyer and Jeffrey Zeigler, Sister Sylvester, Nadah El Shazly, Juliana Huxtable, and many others, the festival focuses on Cavafy the poet, as well as the man. Among the internationally renowned names of artists who participate in the festival, we encounter artists from Greece and Egypt, such as Petros Klampanis, Evi Kalogiropoulou, and others soon to be announced. From National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to Rockefeller Center in the heart of Manhattan and St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, “Archive of Desire” is set to mesmerize and challenge the audience of New York City. As leading artists across the world re-approach Cavafy's words, we will experience his poetry anew, refracted into a kaleidoscope of contemporary relevance: political, sensual, and profound.

National Sawdust and ONX Studio, the accelerator of Onassis Foundation and New Museum of New York for digital technologies and artistic creation, will be the festival’s primary hubs, while The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, McNally Jackson Booksellers, Rockefeller Center, and Columbia University, among others, will also host festival activities. “Archive of Desire” will enhance our engagement with C. P. Cavafy through the art and discourse of seminal artists, academics, movers and shakers.

Participating Artists

Curatorial Notes

"When presented with the opportunity to curate a festival based on the work of the poet, Constantine P. Cavafy (1863-1933), I could not say no. Poetry has been a constant in my life since I was a child. My good friends know that most of my poetry books are deeply worn with notes tracing moments of my life that intersect with the words on the page. Poetry has saved me many times, it has helped me dream the abstract, and it has become an integral part of the music that I write.

And so, as Curator of the Festival, I began a deep dive into the treasure trove of the Onassis Foundation’s Cavafy Αrchive (which is organized with significant care) to create a festival program that reflects and illuminates the poetry of a deliberate, thoughtful and passionate man, one who was measured in his creations and how they reached the world, and whose most famous poems run even deeper into the crevices of the mind and spirit, as his secrets and whispers encourage his audience to open both their ears and hearts with each reading.

The idea of the Onassis Foundation pouring such intent and resource into preserving Cavafy’s poetry and, simultaneously, commissioning a new canon in service of further discovery of this unique artist is unique. The time is right for this festival: Poets are in fact true leaders in times of crisis, helping to articulate both the past and the future.

And so, as I stitched the quilt of voices and partners together to bring Cavafy to life, I meditated on many things; his queerness, the lack of binary in his life, his otherness and how this relates to current political themes, his sense of sensuality and how its hot fragrance persists across the decades and still quickens the pulse. How the artists in the festival illuminate Cavafy is yet to be seen as this is all newly commissioned work. What I do know is that, like Cavafy, who as a self-published poet, foreshadowed the current state of an independent sector of artists, such as, the very artists we are working with, who are also fiercely independent, brilliant, and inspired.

Our Festival, “Archive of Desire”, will share Cavafy's poetry and newly commissioned work in intimate settings that mirror the relationship between a reader and the page. We invite you in."

- Paola Prestini, Composer, Curator of the festival & Artistic Director of National Sawdust

"Cavafy
Singular

atypical and erotic, direct and obscure./ an honest witness to guiltless pleasure./ a contemporary citizen of ancient cities./ neither Greek nor western./ a man of his own invention graced with a language of his own invention./ is this reason enough to bring Cavafy to New York?/ I don’t know…/ what I do know is that Cavafy is a poet for those who don’t like poetry./ and he’s coming to New York for those who don’t already know him./ and he’ll be walking the streets, observing the crowds and disappearing in among them./ in times when we think we need the eyes of others in order to be somebody, he quietly suggests the following:

"Even if you cannot make your life the way you want,

try this, at least,

as best you can: do not demean it

by too much contact with the crowd,

by too much movement and idle talk.

Do not demean it by dragging it along,

by wandering all the time and exposing it

to the daily foolishness

of social relations and encounters,

until it becomes an importunate stranger.”

C. P. Cavafy – “AS BEST YOU CAN”, translated by Evangelos Sachperoglou

- Afroditi Panagiotakou, Creative Director of the festival & Director of Culture, Onassis Foundation

"As a lifelong arts administrator and devoted fan of every art form, I have always found poetry to be one of the most difficult disciplines to grasp. The deep emotional connection found in listening to great opera, the geometry and dexterity of dance, the profound storytelling that draws you into the heart of brilliant theatrical productions, and the comfort and heartfelt connection one feels hearing different styles of music, have always been artistic experiences I have gravitated towards most naturally.

Therefore, poetry to me seems more elusive – with the meaning and depth of the poet’s words always just a bit out of my reach. Then, through the Onassis Foundation’s Cavafy Archive, I discovered the poet, Constantine P. Cavafy, and, honestly, I couldn’t get enough! His words are both accessible and adventurous, powered by a life force that draws you in like a great novel. Erotic and aspirational, Cavafy communicates pure feeling with no verbal overdrive. He writes, it seems, for the undiluted joy of self-expression, and generously shares that with his readers.

I hope our Cavafy Festival audiences will enjoy the events we have planned and, in doing so, will find their own way to the heart and pen of this talented writer. The contemporary artists and poets featured in the festival have studied and embraced Cavafy’s poems and have added their own sensibilities to his work, thereby amplifying his voice and their own.

The range of poets, composers, musicians, theatre-makers, and writers participating in our Festival, “Archive of Desire,” is amazing. Paola Prestini, our festival curator, has curated a robust range of great performances and readings. Elena Park has organized a wonderful series of short films, entitled “Visual Cavafy.” The Onassis Foundation, led by Anthony S. Papadimitriou, our President; Afroditi Panagiotakou, Director of Culture; Effie Tsiotsiou, Executive Director and Director of Education; Marianna Christofi, Archivist, and Advisor, Professor Stathis Gourgouris have, through their artistic partnership and leadership, made it possible for us to share Cavafy’s work with our New York audiences on an unprecedented scale.

I hope you will join us for many of the events at National Sawdust, our partner venues, online, and on television, through our extensive media partnership with WNET’s All Arts and The Onassis Channel."

- Karen Brooks Hopkins, Senior Advisor, Onassis USA

Constantine P. Cavafy, born on April 29, 1863 in Alexandria, Egypt, where he died on the same day in 1933, was a poet ahead of his time. His humane poetic perspective transports our gaze from the margins of society to mythology and the Hellenistic Period, politics and love. A Greek with a queer and diasporic identity, who had lived in the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria and continues to inspire until today the work of many artists globally. “Archive of Desire” is a festival seeking to amplify the legacy of Cavafy’s work and reveal its timeless quality, and it is a collaboration between the cultural pillar of the Onassis Foundation in Athens, the Cavafy Archive, and New York Cultural Center. Karen Brooks Hopkins, Senior Advisor at Onassis USA and a member of the Onassis Foundation Board of Directors, serves as the festival’s Executive Producer.

Credits

  • Executive Producer

    Karen Brooks Hopkins

  • Composer & Curator

    Paola Prestini

  • Creative Direction

    Afroditi Panagiotakou

  • Content Coordination

    Pomegranate Arts, Michael Kendrick, Marianna Christofi, Angeliki Mousiou, Christos Sarris, Dimitris Theodoropoulos, Effie Tsiotsiou, Olivia Buntaine

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