Constantinopoliad | Sister Sylvester – Nadah El Shazly

Appearing like an open invitation-challenge to a journey at the borders of genders and diverse worlds, between East and West, to what you expect and what you have experienced through Cavafy, "Constantinopoliad," the multi-prismatic and interactive performance devised by visual artist Kathryn Hamilton, aka Sister Sylvester, along with Egyptian musician Nadah El Shazly, visualizes the empty and blank pages of "Constantinopoliad," the diary kept by Cavafy when he and part of his family had to flee Alexandria in a hurry for Constantinople.

The three-dimensional handmade book offered to you during the performance becomes the beginning of a multifaceted artistic experience accompanied by music, narration, a sound installation, and reading, even touching upon video installation and singing. With the diary entries of an adolescent Cavafy during his journey to 19th-century Ottoman Constantinople as a point of reference, the two performers invite us to shape our own journey, actively participating in what he wrote, lived, listened to, and fantasized about. "How can we truly reconstruct the days and nights of Cavafy if we cannot hear the music he was listening to?" is the question that emerges through the book's pages; the answer comes from the performance that unfolds before our very eyes.

Nothing in this performance is destined to be forsaken, even after you have long exited the room; in this multi-prismatic wonder that "Constantinopoliad" unfolds as a coming-of-age journey of C. P. Cavafy, we encounter all our own ghosts.

The performance was first presented in April 2023 at the Onassis Foundation's "Archive of Desire" festival in New York, commemorating the 160th anniversary of C.P. Cavafy's birth.

Commissioned by The Onassis Foundation, supported by residencies at Onassis AiR, and with the support of the Cavafy Archive, Athens. Premiered at National Sawdust as part of ‘Archive of Desire’ Festival, 2023.