Delphi’s Cultural Amphictyony
Al Pacino may not make the expected appearance as King Herod in Oscar Wilde’s «Salome» at this year’s International Meeting organized by the European Cultural Center of Delphi, yet the program will make up for his absence with a variety of other events. The meeting will feature many distinguished theater experts, ranging from Anatoli Vasiliev and Maya Morgenstern, to Nikita Milivojevic and Michael Cacoyannis. The festival, which will run June 30 to July 14, will focus on peace and culture. Events which fall under the general category of «Cultural Amphictyony» will include a conference, an exhibition, theater performances and concerts. «Culture is a matter of the heart and mind and not of interest,» said Helene Glykatzi-Ahrweiler, the center’s president, at a recent press conference. «My presence here is indicative of how I perceive the European Cultural Center of Delphi,» said Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis. «The center ranks high on the ministry’s agenda, because we believe it can work on many levels for Greece and can also provide a lot, much more than what it has proffered so far.» The official opening of the «Cultural Amphictyony» will take place on June 30, in the presence of President Karolos Papoulias. It will be followed by the opening of Costas Tsoklis’s exhibition «Peace,» a monumental installation featuring two crashed cars. On Saturday July 1, the conference, titled «The Role of the UN in the 21st Century,» will kick off with discussions on war and peace in the ancient Greek world. Participants at the conference, which will end on July 6, include Fanis Kakridis, Horst Dieter Blume, Oliver Taplin, James Diggle, Wang Xiao Chao, Stelios Papathemelis, Juri Rubinski, Paul Tavernier, Giorgos Kouroupos, Shlomo Avineri, Carmen Marquez Carrasco and others. The artistic program will also begin on July 1, with the staging of Aeschylus’ tragedy «The Persians» by the Greek National Theater. A performance of works by Greek poets and melodized poetry with Nena Venetsanou, Margarita Zorbala and Lakis Pappas will take place on July 2 and the School of Dramatic Art will present the production «Homer’s Iliad,» directed by Anatoli Vasiliev, on July 3. «My Homeland,» Nikita Milivojevic’s compilation of extracts from the tragedies «Seven Against Thebes,» «Antigone» and «Oedipus Rex» will follow on July 4 and Seamus Heaney’s «The Cure at Troy,» directed by Helen Eastman, will go on stage on July 5. «Peace and War Through the Eyes of Children,» a theater adaptation of Aristophanes’ comedies «Ecclesiazusae» and «Peace» with primary school pupils from Greece and Turkey will be staged on July 6, to be followed by Swahili music and gospels by the Shangilia Children’s Choir of Kenya on July 9. «To Miss Electra Atreidis, Mycenae,» a work based on Stavros Vavouris’s poem and directed by Memi Spyratou, will be presented on July 14. What is more, a tribute to «Cyprus and Democracy» will take place July 20 to 23, with a performance by the Adouloti Keryneia Choir on the 20th, Michael Cacoyannis’s «Lysistrata» with Maya Morgenstern on the 22nd, and a concert with film music and songs by Mikis Theodorakis on the 23rd. The European Cultural Center of Delphi’s Athens offices are situated at 9 Frynihou, Plaka, tel 210.331.2781-5.
