Theo Prodromidis
Towards the Bank of the Future
2K, stereo, 7'30"
2013
© courtesy of the artist 2013
"Towards the Bank of the Future" observes
and engages with two conceptual axes.
The
first axis derives from the analysis of Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics,
where Aristotle presents the problematic of a definition of the "work of
man". As the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben comments "the aim of
such a definition is the designation of the ultimate good (Agathon) as a subject of political science, in relation to which
the engagement with ethics, operates as a form of introduction. This ultimate
good is happiness".
In
Cavafy's work, one can locate this engagement, between the ethical and
aesthetic operation of man and specifically of the creator of work.
In
the same way that Aristotle sets the work of man in motion, this form of a life
that is activated by the operation of Logos,
Cavafys repositions life, or a form of life at least, in the sphere of History,
a history of action, an action beyond a simple livelihood (ζῆν).
Cavafys
in a way that is essentially modern, and with modernity being clearly visible
in the formal qualities of his body of work, describes, and thus positions in
the sphere of aesthetics, actions and events taken from both the historical and
the everyday, and thus elevates them in forms that while they are located in
the common, they are set in motion by the sublime.
At
this exact point, the work "Towards the Bank of the Future" focuses
on the second axis, on the concept of historicity, thus the specific position
and use of History in the work of Cavafys. The poet frequently narrates in his
works, of a man who is historically located either in the classical or the
modern times.
What
is always underlying and gives the work its characteristic force, are these
historical moments that one can come in relation to in Cavafy's poetry, moments
that usually overturn established political and social orders. And while the
narration revolves around the tangible and the everyday, the historical
position is always a key element for both the semiotic and experiential
engagement with the poem.
The
above element is the one that transforms the work of Cavafys to a significant
moment of modernity in poetry. The displaced historicity of the form, where the
atemporal collides with the historical.
http://www.sgt.gr/en/programme/event/1352
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