Dimitris Kourtakis

Kafeneion


In an old-style neighbourhood coffee house - kafeneion; a nearly extinct establishment these days, nine men, messengers of facts, long waiting in this set place, narrating stories in such a way as if wanting to unburden themselves of their weight, kept bottled up for so long. Close to themselves, enigmatic, they go back deep in time sourcing out information from the ancient writers : Homer, Herodotus, Thucidydes, Hippocrates, Lucretius, Ovid, Plutarch, Pausanias, as well as travellers' observations, records of excavations, and other texts that border between myth and history. The presence of a woman contributes to the argumentative manner of expression. In this repository of memories, dramatically recounted in a ritualistic fashion they are ever hopeful of finding a “crack” to escape the eternal cycle of history.


Dimitri Kourtakis