A season in Hell | Α wall of sound and emotions
Filippos Tsitsopoulos
with Nick Tsolis, Pantelis Pilavios, Panos Dallas, Antony Waites and Icaros Babasakis
A journey through the music and lyrics of Arthur Rimbaud's (20 October 1854 - 10 November 1891) poem A Season in Hell, is presented in a historic bar of Exarchia, in the CHEAPART building premises.
"A parade from absolute brilliance to unrelenting reality, ending in absolute silence. The lull. The alchemy of life and speech. The undoing. The chill of the flame and the burn of the snow.
The contracted and the expanded time. The heretical love that must be invented from scratch. The search for the great absent one, the father.
The quagmire of Europe. The complementarities: on the one hand, Christianity, i.e. the suffocation and hypocrisy of Catholicism, and on the other, rationalism, positivism, the hysteria of science, progress and action. Poetry of flight that abhors the establishment and the bourgeoisie, without giving in to any social class"*.
Filippos Tsitsopoulos collaborates with Nikos Tsolis, Pantelis Pilavios, Panos Dallas, Icaros Babasakis and Antony Waites, in an unprecedented meeting, a performance which is giving a new breath to an historical bar, on the occasion working with "a poem/text that does not fit nowhere: Poetry, testimony, narrative, theatrical monologue, philosophical essay, autobiography, chronicle, poetic art, confession, asceticism, prophecy. All of these, and none of those"*.
Monologue and music with performance come to rework the concepts and issues raised by Rimbaud's poem in the present now and rethink hell and happiness. In an historical comparison with Manchester music scene of the 90s, and The Haçienda the historic club that was the "child" of Tony Wilson and Rob Gretton and the groups that musically anodised it, from Joy Divison to Dead or Alive, Levitation, Norman Cook, Noel Gallagher.
The founder of Factory Records, created a venue for local bands including New Order, Oasis, Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, James etc. to express themselves.
The opening took place on 21 May 1982, with comedian Bernard Manning taking the stage - his jokes didn't wow the crowd though, as he used quotes from Rimbaud's poem A season in Hell, and punchlines as a kind of stand up comedy. The fact that he chose a French poet to describe the reverse course from the inexorable reality and impoverishment of the working class of Manchester, crushed by Margaret Thatcher to the glow of the Hacienda as something new, a centre of alchemy through music, in a comic and poignant way, resulted in him getting his fee back!
Filippos Tsitsopoulos deals through two performances Friday and Saturday with the revival of this moment presenting himself as the comedian who sings and recites A season in Hell, making bad jokes using that event from the past as the vehicle to tell about something that wasn't perceived at the time.
From the Rimbaud's poem will come out the lines, that will be improvised by the performers, creating instant songs, music, monologues and sounds using the poetry as the vehicle. The work can be described as a "wall of sound and emotion."
Nikos Tsolis, Pantelis Pilavios and Panos Dallas have collaborated in many musical groups with great success. The following day Saturday, Icaros Babasakis will read the poem ?Behind the gaze of Rimbaud? of 1992 in a live art piece with Filippos Tsitsopoulos where he will incorporate the voice of Antony Waites in Rimbaud Returns.
Happiness! Its deadly sweet sting reminded me of the rooster's first crowing - ad matutinum, Christus venit - in the darkest cities:
O Seasons, O Castles!
What heart is unstained?
Performer: Filippos Tsitsopoulos
Band: Nikos Tsolis, Pantelis Pilavios and Panos Dallas
Friday, April 15, 2022
Filippos Tsitsopoulos
with Nick Tsolis, Pantelis Pilavios, Panos Dallas
20.00 - 22.30
Saturday, April 16, 2022
Filippos Tsitsopoulos with Antony Waites and Icaros Babasakis
21.00 - 22.30
Sunday, April 17, 2022
Video documentation
12.00 - 16.00
Entrance to the venue is in accordance with current health protocols. The use of a medical mask is compulsory during the public's stay in the exhibition area.
CHEAPART
25 A. Metaxa str., 10681 Athens, Greece
