Ithaka is on the one hand an unattainable horizon, and, on the other, a setting within space which has always been present. A house, a borderline, a borderland – these words, which have been directing our Krasnogruda meetings, find a sudden way of interpretation in several parallel contexts. They have recurred as a result of the continuation of the talk with Nana Janelidize after Arkhil Kikodze told us about deep roots of the war in Abkhazia where pointless questions about legitimate dwellers of the land spark up the conflict, where there is a need for a new narrative which would go beyond the dichotomy of of two heroic soldiers.
Later on, other pieces of poetry took us to another world. A history of a different power of the word was discovered thanks to the anthology Black Diamonds which was published by the Borderland, edited by Hanna Cieplińska and which contains the pieces written by such poets as bell hooks, Toni Morrison or Audre Lorde. Poetry, as a means of revolutionary struggle, and the emancipation of those who are the down and outs of the hierarchical world shed light to the worlds and meanings which had been invisible before and empowered what is marginal and out of the centre.
The final stop of yesterday's session was Sejny and its White Synagogue. In the Synagogue the Klezmer Orchestra of the Sejny Theatre gave a music performance which brought to life Jewish memory of the place and of music and which was an example of how the ethos of the borderland is implemented and how it cancels the clear cut borderlines of time, truth and theatre. Sound, which is vivid energy, takes care of the memory of the world of the past, reconciles it with the presence in order to open up the new world of the searching move forward.
tekst: Piotr Szroeder
