The Iliad of Homer, book 1, Street Performance

On Wednesday, June 6, 20:00, on the pedestrian road of the Acropolis, in front of the Herodeion Roman theatre, we arranged with Brazilian director Octavio Kamargo for a street performance: After her performances at the Biennial of Thessaloniki, Claudette Pereira was in Athens for a day and performed the first book of the Iliad in the portuguese language. This was a sample of a 24-hour performance with 24 actors to include all books of the Iliad that is still under preparation.


If you need any additional info you can contact Jella from the Reconstruction community at 6946946141

Here follow the press release and an abstract of general information concerning the performance.

The Iliad of Homer, book 1
Translated by Odorico Mendes (Brasil, 1799-1864)

[ performance ]

directed by: Octavio Camargo
performed by: Claudete Pereira Jorge
language: portugese

Line I+M proudly presents the europian tour of the Iliadahomero Theatre Company in May - June 2007 with Claudete Pereira Jorge directed by Octavio Camargo. The performance will be in portugese, and here Homer is used as a vehicle for interaction in different platforms of languages projecting different translations to different idioms and also sharing the code, (seeing language as code) of the literary matrixes of occidental thinking bringing this ancient formulation to a more comtemporary transposition. This brasilian group begins their tour from Thessaloniki (for the first Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art), and then travels to Skopje, Athens, Istanbul, Sofia, München, Lisbonne, Porto… This event is established as a collaboration between Upgrade! International nodes, emerging network of new media artists and curators.


The Iliad of Homer, book 1

The Iliad of Homer, after more than 2 500 years, still remains a giant matrix of the myths engendered by human creativity, which at their turn, engender and develops the other myths. It is as a photoghraphic portrait of the most important archetypes and topoi of the occidental thinking, and for that, a veritable semiotic knot of the european culture, as well of the world culture, in its occidental mirror. Uncountable are those who have nourished from the homeric sources: VIRGILE, DANTE, CHRETIEN, DE TROYES, CERVANTES, MILTON, GOETHE, MELVILLE, TOLKIEN, also the anonimous collections of the BEOWULF and des NIBELUNGEN and many others. At each new cycle of history, the influence of the Iliad and that of Homer is more or less present in the hearts of men and women.
However, it is very common to hear that the mass technologies and the society of information are taken as the new epic dimension of our reality. This gender of statement proves itself to be efemeral, as we can see nowadays. Modern times also have engendered new heroes and epics, but they are quite different from those that sprout from Greece about 2500 years ago. Homer is, for that, more than useful to help us comprehend human condition in modern life.

More than 10 000 km away and 2 500 years after the occurences described in the Iliad, the Brazilian intellectual Manoel ODORICO MENDES (Sao Luis do Maranhao, 1877 - London 1864) is the writer responsible for the first brasilian translation to the portuguese language of the complete works of Homer and Virgil. Sao Luis, at that time, was called the brazilian Athens (due to the number and quality of the poets producing in the city. It had the fame, as some authors say, of being the city where the best portuguese was spoken). The translation of the Iliad by Odorico Mendes, however, had to wait almost a century to reach a wider public.

The Iliadahomero Theatre Company, еstabilished in Curitiba (south region of Brazil), studied the text of the Iliad of ODORICO MENDES for about 7 years, though some of its members have been studying it for a bit more than 20 years. The translation of ODORICO MENDES is a complex text, very difficult and archaic, if we compare it to the modern portuguese (which is quite more simple), this aspect renders a Herculean aspect to the performance of the text. In the begining of the project, the director Octavio Camargo chose a group of selected actors from Brasil and assigned to each of them one of the 24 books of the Iliad.

Starting this May 2007 from Thessaloniki this play will be staged also at another european cities: Skopje, Athens, Berlin, Amsterdan, and other cities in Europe.

The event, proposed by the Theatre Company Iliadahomero achieve and accomplish very solid references of brazilian culture in the general context of the occidental civilization. The use of the Homeric oral text in Brazil has been revived by their work (which will continue). Now they look for different aspects of action and gestures in different cultures, and this tour throughout Europe will certainly help the Company to undertake this task.

Octávio Camargo is a composer and theatre director, and has been teaching Aesthetics and Harmony at the University of Arts in Parana (EMBAP), Brazil, since 1992. His work explores a diversity of fields, from music composition, theatrical presentations, and impromptu actions, such as “Pé com Cabeca” (performance 1995), “Ao redor da mesa” (theatre play 1999), “Oraculo do momento” (installation 2000), “Os Lusíadas” (performance 2000). Since December 2002 he has directed performances of dramatic enunciation of the Epic poetry of Homer (Ilíada de Homero). Camargo is associate editor of Surface Tension Supplements and conceptual activist for Surface Tension Projects.

Claudete Pereira Jorge, a brazilian actress, with a story of more than 30 years as a theatre actress in Curitiba has accepted to study the book one of the Iliad in the version of Odorico Mendes and to present it, in a stage recitation.
***Other cities of europe may contact the company (for the sequence of may 2007 or for future tours), to check the possibility of a performance. For that, contact the director of the company Mr octavio Camargo, or write directly to the company.