State of Siege: The Art of a Not-Yet Place Has Its Own Rare Voice

Andreas Maratos

Maratos A., State of Siege: The Art of a Not-Yet Place Has Its Own Rare Voice, in “Memories of the Arts-Fragments of History”, ed. A.Maratos, Nisos/Institute Nikos Poulantzas, Athens, 2021.
Language | Greek.

A. Maratos is a painter and doctor of philosophy.

This is a volume written by several authors for the Nikos Poulantzas Institute on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution. The text by A. Maratos refers to the cantata State of Siege by Mikis Theodorakis, set to poetry by Rena Hadzidaki, interpreted by Maria Farantouri and Antonis Kaloyannis.

Farantouri became a symbol of resistance and hope. The theodoracian musical world was her place from the beginning, she was shaped with it. And as this world expanded, she, possessing its codes, cast a new light on its premises, established a new measure of interpretation. That is why to this day she is its privileged voice on stages all over the world, present and protagonist in different readings and approaches. It is therefore a relationship of apprenticeship and conscious alignment, a relationship defined by her own choices at crucial moments, her refusals, her affirmations and her commitment. In those years, Mikis entrusted her with not only State of Siege but the vast majority of what he composed in prison, isolation and exile, the most difficult and most personal song cycles, river-songs and cantatas. Those that revealed the rebellious melancholy, the stubborn uplift and his lyricism.