Take a trip to the Invisible Cities

Vasiliki Kappa

Take a trip to the Invisible Cities

KOUINTA 3

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Dreamy lands, of unexpected beauty

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Everywhere under the ground hidden remnants of ancient buildings… Ancient cities were more than buildings, they were living organisms.

You can sense the experienced time, it’s inside you… you are inside it.

Hard mountainous brown Black of the Stone Sea blue Yellow All colors meet Yet they don t mix On the contrary, each can be found pure, in strict isolation.

Placed on this landscape villages and cities seem fragile. I always felt that if I closed my eyes they would disappear, as if they’ve never been there, that houses should try hard to stay together, otherwise this chromatic wildness would swallow them.

Invisible cities belong to the world, every part of the world that keeps alive the memory of its past. My villages have two

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faces: one obvious, one hidden. I paint them as I remember them, I purify them from any realistic detail, trying to create a short chromatic summary of each place and reproduce the feeling you get when you see it for the first time. All paintings are based on real places that I’ve visited, but the viewer is free to find his own cities behind mine, the ones that remain invisible to me.

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Invisible Cities, Paris, Vasiliki Kappa

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This book is the result of an amazing meeting between two projects that gave me the opportunity to express the same idea in different forms. The first project is a series of paintings I’ve been working on for the last fifteen years, named “Invisible Cities”, since I was initially inspired by Italo Calvino. The second project is a film called “Take a Trip” directed by Christos N. Karakasis, and produced during the last two years. All filming took place in England and London is the city presented. I was asked to write a text that would be used in the film.

As a writer I do not find it easy to write on a given subject, but this was not the case. It was about a city, and cities were always part of my thoughts as they used to be my main subject in another field of my interests; art. How could I put my perception of a city in words, though? It seemed easy at first, but was it really? I had to think and watch the film so many times, but still couldn’t find my way with words. Then suddenly I was running out of time, I had to let the director know if I was going to give him the text or free him from waiting. I decided to free him. I was sorry, but it seemed that cities were only meant to be painted by me. Maybe I couldn’t combine different ways of expressing myself on the very same idea. Maybe we all have different areas in ourselves that do exist as whole entities, but can never meet, because they are just parallel to each other. So I freed him, but, as soon as I did, I started writing. I knew London, I knew England, I had lived there for long periods and suddenly it was all coming together.

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try to perceive the meaning.

Inside me there is an imaginary room.

I reside in it and secretly observe the world, like a writer.

I'm on the street while I'm not. I feel that people are the same everywhere.

I’ve come here to escape, yet suddenly people seem the same.

I responded to an invitation… by whom?

By no one, really…

It’s an invented invitation; to travel away from myself or maybe within myself...

During the journey I close my eyes to the world.

I only sense this existential situation… this connection...

I must admit I cannot find the right words.

I’ m travelling. I’ m leaving a city behind me for another city. I hope a different one.

Why? I do not know. I suppose, someone else must be travelling to reach the city that I’m leaving.

Maybe the journey takes place only inside us. Maybe the city itself is only inside us.

What indeed is a city, rather than the way we see it? ∞ 11

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am a prisoned writer, with so many thoughts.

People are the same everywhere.

This is so true.

I have to find out if others realize it.

People might be a little shorter or taller, darker or blonder, with slanted eyes or orange hair.

Always struggling however, facing obstacles, trying to change, to change themselves, to change the landscape or their lives. ∞ I can still smell the breath of the past and the tiny fairy elves hiding in the grass, the haunted castles, and the wild sea underneath the bare facades of Whitby ’s ruins. ∞ Oh well, these statues are waiting for me even here. As if there is another city inside the city.

A weird matching; those summer clothes sculpted on marble along with the outside rain, even though there is no rain today. ∞ Human traces here are so old.

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Vasiliki Kappa was born and raised in Toronto. She lives and works in Athens. As a visual artist she brings together a wide range of tools, ranging from painting to filmmaking, animation and video art. She is also a recognized writer, registered by literary criticism to one of the most disruptive voices in contemporary literature. Her first book "The hyena’s diet", Kastaniotis editions, was officially nominated for State Prize novel, something that rarely happens for an emerging writer. Her work as an artist gave her the opportunity for direct contact with the audience and constant experimentation with the idea of artistic identity and its applications in communication.

In 2010, in cooperation with KOYINTA cultural organization, she supported an inspired artistic movement in order to start a dialogue both with well known and emerging artists in strictly artistic semantic context. Part of the movement was a TV cultural show titled Blow-Up, directed by Christos

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Karakasis, which was presented along with a TV show titled Art Uber Alles. She was the presenter in Blow Up TV show for the total of fourteen episodes that were screened both in Greece and Cyprus. She presented artists, directors, actors and writers such as: Dimitris Athanitis, Lucia Rikaki Vassilis Mazomenos, Andreas Mitsou, George Moraris, Anthonis Livieratos, Mania Papadimitriou, Roberta Nitsos, Ilias Misyris, Ilias Iosifidis, Manthos Santorineos etc.

She is one of the founders of the International Digital Film Festival of Athens, while in 2013, she was the Festival Producer for the 3rd Festival (www.aidff.com). She is also in the Organizing Committee of the International Panorama of Scientific and Ecological Films.

She studied painting and holds a master’s degree in Digital Arts (Athens School of Fine Arts). She also has a degree in Film direction, in Ancient Greek literature and linguistics, in Acting and in Opera Singing and a diploma in alternative psychology.

She has held 24 solo exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. Her paintings are grouped in thematic series. "Invisible Cities" her most recognized panting.

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Paintings Page 21, Fairy tale city, all houses had ladders that led to the sky, every night people climbed up they caught a cloud and enjoyed the view Page 22, Greek City of Smyrna, my origin city, I can still recall all the destroyed buildings Page 23, Fishing village, I wish I could stay there for a few days, I would go fishing every day, wearing a big yellow hat Page 24, Hive of honey, I discovered that bees build their own cities, that people are bees Page 25, Nafpaktos, this is the typical Greek island, with a castle at the edge Page 26, Pilion, mysterious mountains, magical veil of the night Page 27, Santorini, that was one of the most unexpected places Page 28, Syros, And God leaned over Syros Page 29, Teenage city, this is the place we remember tenderly, but it once was the city we tried hard to escape from Page 30, Thessaloniki’s memory, nobody ever sleeps there

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The text in this book was especially written for the movie “TAKE A TRIP�, directed by Christos Karakasis and reflects my time lasting effort to explore the meaning of cities.

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TAKE A TRIP Organization of production Vasiliki Kappa Direction of photography George Devon, Christos N. Karakasis Dionisios Dimas Music Composition Gregory Giarelis Assistant Director Nikos Psaltakis Assistant producer Maria Kappa Text Narration Vasiliki Kappa Written and directed by Christos N. Karakasis

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ΚΟΥΙΝΤΑ Production www.kouintaproduction.gr KOYINTA Publishing House www.kouinta.com KOYINTA Art eMagazine www.koyinta.gr FILMMAKER www.filmmaker.gr Athens International Digital Film Festival www.AIDFF.com Tickets Tickets Culture Company www.vasilikikappa.com vasilikikappa@hotmail.com

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