Before I entered the room, what was I?
A Participatory Performance
Drawing from the 33 chapters of The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector–Brazil’s greatest writer–her works’ translator, Marios Chatziprokopiou, invites the audience to a participatory performative reading in situ. By creating a spiral arrangement of bodies around the Folly for Songs for Funk Kinship, performers and spectators join their voices through a verbal score specifically designed for the Megaron Garden and the late afternoon light. Untethering the narrative from the human kind (is it G.H./ gênero humano?), the focus shifts to the encounter and, ultimately, the osmosis with the absolute “otherness” of the cockroach–its guts which are our guts: with different forms of existence, with non-human life, with the burning present, with the living, liquid nothingness.
Marios Chatziprokopiou
Poet, performer, and researcher. He has presented performances and lecture-performances internationally and has worked as a dramaturg and librettist on numerous productions (Athens Festival, Megaron the Athens Concert Hall, Greek National Opera, Onassis Foundation, etc.). He translates Brazilian prose (Clarice Lispector, Hilda Hilst) as well as Spanish-language drama and poetry. His poems have been translated into English, Spanish, and Serbian. His book Topical Tropics (Antipodes 2019, nominated for the Greek State Poetry Prize) explores themes of queer mourning and desire in relation to oral poetic traditions. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Thessaly and has served as a Vakalo Visiting Artist at the University of Michigan.
