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Bloomsday 2021 “Elpenor in the Cities”

Fournos Centre for Digital Culture

Elpenor in the Cities
Views of eclectic affinity
The new non-linear film by Vouvoula Skoura,
based on the sixth episode of “Hell” by James Joyce.
The narratives compose a rhizome mapping. This locates
the marks left by the people as they travel following routes
of their memory, as well as when traveling to Mediterranean cities.

Internal and external nomadism.
Just like stones are smoothed in the flow of water, so words flow
in separate areas and areas of exile, revealing the coast
of the Mediterranean basin.
Images become rhizomes, cultural deviations without beginning or end,
a kind of metissage, which forms the unity of the Mediterranean.
They are assembly images, illuminating these soul interactions,
hybrid subjectivities and inter-port travel
of the Mediterranean. They are assembly images, illuminating these soul
interactions,
hybrid subjectivities and inter-port travel
of the Mediterranean.

This video will be a kind of optical weave on a fabric,
traces of a narrative that shapes time, following the rhythm
of return. Penelope’s textile.

ELPENOR IN THE CITIES
Based on ‘Hades’ from James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’
Dedicated to Mando Aravantinou

Direction: Vouvoula Skoura
Text selection: Εvangelos Intzidis
Cinematography: Τakis Bardakos
Video-Audio Editing: Magda Martzoukou
Lighting: Apostolos Tsatsakos

In the role of the ‘Ulysses women’
Evgenia Marangou

Music: The Wooden Legs. Bloomsday 2013, Trieste.

‘All day I hear the noise of waters’ by James Joyce
Poem reading: Tryfon Alexios Karatzinas

Production: Fournos Centre for Digital Culture | Vouvoula Skoura
HD | B&W, color, 12΄15΄΄Vouvoula SKOURA was born in Thessaloniki, Greece.
She studied Graphic Arts at the Athens Technology Institute [A.T.I.].
She attended courses in Art History [1970] and a graduate course
in computer graphics for video at Middlesex Polytechnic [1988]. 
Her works in film and video have been presented at international
festivals and universities in over fifty cities.

Her films ‘Inner Migration’ (1984) and ‘Skoria Fotos’ (1989)
were both commended at the Drama Short Film
Festival, Greece. Her video ‘Black Moon’ took
First Prize in the Athens Video Art Competition, 1998.
‘ETEL ADNAN: Words in exile’ (2008) won the Greek Film Centre Award
at the 10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The Greek Graphic
Designers Association
awarded her its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Όπως λυγίζει ακρογιάλι το κύμα. Ο Αχέροντας ή ο Λίφεϊ και η κόρη στο Μεγάλο Κανάλι
να παραληρεί τα αινίγματα. Στα ερείπια δεν βρίσκουν οι χάρτες τις πόλεις τους.
Τι ήταν εδώ και τι θα γίνει τώρα; Η κόρη στο μεγάλο κανάλι τινάζει τα νερά. Κι ο
Ελπήνορας καθεύδει στη βάρκα του. Όλη μέρα ακούω το θόρυβο των νερών. Δύσπιστος
χάνεται ουρανός μες στις φωτοσκιάσεις των βράχων. Ποιος φεύγει κι έρχεται
ποιος δίχως λιμάνια; Ο ιχνηλάτης με τη λευκή ουρά παιανίζοντας άνεμο σκάβει κάτω
από το υγρό ρύγχος του ταξίδι εξορίας. Νάρκες χρόνου η άμμος και πριν το άδειο
της αιωνιότητας φλογίζεται απόμερα ο Άδης. Κάποτε πίστευα πως μας χωρά κάπου
το ποτέ, τον έναν δίπλα στον άλλο. Μα η λήθη παφλάζει στις φτέρες των γλάρων:
«αγάπη στερημένη από αγαπώ θα σε περάσει απέναντι». Ο ιχνηλάτης στα μπροστινά
του πόδια σκορπώντας την ανάσα της στεριάς με θαμπό το στόμα, σβησμένο στο
χαλίκι του αφρού, επιμένει: «Δώσε τον οβολό σου. Σώμα». Ποιος φεύγει κι έρχεται
ποιος δίχως λιμάνια; Στα ρήματα ξοδεύεται μες στον θόρυβο των νερών ζωή και ο
Ελπήνωρ στην άλλη όχθη. Να εκεί – εκεί στο απέναντι πεζοδρόμιο, στην Χομς ή στη
Νέα Υόρκη, στη σκόνη που απλώνεται στο νερό και χάνεται απέναντι. Όλη μέρα.
Βαγγέλης Ιντζίδης


Just as the wave bends the shore. The Acheron or the Liffey and the maiden in the Grand
Canal seething the riddles. The maps can’t find their cities in the ruins. What was here and
what shall now be? In the Grand Canal the maiden shakes the water. Elpenor slumbers in his boat.
All day I hear the noise of waters. The wary sky vanishes in the rocks’ chiaroscuro. Who’s
coming and who’s going with no ports? The pathfinder with the white tail plays the wind
digging under his wet nose the voyage of exile. The sand a landmine of time and Hades
inflamed aside just before the emptiness of eternity. I once believed that never can accommodate
as all somewhere, one next to the other. But oblivion ripples on the seagulls’ wings:
“love bereft of loving will get you to the other side”. The pathfinder on his front paws spreads
the breath of the land with a blurred mouth, faded by the foam’s pebbles, insisting: “Pay
your dues. Body”. Who’s coming and who’s going with no ports? Life is wasted on the verbs
within the sound of the waters and Elpenor is on the other shore. There – on the pavement
across the road, in Ηοms or New York, in the dust that spreads in the water and disappears
across the road. All day.
Text by Vangelis Intzidis
Trans. by Maria Andronikou

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