Blog

The first IME concert in Greece will be held online on the 27th of November, as part of the ART4MORE Festival 2020 (27-29/11/2020).

ART4MORE is an annual innovative International Arts Festival that brings awareness on social issues, with an emphasis on mental health. The festival is organized by EDRA in celebration of World Mental Health Day (10th October). Each year the festival explores a different central social awareness issue, through contemporary artistic forms, including visual arts, music, drama, dance, architecture, new media and design. The festival is being held under the auspices of the Greek Ministries of Health and Culture.

For its 13th edition, “Art that Works” is the core concept of ART4MORE Festival, exploring how Mental Health can be enhanced within the workplace, by using various forms of art (workshops, art exhibitions, photography etc.). The aim is to create an open dialogue, allowing the Arts to infiltrate workplaces and thus empowering creativity, even in those environments that are often considered as rather strict and stale.

All activities will be available through the following channels:

https://www.facebook.com/KSDEOEDRA

https://www.youtube.com/user/EDRAmko

https://art4more.org/category/art4more-2020-online-version/

Two more lyrics video were recently produced by K.S.D.E.O. EDRA, titled “Collateral” (lyrics by Christina Tsaliki and music by Katerina Pipili) and “It’s a Moveable Feast” (lyrics by Christina Tsaliki and music by Nassos Polyzoidis), once again by our amazing video producer and editor, George Ktistakis.

In a recent discussion with her, Christina shared with us her thoughts and inspiration behind the song titles and the songs’ lyrics:

“Collateral is a song about our generation, the idea that there is no place or time, just being; a generation living a life with casualties. These thoughts are expressed with an upbeat rhythm, as well as an uplifting tempo in contrast to the lyrics. Leaping from musical to tragedy, the stigma of mental distress and the culture of perpetual, sometimes even ‘’toxic’’ positivity and the denial of negative thoughts or emotions, is a theme of the song.  The unreal and unmet expectations of a generation during the decade of the economic crisis, living a post-traumatic, as well as a pro-traumatic era, still recovering from a national trauma and at the same time adjusting to a new global trauma. However, such circumstances can often lead to resilient bloom and growth.

On the other hand, “A Moveable Feast” is a song about our future and past self, as Plath says “inside me an old woman, inside me a girl”. The main theme is the fear of death, growing old, as well as of the oblivion and the future, essentially the fear of (not) living truly. The song explores how the last existing trail of ourselves can be found in someone’s memory and how our homes operate as personal museums, proving somehow a main theme during the pandemic.

The main idea is living each day to the fullest, as if it were our last, as the woman leaving her house prepared to not come back. Partially referring to people suffering from dementia, the

song attempts to wake us up, like a dream or an archetypical myth.

Inspired by the homonym book of Ernest Hemingway, the title refers to the memory of a splendid place that goes on with the moving passenger, transferring the emotion through a lifetime. This song in particular reminds me of a single act play or a stage monologue, a narrative that could be the personal story of any one of us.”

The first lyric video for the song titled “To Teras” – “The Monster” (lyrics by Azat Chelvatzian and music by Ioannis Bairaktaris) is finally ready, thanks to our amazing video producer and editor George Ktistakis.  “To Teras”, as well as “I Agapi Ola ta Nika” (“Love Beats Everything”), also written by Azat and performed by Ioannis, approach the issue of mental health and its various challenges, as well as the means to deal with them.

Azat elaborated on the songs’ titles and shared what it inspired her the most:

 “In the context of IME Project which brings mental health to the foreground, I chose to write two songs opposite to each other; the first one talks about the struggle (“To Teras” – “The Monster”), while the other one (“I Agapi Ola ta Nika” – “Love Beats Everything”) talks about how love can conquer all and help people deal with mental health challenges. However, both songs reflect on the soul’s strength and will for liberation.

The song titled “To Teras” (“The Monster”), refers to the ways depression can affect an individual’s everyday life, by taking the form of a monster. The monster can often take control, making people constantly feel stagnant and scared, unable to fulfill their dreams. In the chorus, the lyricist refers to the daily struggle and how one manages to kill the monster, even temporarily (“ti mera to skotono, ti nixta me nika” – “every day I kill it and every night it beats me”), as well as the wish to be liberated completely. However, the fight will not stop until the individual manages to take control of his/her life again and get back on track.

Finally, through the song “I agapi Ola ta Nika” (“Love Beats Everything”), I wanted to point out the power of love that can work wonders! Love unites, creates and makes people stronger, so they can face the challenges ahead and touch the light. My professional involvement with mental health, as well as various situations I have come across in life, have often given me the chance to feel the therapeutic power that love can offer.”

INTRAS organizes the ‘Intro Music Week’ with a ‘jam session’ at LAVA and a concert at Kafka.

• The program, which took place from February 10th to 14th, included master classes and workshops in which a dozen different groups and soloists from Belgium, Greece and Spain participated.
• All the acts are part of the European project IME (INTROSPECTION MUSIC EXPERIENCE), funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union, in which emerging musical creators with and without mental illness will write songs about experiences of psychological distress.

Fundación INTRAS organizes a week of cultural activities around musical creation and mental health including a ‘jam session’ on February 12 th and a free concert in the bar Kakfa on the 13 th , together with master classes and workshops on composition, musical creation or ‘management’ in which a dozen groups and soloists from Belgium, Greece and Spain has participated.

These groups, which are the members of the European IME project led by INTRAS, were the protagonists of the free concert that was held at the Kakfa bar (C \ Arribas, 14), starting at 10 p.m. on February 13. Katerina Pipili, Nassos Polyzoidis and Ioannis Bairaktaris (Greece), Chloë Nols, Thomas Werbrocuk and Korneel Muyllee (Belgium) and Naïa, Nacho Prada, Grounded Theory and Rober and the Optimists (Spain) rehearsed songs from their respective repertoires in this free musical event. A day before, on the 12th at 9pm, the ‘black room’ of the Laboratory of Arts in Valladolid
(LAVA) hosted a ‘jam session’ coordinated by the Greek Christos Kladas, which was open o any musician from Valladolid interested in joining it.
The Kafka concert and the jam session were the two central acts open to the public of the ‘Intro Music Week’, but during this week master classes were delivered by the musicians Sean Marholm (Vocalist for the Spanish Band ‘Dinero’) and Christos Kladas, in addition to Grace Puluczek (3 notes training) with whom they delved into all fields of musical creation, from the most artistic to the technical, including commercial and economic ones.
The ‘Intro Music Week’ workshops thus added to the individual work of creation and composition carried out by Spanish, Greek and Belgian groups and soloists for months and which will crystallize, at the end of the project, in a handful of songs about mental health, local concerts in the participants’ home cities and an international mini-tour of three concerts in Athens, Brussels and Valladolid.

• 

• 

• 

• 

•