OUR Municipality of Avdeliodis this is a separate chapter in the Greek cultural reality. Small or large, central or peripheral, it doesn’t matter. It remains capital. Quiet, obsessed with his principles, whether they relate to artistic, aesthetic perceptions or his way of life, obsessed with things that he deeply likes. “I don’t fit into work patterns,” he says. And only his four films, in the 80s and 90s (“Unfair Competition”, “The Tree We Offended”, “Victory of Samothrace”, “Spring Meeting of the Field Guards”), and his directorial signature in “Forms from the Work Viziinos” performed by Anna Kokkinou (from the station of the Greek Theater), if you remember, it would again take a special place in the artistic horizon. Moreover, during his 40 years of work, he staged more than 30 performances. At the beginning of November, the municipality of Abdeliodis presents at Olympia, Municipal Musical Theater “Maria Callas” the work of Christophoros Christofis “Toulouse-Lautrec – Fantasy of sin”, a puzzle of “cinematic” scenes that reveal the artist’s world. spirit and feelings that he experienced in the last days of his life, from the beginning of the symptoms of his illness to the end, at the age of 37 years.

“I met Christophis on Periplanisis (sc. 1979 film). He made a big impression on me because he had his own style of writing. He had an identity card.” – says the director “K”.. “A friend introduced me to his plays and I read them. One element of his drama that I really like is that he avoids ethnography. He deals with the world of ideas. Hellenism is the basis of everything, that is, the wealth that he has from Egypt. His culture is Cavafy.”

We met the director at the home/private home, workshop and exhibition of the outstanding sculptor Aristidis Patzoglou, who has lived in France for many years and is in charge of the scenery for the show. We pass by the sculpted body of Toulouse-Lautrec on his deathbed and sit down on a spacious terrace.

He paints the truth

“I have always been fascinated by Lautrec, without knowing why,” comments D. Abdeliodis. “I was struck by his picture. He was different from all the other great men of his time. Having carefully studied his paintings, I saw that he does not paint his subjective view of the person he sees. He paints the truth. And that is why sparks fly from his touch. Despite being robbed and marginalized by his parents due to the disadvantageous body image of a dwarf that his femoral disease had cemented in him before entering adolescence, Lautrec showed no trace of inferiority or hatred of society due to his condition. He faces the truth with unwavering generosity and affirmation of the miracle of life. Like the Little Prince of painting. Lautrec is the Little Prince for me. It has the same look as Exypery. He sees the truth.”

Lautrec for me The Little Prince – He has the same look as the Supernatural – He sees the truth.

The performance begins from the day of his death in a neurological clinic. The artist recalls in flashbacks through ten short cinematic scenes the progression of the disease.

“Do you feel cinematically about this?” we ask D. Abdeliodis. “In the cinema, the image must become speech, and in the theater, speech must become an image. Through slides, we will recall the colors and details of his work,” he replies.

What was the reason to leave the camera for 22 years and devote yourself to theater directing? “The saying of the word,” he emphasizes without hesitation. “With Forms from Vizinos, I found a way to express words, and it gave me great joy. This path developed into a method that is still taught today.” He is very insistent on this, on the rhythm of the sentence, on the stress of the words. He is always looking for “thrills” in the theatre. “When it’s real, it’s physical: you shudder at the idea,” he notes. “If you do not distort, then there are no values ​​​​in the project. The sacredness of emotions is a very serious thing. You go to a project to experience the same feelings as others. This is therapy. Cleaning. It brings us to our senses in all this madness that we live in today, where everyone has a point of view on things that rarely coincides with the point of view of another. We do not have a common understanding of common values ​​and this can only be achieved through art. Politics doesn’t have that opportunity because it polarizes.”

“Toulouse-Lautrec – Fantasy of sin”, Theater “Olympia”, November 4-6.