Kostas Tzavelas
Polis
15 June - 21 June 2021
Polis
15 June - 21 June 2021
Inspired by literature, history, philosophy and his personal experiences, Kostas Tzavelas developed this personal body of work putting the focus on the City.
Starting from this poem by C.P. Cavafy, we understand the emotional state that connect the writer and the photographer’s feelings during different periods. The poem is overcome by pessimism and sadness. Constantine P. Cavafy is trapped into the city (polis in greek) and desires to escape the unpleasant reality that surrounds him.
In the series of images, Kostas Tzavelas tried to understand the similarities with his own emotional state, during this period of confinement, due to the pandemic.
The City (Polis), Constantine P. Cavafy
You said: “I’ll go to another country, go to another shore,
find another city better than this one.
Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong
and my heart lies buried like something dead.
How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?
Wherever I turn, wherever I look,
I see the black ruins of my life, here,
where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally.”
You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.
This city will always pursue you.
You’ll walk the same streets, grow old
in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere: there’s no ship for you, there’s no road.
Now that you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner, you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.
find another city better than this one.
Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong
and my heart lies buried like something dead.
How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?
Wherever I turn, wherever I look,
I see the black ruins of my life, here,
where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally.”
You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.
This city will always pursue you.
You’ll walk the same streets, grow old
in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere: there’s no ship for you, there’s no road.
Now that you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner, you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.
Kostantinos Tzavelas (b. 1985, Athens, Greece) has worked for several years in the private sector, in his field of studies, as a structural works technician.
During this period, he began studying literature, history and philosophy, attending related seminars and writing literature at the same time. In 2016, he began his undergraduate studies in the Philosophy and History of Science Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA), where he came in contact with the essence of philosophy, which raises the question whether a person who underwent an organ transplantation is still the same person.
For 2019-2021 year, was a student at in the Department of Photography at the Omiros Institute of Vocational Training Training and is wondering what the answer to this question is.