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sixty-silver-wishes · 1 year

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Tumblr's Guide to Shostakovich- Asides- Ivan Sollertinsky

So, in addition to my weekly posting for Tumblr's Guide to Shostakovich, I decided I want to do a series of related "asides" posts. These will be posted irregularly (as opposed to weekly) and cover aspects related to Shostakovich that don't fit neatly into one post focusing on one part of the chronological timeline. In this case, I want to talk about Ivan Ivanovich Sollertinsky, specifically his role in Shostakovich's life and music. Sources I'll be citing include Elizabeth Wilson's Shostakovich: A Life Remembered, Shostakovich's own letters to Sollertinsky and Isaak Glikman, Dmitri and Lyudmila Sollertinsky's Pages from the Life of Dmitri Shostakovich, Pamyati I.I. Sollertinskogo (Memories of I.I. Sollertinsky), and I.I. Sollertinsky: Zhizn' i naslediye (Life and Legacy), the latter two both by Lyudmila Mikheeva. Photo citations include the DSCH Publishers website and the DSCH Journal photo archive.

(Dmitri Shostakovich and Ivan Sollertinsky, Novosibirsk, 1942.)

Ivan Ivanovich Sollertinsky was born in Vitebsk, present-day Belarus, on December 3, 1902. He was a polymath, excelling in humanities fields, including linguistics, philosophy, musicology, history, and literature- particularly that of Cervantes. He specialized in Romano-Germanic philology, and spoke a wide range of languages; sources I've read vary from claiming he spoke anywhere from 25 to 30. (He specialized in Romance languages, but I can also confirm from sources that he studied Hungarian, Japanese, Greek, Sanskrit, and German. I've heard it said that he kept a diary in ancient Portuguese so nobody could read it, but I haven't seen this verified.) He had a ferocious wit, which he used to uplift friends and skewer enemies (there's a hilarious anecdote where he once saddled a critic opposed to Shostakovich with the nickname "Carbohydrates" for life), and worked as a professor, orator, and artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic. And yet, this impossibly bright star would burn out all too soon at the age of 41 due to a terminal heart condition, leaving his closest friend devastated- and inspired.

Dmitri Shostakovich first met Ivan Sollertinsky in 1921, when they were both students at the Petrograd Conservatory. While Shostakovich claimed he was at first too intimidated to talk to Sollertinsky the first time he saw him, when they met again in 1926, Shostakovich was waiting outside a classroom to take an exam on Marxism-Leninism. When Sollertinsky walked out of the classroom, Shostakovich "plucked up courage and asked him":

"Excuse me, was the exam very difficult?"

"No, not at all," [Sollertinsky] replied.

"What did they ask you?"

"Oh, the easiest things: the growth of materialism in Ancient Greece; Sophocles' poetry as an expression of materialist tendencies; English seventeenth-century philosophers and something else besides!"

Shostakovich then goes on to state he was "filled with horror at his reply."

(...Yes, these are real people we are talking about. According to Shostakovich, this actually happened. And I love it.)

Later, in 1927, they met at a gathering hosted by the conductor Nikolai Malko, where they hit it off immediately. Malko recalls that they "became fast friends, and one could not seem to do without the other." He further characterizes their friendship:

When Shostakovich and Sollertinsky were together, they were always fooling. Jokes ran riot and each tried to outdo the other in making witty remarks. It was a veritable competition. Each had a sharply developed sense of humour; both were bright and observant; they knew a great deal; and their tongues were itching to say something funny or sarcastic, no matter whom it might concern. They were each quite indiscriminate when it came to being humorous, and if they were too young to be bitter they could still come mercilessly close to being malicious.

(Shostakovich and Sollertinsky, 1920s.)

Sollertinsky and Shostakovich appeared to be perfect complements of each other- one brash, extroverted, and confident, and the other shy, withdrawn, and insecure, but each sharing a sarcastic sense of humour and love for the arts that would carry throughout their friendship. In Shostakovich's letters to Sollertinsky, we see him confide in him time and again, in everything from drama with women to fears in the midst of the worsening political atmosphere. When worrying about the reception of his ballet "The Limpid Stream," Shostakovich writes in a letter from October 31, 1935:

I strongly believe that in this case, you won't leave me in an extremely difficult moment of my life, and that the only person whose friendship I cherish, the apple of my eye, is you. So, write to me, for god's sake.

And, in a moment of frustration from August 2, 1930 Shostakovich writes:

"You have a rich personal life. And mine, generally, is shit."

(Famous composers, am I right? They're just like us.)

In addition to a friendship that would last until Sollertinsky's untimely death, he and Shostakovich would influence each other greatly in the artistic spheres as well. Sollertinsky dedicated himself primarily to musicology after meeting Shostakovich (his first review of an opera, Krenek's Johnny, appeared in 1928, after they had become friends), and in turn, Sollertinsky introduced Shostakovich to one of his greatest musical inspirations- the works of Gustav Mahler. Much is to be said about Mahler's influence on Shostakovich's music, to the point where it deserves its own post, but it goes without saying that without Sollertinsky, Shostakovich's entire body of work would have turned out much differently. Starting with the Fourth Symphony (1936), Shostakovich's symphonic works began to take on a heavily Mahlerian angle (in addition to many vocal works), becoming a permanent fixture in his distinct musical style.

(Colorized image of Shostakovich, his wife Nina Vasiliyevna, and Sollertinsky, 1932. One of my absolute favourite photographs.)

Shostakovich's letters to Sollertinsky, from the 20s to early 30s, are characterized by puns and literary references, snide remarks, nervous confessions, and vivid descriptions of the locations he traveled to during his early career. However, as the 1930s progressed and censorship in the arts became more restrictive, signs of worry begin to take shape in the letters. This would all culminate in January 1936, with the denunciation of Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District in Pravda. I'll go further into detail about the opera and its denunciation in a later post, but for now, I want to focus on its impact on Shostakovich and Sollertinsky's friendship.

As one of the first world-famous composers whose career began in the then-relatively young Soviet Union, targeting Shostakovich proved to be a calculated move. Due to his prominence and the acclaim he had previously received, both in the USSR and abroad, the portrayal of Shostakovich as a "formalist" meant someone had to take the blame for his supposed "corruption" towards western-inspired music and the avant-garde. The blame fell upon Sollertinsky, who was lambasted in the papers as the "troubadour of formalism." To make matters worse, Sollertinsky had long showed a fascination with western European composers, such as the Second Viennese School, and had previously praised Lady Macbeth in a review as the "future of Soviet art." An article in Pravda from February 14, 1936, about less than a month after the denunciation, stated:

“Shostakovich should in his creation entirely free himself from the disastrous influence of the ideologists of the ‘Leftist Ugliness’ type of Sollertinsky and take the road of truthful Soviet art, to advance in a new direction, leading to the sunny kingdom of Soviet art.”

Critics who had initially praised Lady Macbeth had begun to retract their positive reviews in favour of negative ones, and a vote was cast on a resolution on whether or not to condemn the opera. According to Isaak Glikman, their mutual friend, Shostakovich spoke with Sollertinsky, who was conflicted on what to do, beforehand. Although Sollertinsky didn’t want to condemn his friend, he supposedly told Glikman that Shostakovich had given him permission to “vote for any resolution whatsoever, in case of dire necessity.” When denouncing the opera (supposedly with Shostakovich's permission), Sollertinsky had commented that in order to develop a “true connection” to the Soviet public, Shostakovich would have to develop a “true heroic pathos, and that Shostakovich would ultimately succeed “in the genre of Soviet musical tragedy and the Soviet heroic symphony.” After Shostakovich’s second denunciation in Pravda of his ballet, “The Limpid Stream,” and the withdrawal of his Fourth Symphony- arguably the most Mahlerian of his middle period works- the Fifth Symphony, easily interpreted to follow these criteria, had indeed restored him to favour. Sollertinsky’s reputation, too, was saved.

(Aleksandr Gauk, Shostakovich, Sollertinsky, Nina Vasiliyevna, and an unidentified person, 1930s.)

In 1938, Sollertinsky contracted diphtheria. Ever tireless, he continued to dictate opera reviews and even learned Hungarian while hospitalized, although he became paralyzed in the limbs and jaw. Shostakovich wrote to him often with touching concern:

Dear friend, It's terribly sad that you are spending your much needed and precious vacation still sick. In any case, when you get better, you need to get plenty of rest.

By the time the letters from this period break off, it's because Shostakovich was able to visit Sollertinsky in the hospital, which he did whenever he was able.

While Sollertinsky was able to recover, their friendship would face yet another test in 1941, due to the German invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII. Sollertinsky evacuated with the Leningrad Philharmonic to Novosibirsk, while Shostakovich chose to stay in Leningrad. However, as the city fell under siege, due to the safety of his family, Shostakovich fled with Nina Vasiliyevna and their two children to Kubiyshev (now Samara) that October, having spent about a month in Leningrad during what would be one of the deadliest sieges of the 20th century. It was in Kubiyshev that Shostakovich would finish his famous Seventh Symphony (which, again, will receive its own post), before eventually moving permanently to Moscow (although he still taught for a time at the Leningrad Conservatory).

During this period of evacuation, Shostakovich's letters to Sollertinsky are heartbreaking. We not only see him pining for his friend, but worrying for his safety and that of his family, including his mother and sister, who were still in Leningrad at the time. Still, he reminisces of their time together before the war, with the hope that he and Sollertinsky would be back home soon. In a letter from 12th February, 1942:

Dear friend, I painfully miss you, and believe that soon, we will be home, and will visit each other and chat about this and that over a bottle of good Kakhetian no. 8 [a Georgian wine]. Take care of yourself and your health. Remember: You have children for which you are responsible, and friends, and among them is D. Shostakovich.

In 1943, Sollertinsky arrived in Moscow, where Shostakovich was living at the time, to give a speech on the anniversary of Tchaikovsky’s death. At long last, they finally were able to see each other, and anticipated that soon enough, their long period of separation, made bearable only by letters and phone calls, would come to an end: Sollertinsky, living in Novosibirsk, was planning to return to Moscow in February of 1944 to teach a course on music history at the conservatory. When he and Shostakovich said their goodbyes at the train station, neither of them knew it would be the last time they saw one another.

Sollertinsky's heart condition, coupled with his tendency to overwork, poor living conditions, heavy drinking, and added stress, often left him fatigued. On the night of February 10th, 1944, due to a sudden bout of exhaustion, he stayed the night with conductor Andrei Porfiriyevich Novikov, where he died unexpectedly in his sleep. His last public appearance had been the speeches he gave on February 5th and 6th of that year- the opening comments for the Novosibirsk premiere of Shostakovich’s 8th Symphony. A remarkable amount of telegrams and letters from Shostakovich to Sollertinsky survive and have been published in Russian. Some seem hardly significant; others carry great historical importance. Sollertinsky took many of them with him from Leningrad during evacuation; those letters were considered among his most prized possession. His son, Dmitri Ivanovich Sollertinsky, was named after Shostakovich- breaking a long tradition in his family in which the first son was always named "Ivan."

As for Shostakovich, we have letters to multiple correspondents detailing just how distraught he was for months after receiving news via telegram of Sollertinsky’s death. To Sollertinsky’s widow, Olga Pantaleimonovna Sollertinskaya, he wrote:

“It will be unbelievably hard for me to live without him. [...] In the last few years I rarely saw him or spoke with him. But I was always cheered by the knowledge that Ivan Ivanovich, with his remarkable mind, clear vision, and inexhaustible energy, was alive somewhere. [...] Ivan lvanovich and I talked a great deal about everything. We talked about that inevitable thing waiting for us at the end of our lives- about death. Both of us feared and dreaded it. We loved life, but knew that sooner or later we would have to leave it. Ivan lvanovich has gone from us terribly young. Death has wrenched him from life. He is dead, I am still here. When we spoke of death we always remembered the people near and dear to us. We thought anxiously about our children, wives, and parents, and always solemnly promised each other that in the event of one of us dying, the other would use every possible means to help the bereaved family. ”

Shostakovich stuck to his word, making arrangements for Sollertinsky's surviving family to return to Leningrad after it had been liberated, going through the painstaking process of acquiring the necessary documentation and allowing them to stay at his home in Moscow in the meantime.

In 1969, he would write to Glikman:

“On 10 February, I remembered Ivan Ivanovich. It is incredible to think that twenty-five years have passed since he died.”

Furthermore, Shostakovich recalled:

Ivan Ivanovich loved different dates. So he planned to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of our acquaintance in the winter of 1941. This celebration did not take place, since the war had ruined us. When in our last meetings, we planned the 25th anniversary of our friendship for 1947. But in 1947, I will only remember that twenty-five years ago life sent me a wonderful friend, and that in 1944 death took him away from me.

And yet, there was still one more tribute left to make. Shostakovich had already dedicated a movement of a work to Sollertinsky- a setting of Pasternak's translation of Shakespeare Sonnet no. 66 in Six Romances on Verses by English Poets- but after Sollertinsky's death, he completed his Piano Trio no. 2 in August of 1944, a work that had taken months to finish. While he had started the work before Sollertinsky's death and mentions it in a letter to Glikman as early as December 1943, it would since bear a dedication to Sollertinsky's memory.

The second movement of the Trio is a dizzying, electrifying Allegro con Brio- and probably my favourite work of classical music, ever. Sollertinsky's sister, Ekaterina Ivanovna, was said to have considered it a "musical portrait" of her illustrious brother in life, with its fast-paced, jubilant air. The call-and-response between the strings and piano seem, to me, to reflect one of Shostakovich and Sollertinsky's early Leningrad dialogues- the image of two friends out of breath with laughter, each talking over each other as they deliver witty comebacks and jokes that only they understand. For the few minutes that this movement lasts, it is as if Shostakovich and Sollertinsky are revived, if not for just a moment, the unbreakable bond that defied decades of hardship now immortalized in the classical canon, forever carefree and happy in each other's company.

And then comes the pause.

It is this silence between the Allegro con Brio and Adagio that is the loudest, most powerful moment of this piece as eight solemn chords snap us into reality, like the sudden revelation of Sollertinsky's death- as Shostakovich said, "he is dead; I am still here." These eight chords form the base of a passacaglia, the piano cycling through them and nearly devoid of dynamics as the cello and violin sing a lugubrious dirge. The piano- Shostakovich's instrument- seems to mirror the stasis of grief, the inability to move on when paralyzed by loss.

The final movement of the Trio, the Allegretto, seems to speak to a wider form of grief. By 1943, the Soviet Union was receiving news of the Holocaust, and the Allegretto of Shostakovich's Trio no. 2 is among the first instances of Klezmer-inspired themes in Shostakovich's work (not counting the opera Rothschild's Violin, a work by his student Veniamin Fleischman that he finished after Fleischman's death in the war). The idea that the fourth movement is a commentary on the Holocaust is the most popular interpretation for Shostakovich's use of themes inspired by Jewish folk music, but other interpretations include a tribute to Fleischman (who was Jewish), or a nod to Sollertinsky's birthplace of Vitebsk, which had a substantial Jewish population until the Vitebsk Ghetto Massacre in 1941 by the Nazis. (While I haven't read anything confirming that Sollertinsky was ethnically Jewish, the painter Marc Chagall and pianist Maria Yudina, both carrying associations with Vitebsk, were.) Whether the grief expressed here was personal or referencing the larger global situation, the quotation of the fourth movement's ostinato followed by the final E major chords suggest a peaceful resolution after a long movement of aggressive tumult and grotesque rage.

Shostakovich would continue to grieve and remember Sollertinsky, but the ending of this piece- composed over the course of about nine months- perhaps implied closure and healing. In the following years, the war would end, Shostakovich would form new connections (such as a lasting friendship with the composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg), and, as he had done through tragedy before, would continue to write music. Sollertinsky was gone, but left a mark on Shostakovich's life and work, his memory carried in every musical joke and Mahlerian quotation that found its way onto the page.

(Shostakovich at Sollertinsky's grave, 1961, Novosibirsk.)

(By the way, check the tags. ;) )

#shostakovich #dmitri shostakovich #tumblr's guide to shostakovich #classical music #music history #soviet history #ivan sollertinsky #russian history #classical music history #composer #music #history #also fun fact sollertinsky and shostakovich almost wrote a don quixote ballet together but that didn't work out bc shost got denounced #they had an inside joke about a fake composer named persianinov. they invented goncharov you guys #there's one letter from shost to sollertinsky about the time a ballet worker tricked another worker into eating goat shit #sollertinsky would apparently come over to shost's house and sing mahler symphonies in a 'high squeaky voice'#like from memory #they'd write riddles to each other in letters #i love them so much #they are everything to me #apparently they'd also run over to each others' houses to deliver letters if they couldn't see each other #in leningrad ofc #sollertinsky got REALLY PISSED once bc someone suggested changing a bit of shost's music in lady macbeth it was really funny #shost once said sollertinsky had a 'magical influence on the female sex' and like . look at him #he's not wrong #oh btw it's 3 am and I have work tomorrow #oh one last fact they loved to go on roller coasters together (in russia they call them 'american mountains') but #the one they liked burned down lol

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iread-studies · 1 year

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17.01.2023 || So, this exam season is going pretty much as I had envisioned in December. I've cleared out 2 exams out of 5 + I've written my German essay.

The exams that I need to prepare for now are: German Language, Modern History and Germanic Philology. The plan for today is to make a plan for Modern History. From tomorrow until my German Language exam, I'll be studying Modern History in the morning and German Language in the afternoon until my German exam, then full-on History for a couple of days and then History and Philology at the same time.

I'd also like to read some books, buy some knitting supplies and creatively write. Also, my room is still a mess. So much to do, so little time if I don't plan everything carefully!

Things I already did today:

Finish modifying my hat (it fits!)

Soaking the hat

Read a bit of Spare

Things to do today:

Clean the blocking mat

Block the hat

Read 3 entries from The Diaries of Nella Last

Study German (Anki, ViB, Rubinrot)

Organize my blog's media archive

Make a plan for studying Modern History

Read 1 chapter of that book on Modern History

Write an email to H

BONUS TASKS: Write blog; Write Deck of Cards; Write to Laura; read more chapters from the Modern History book

#studyblr #studyinspo #studying #notebook #notes #productivity #journal #journaling #langblr #uniblr #to do list #exam prep

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justforbooks · 3 years

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Kostas Varnalis was born on February 14, 1884. He was a Greek poet.

Varnalis was born in Burgas, Eastern Rumelia (now in Bulgaria), in 1884. As his name suggests, his family originated from Varna; his father's family name was Boubous. He completed his elementary studies in the Zariphios Greek high school in Plovdiv and then moved to Athens in 1902 to study literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. While there, he became involved in the Greek language dispute, taking the side of the demoticists over the supporters of the katharevousa. After his graduation in 1908 he worked for some time as a teacher in Burgas, before returning to Greece and teaching in Amaliada and Athens. During the next years, he worked as a teacher and part-time journalist, also engaging in translation work. In 1913, he took part in the Second Balkan War.

In 1919 he gained a scholarship and travelled to Paris where he studied philosophy, literature and sociology. It was during his Parisian studies that he became a Marxist and reviewed his ideas on poetry in theory and in practice. His political alignment resulted in his being dismissed from his teaching position at the Paedagocical Academy in 1926 and barred from any state employment. Varnalis thus took to journalism, a profession he practised until the end of his life. In 1929, he married the poet Dora Moatsou. In 1935, he participated in the Soviet Writers' Conference in Moscow as Greece's representative. Under the 4th of August Regime, he was sent to internal exile in Mytilene and Agios Efstratios. During the German Occupation of Greece, he took part in the resistance movement as a member of the National Liberation Front (EAM). In 1959, he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. Varnalis died in Athens on 16 December 1974, and is buried in the First Cemetery of Athens.

Poetry

Kirithres (Κηρήθρες, "Honeycombs"), Varnalis' first collection, Athens 1905.

O Proskynitis (Ο Προσκυνητής, "The Pilgrim"), 1919.

To fos pou kaiei (Το φως που καίει, "The Burning Light"), Alexandria 1922, under the pen-name Dimos Tanalias.

Sklavoi poliorkimenoi (Σκλάβοι πολιορκημένοι, "Besieged Slaves"), 1927.

Poiitika (Ποιητικά, "Poetic Works"), collection, 1956.

Eleftheros Kosmos (Ελεύθερος Κόσμος, "Free World"), collection, 1965.

Orgi laou (Οργή λαού, "Wrath of People"), collection, published posthumously in 1975.

Prose and literary criticism

O laos ton mounouchon (Ο λαός των μουνούχων, "The eunuch people"), 1923, under the pen-name Dimos Tanalias.

O Solomos horis metafysiki (Ο Σολωμός χωρίς μεταφυσική, "Solomos without Μetaphysics"), 1925.

H alithini apologia tou Sokrati (Η αληθινή απολογία του Σωκράτη, "The True Apology of Socrates", 1931.

Alithinoi anthropoi (Αληθινοί άνθρωποι, "Real People"), 1938.

To imerologio tis Pinelopis (Το ημερολόγιο της Πηνελόπης, "The Diary of Penelope"), 1947.

Oi diktatores (Οι δικτάτορες, "The Dictators"), 1956.

Pezos logos (Πεζός λόγος, "Prose"), 1957.

Solomika (Σολωμικά, "On Solomos"), 1957.

Aisthitika Kritika A kai B (Αισθητικά Κριτικά Α και Β, "Aesthetic Critical Works A and B"), 1958.

Anthropoi. Zontanoi - Alithinoi (Άνθρωποι. Ζωντανοί - Αληθινοί, "Humans. Alive - Real"), 1958.

Filologika Apomnimonevmata (Φιλολογικά Απομνημονεύματα, "Philological Memoirs"), 1980.

Theatrical

Attalos o Tritos (Άτταλος ο Τρίτος, "Attalos the Third"), 1972.

Varnalis published his first poetic work at the Greek-language Plovdiv newspaper News of Aimos, under the pen name Figeus (Φηγεύς). His first appearance in Greece was in the magazine Noumas (Νουμάς) under his real name.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Kostas Varnalis #Famous Birthdays

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sebastienguenot · 3 years

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⭕️ You are the spark that lights up my sights in the most darkened space of that known enlarged hall, a circled time coming from a very old call, I am at dawn dancing naked with the whole. ⭕️ . . . Winter is here. Finally here. Happy solstice folks ! Yes, my lovely annual time of all vibrates its multiple doors since I am that one human light. A week from now, I was coming back home from #casasciaredo, in Ticino Switzerland, where I have spent a beautiful human artistic time with two beautiful souls. Indeed, I was invited by my dear friend Lara Buffard (the performance artist @blablabla_on_the_moon) to spent a view days with her good friend Lilian Frei (the performance artist @lilian_frei) whom curated this artistic residency, for an artistic project of her : "give me five". These three days where for me like a golden circle interlaced in dialogues and walks, history, art, philosophy and spirituality, and most of all; true good friendship and chimney dancing warm fire. What a discovery for me ! This house is field of the creator's deep spirit. A beautiful little functional architecture imagined in the modern Bauhaus mouvement of the 1920's. Georgette Klein was an extraordinary woman : Doctor of german philology, violinist, author of diaries, textile artist, actor-director of marionette-plays, sculptor, writer, designer, architect, gardener, philosopher. She imagined this illuminated cubic space on the little hill next to the church of Barbengo for her own use. However a more detailed analysis of her life and work has revealed to us three a lot more : she was a personality with never ending energy, continuously searching for new conclusions, trying daily to develop artistic work as well as her spiritual vision. I have deeply felt connected by that vision too. And so I have let it follow my own call, star, vision...shared with similar souls. Do you have experienced that too once in your life time ? • • Face stone / / 2020 • Art work by Sébastien Guenot • • • • • #imaginarydrawing #blackandwhiteart #dessincontemporain #artsurpapier #artonpaper #workonpaper #contemporarydrawing #素描 #poetry #poesie #sebastienguenot (at Lugano, Switzerland) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJD-M3rhjHe/?igshid=1vlbg6tqge1x0

#casasciaredo #imaginarydrawing #blackandwhiteart #dessincontemporain #artsurpapier #artonpaper #workonpaper #contemporarydrawing #素描 #poetry #poesie #sebastienguenot

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egolandperformance · 4 years

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CV/Bio Creators of Egoland

ACHIM WIELAND, director

The work of German Artist and Director-Author Achim Wieland shifts between the Visual Arts, Stage Performance and Writing. He is a founding member of the recently established performance collective SRSLYyours ––a group of international performers, writers, visual artists and dramaturges devoted to an inclusive and non- hierarchical content development process around socio-political themes. Their latest work “Fear Industry” has been selected in the Category “Best Theater Performances of Berlin Stages” (Zitty Magazine, 2016). The large-scale European Performance Project is on Tour since Spring 2016 (Berlin, Montenegro, Madrid, Stuttgart, Zurich, Gothenburg, Athens). Since Spring 2016 he is working as Artistic Director for the performance “Uniting the Mediterranean Sea”, a main event commissioned by the Cultural Capital of Europe/Pafos 2017. He is currently on tour with “Egoland” and “The Tea Ceremony”. Since 2018, Achim Wieland is the Artistic Director of the Buffer-Fringe Festival of Performing Arts Cyprus.

Born and raised in Stuttgart/Germany, Achim Wieland moved to the USA on a Fellowship Grant to complete his Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He has worked, taught and lectured throughout Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Clients and Collaborators include the Guggenheim Museum New York, The J. Paul Getty Museum/Los Angeles, The Bronx Museum, Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin, New York University among others. He held teaching positions in the Design Department and Graduate Program of the Rhode Island School of Design/USA, HWZ (Switzerland), VCU/Q (Virginia Commonwealth University/Qatar), F+F School for Media and Design Zurich and is a member of the part-time faculty at the University of Nicosia (Cyprus). He conducts workshops and gives lectures internationally exhibits independent art projects, and directs performance and theatre work staged throughout Europe.

His work has been exhibited and awarded internationally: American Center for Design (ACD) Chicago, Jan van Eyck Akademie/Netherlands, Fringe Festival, Artos Foundation/Madrid, Cultural Capital of Europe/Cyprus, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Arts Thessaloniki, Explosive Festival/Bremen, Dance Platform Cyprus, the Experimental Film/Video Festival Strange Screen, among others.

MARTIN NICK ALEXANDERSSON, performer

Martin Nick Alexandersson was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in May 1988 and is an actor for film and theatre with current residence in Stockholm, Sweden.

In his young career, he shot several short films. Amongst others he played in the short film HINGSTEN (Ninja Thyberg) and the International collaboration AGE OF IRON (Philippe Berenger), a historical drama in which he portrayed a Swedish lieutenant struggling behind enemy lines in Southern Germany. Martin is starring in the award-winning short film FOR IT IS WRITTEN where he has been nominated for Best Actor 3 times. In 2017 Martin toured as the lead actor for the Swedish/Icelandic collaboration NJALS SAGA (Composition: Atli Ingólfsson) with performances in Sweden and Norway. After the premiere of this operatic adaptation of Njals Saga, Scandinavian critics and theatre personalities noted "his stunning ability to create and support a physical presence and language for an actor".

He was the Swedish Protagonist at Folkteatern Gothenburg during the European Tour of the international theater production FEAR INDUSTRY (Direction: Achim Wieland). In 2017 he premiered in the work EGOLAND – an intense and interactive One-man show at the Rialto Theatre, Cyprus (Direction: Achim Wieland). The National Newspaper remarked his excellent stage performance as one with “audacity and boldness, ceremonial concentration and dedication”. 2018 Martin Co-directed the dance performance “Vi 2” with choreographer Felix Skalberg. Vi 2 will go on tour 2020. In 2018/19 Martin has worked with KULLEHUSTEATERN, UNG UTAN PUNG and FRIENDS/TEATER DE VILL.

Mr. Alexandersson is represented by the Actors Talent Agency ”DAS IMPERIUM” located in Berlin.

ISABEL EVERS, co-dramaturgy, and advisor

Isabel Evers is a Swedish Director, Scriptwriter and Drama Teacher. Educated in Film and Literature at the University of Gothenburg. Worked at the City Theatre/Gothenburg (Rut & Ragnar), has been on the Board of Unga Folkteaterns and the Artistic Director for the Stage Collective Scenkonstkollektivet “Apparaten”. First independent success with her Play “Berlinmurar” staged at Folkteatern Gothenburg. She wrote "Vem vill bli Svenne" for Teater Norma premiering in 2014. Two of her recent plays (“Alice”) were staged at Teater Uno (“Staden jag drömmer”) and Teater Falken. The English Adaption of the latter (“Every day of happiness”) is currently in rehearsal to go on tour in Europe starting in Fall 2017. Her work is awarded and got published by the National Theatre Organization (New Texts 2010) for her script Cirkus Mayonnaise. She's educated as a Documentary Film director with a focus on gender and equality on Kvinnofolkhögskolan. She’s done several radio plays and short movies, given courses in Scriptwriting and Actors Training. She is currently leading the independent group Döden (The death) with a focus on political stage art and experimental performance art. Isabel directed Främlingsleguanen and will write new plays for Teater Trixter in 2020/2021.

MARIOS IOANNOU, Research and supporting dramaturge

Marios Ioannou is a Cypriot actor and director and a graduate of the Academy of the National Theater of Greece, Athens. Since 1996 he has been starring in 26 movie productions impressing his audience with the most diverse roles. He was honoured the Award for “Best Male Leading Actor” from the Thessaloniki Film Festival (‘Kalabush’).

‘Woyzeck’ by Büchner, ‘Casca’ in Shakespeare's ‘Julius Caesar’, the Pope of Rome in ‘Doctor Faustus’ by Marlowe, ‘Poprizin’ in Gogol's ‘The Diary of a Madman’, or his role of ‘Ben’ in the staging of van Trier's ‘Dogville’ are some of the

characters Mr. Ioannou has given life to in the 18 years of his international acting- and film career. The Press reacted enthusiastically writing: “It has been years to see an actor keeping our minds occupied with the movement of the body and versatility of voice such as that of Mr. Ioannou’s”.

'Fish n' Chips' in which he played the lead character 'Andy', currently travels the Film Festivals of Toronto, Montpellier, Mons, Montreal, and Brussels. The Hollywood Reporter reviewed Mr. Ioannou's lead as a subtly endearing performance, preserving the Cockney accent of the self-delusive protagonist. He is currently filming for ‘Conveyer Belt No 3’ and the US-Production (‘Bourek’) filmed in Greece. In 2013 he toured in Germany / Switzerland with the production of “Woyzeck!” (Stuttgart, Zürich, Berlin). He is currently on Tour in Europe as The protagonist in the Cypriot-German Theater Co-Production ‘Fear Industry’ (Berlin, Gothenburg, Bremen, Stuttgart, Madrid, Athens, London).

PUPPE WESTBERG, Musician in “Kastrup”, Original Score EGOLAND

Puppe is a Swedish music producer born and raised in Borgholm, a town located on the island Öland in the east coast of Sweden. He lives in Malmö, where he also studied music production at ”Malmö Academy of Music”. Together with Timmie Strandberg he forms the duo ”Kastrup” which has had success with several songs. The song ”Lydia” topped the Swedish radio chart for unsigned artists, the music video to the song ”Thieves” was nominated for ”the video of the year” at the Swedish indie music gala ”Manifest”. The song ”Try it all” got played weekly on P3, one of the biggest channels in Sweden for pop music. The duo has also been the opening act for the Swedish Grammy winner Little Jinder and the Swedish artist and songwriter Erik Hassle. When the focus isn’t on Kastrup, Puppe writes and produces a lot of music for artists from the UK, Japan & South Korea. He has also written and produced commercial music to big brands such as Tele2 & IKEA.

TIMMIE STRANDBERG, Musician in Kastrup, Sound engineer

RANIA IAKOVOU, Research and supporting dramaturge

Rania Iakovou has an extensive academic background with studies in Drama, Modern and Ancient Greek Philology and Philosophy as well as History in France, Greece and Cyprus, and conducts her ongoing investigation into questions concerning the human condition. Her main field of research being Ancient Greek Tragedy, she has studied and presented work on The Deus ex Machina and The denouement in Euripides’ Works as well as Deceit in Ancient Greek Tragedy, The Tragic Timespace, Modern Performances of The Bacchae in Ancient Theaters and Deceit in The Bacchae of Euripides. Motivated by her expertise and passion for Ancient Greek Theater, she has worked with the Center of Performing Arts MITOS on a performance-based on The Bacchae of Euripides, selected by the Cyprus Ministry of Culture to represent the country at the Avignon Theater Festival. Her interest in theater practice and research has led to other collaborations with various artists, the latest being with German Artist and Director-Author Achim Wieland, on Fear Industry as well as his current project Egoland. As a co-director, she has worked with Director Christine

Zacharia on the short film Goodbuy, which was presented at the first Paphos International Film Festival, organized by Kimonos Art Center. She is currently working on her book, a dystopia commenting on emotional disability as a side effect of the fabricated need for social and economic status, imposed on society by a ferocious and vain value system governed by the banks.

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