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The Athenian Artist, Danae Stratou traveled by boat on
the Ganga River and visited Varanasi and Allahabad
amongst others cities in order to produce a documentary
film on the River Ganges.
The documentary forms part of her project
"The River of Life" that includes
documentaries from seven major rivers of the earth: the
Danube, the Amazon, the Mississippi, the Ganga, the
Nile, the Niger, and the Yangtze.
Explaining the concept of the whole project, Danae
Stratou points out in a poetic language that she wants
to express:
…an
endless moment; a moment which carries a timeless,
endless rhythm;
the rhythm of the river; the rhythm that unites the
whole world
and which, bears along, in its flow, all humanity.
This is the
rhythm of life - and its sound, is the sound of breath.
The Athenian artist spent several days in Varanasi
recording changing scenes and sounds from the banks of
the river at the city's edge as they kept changing
during the day. Mrs.
Stratou had, also the opportunity to have an extensive
interview with Prof. Vir Bhadra Mishra, the Mahant of
the Sankat Mochan Foundation, an NGO that promotes the
Clean the Ganga Project. She was informed about the
serious environmental problems that the holy river of
India faces today. The entire interview was recorded and
she promised that after her return to Greece she would
broadcast to the broader world the scenes and the voice
of the people who love and worship Ganga.
The work "River of Life" was created for the
exhibition Trans- Cultures organized by the National
Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (EMST), and is one
of the official events scheduled for the Cultural
Olympics in the summer of 2004. The exhibition
"Trans-Cultures" was inaugurated by the
Greek Deputy Minister of Culture Mr. Petros Tatoulis on
the 6th July in the new exhibition Space of Megaron -
the Athens Concert Hall and shall be open to the public
until the 31st December 2004. Afterwards, it will be
transferred at the National Museum of Contemporary Art
providing a permanent 'darshan' (holy view) of the River
Ganges to the Athenian visitors.
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