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QUESTION: This apartment was purchased to shelter the house-museum of C.P.Cavafy, established in 1992 by the unforgettable Kostis Moskof (1939-1998), head of the cultural service at the Greek Embassy in Egypt. The issue still remains open with the future opening of a C.P.Cavafy Museum in the Koletis building in Plaka in Athens. Under the initiative of the president of the Seminar for Modern Greek Studies (Σπουδαστήριο Νέου Ελληνισμού) Manolis Savvidis the poet’s archive rich in manuscripts, books, his personal items and more will become accessible to visitors. Do the Egyptians perceive this world-renowned poet as their own, do they have any “practical" reasons for keeping his home as a museum (tourist attraction)?
 
MARAGOULIS: First, I consider it appropriate to emphasize the enormous gratitude we owe to – blessed be his memory - Kostis Moskof, who succeeded, after years of painful efforts, to save the poet’s the apartment and turn it into a museum with the support of D. Stratigakis. It is also worth noting that Lena Savvidi – the wife of the remarkable professor Y. Savvidis – generously contributed to Moskof’s initiative by providing numerous photos, portraits of the poet and his family members. Thus, various wishes should not be addressed through the prism of rivalry, but as complementary and mutually nourishing in a common effort of shedding multifold light on the universal dimensions of the Alexandrian poet.

In its approximately two decades of existence the Cavafy House-Museum attracted numerous ordinary and famous visitors, pilgrims, including heads of states from the four corners of the earth Recently, I had the pleasure of showing around the actress Charlotte Rampling, who read his poems at the Athens Concert Hall this season. Poetry and other art-related events have been held there regularly over the past two years with the support of the branch of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture in Alexandria. We are actually talking about a fruitful intercultural dialogue with Egyptian poets and intellectuals. The fact is that Egyptian intellectual circles already perceive Cavafy as a Greek poet, who was born, lived, died and was buried in Alexandria, and therefore he has become an integral part of the cosmopolitan culture of this city. The house-museum is one of its most celebrated and recognized cultural institutions. Tangible evidence for this is the renaming of the street where the particular building is located - from ‘Sharm el-Sheikh’ to ‘C.P.Cavafy’, on the initiative and implementation of  the former governor of Alexandria in cooperation with the former mayor of Athens, Nikitas Kaklamanis. I should mention that during the critical days of the recent riots in Egypt the guard of the museum along with residents from the neighbourhood have the task of protecting it, guarding the area day and night  from possible looting and vandalism by groups of criminals released from prison by the previous regime to intimidate the citizens.

QUESTION: In 2009 I had the opportunity to participate with other Greek scholars from different countries in the symposium "Cavafia" held in Cairo and Alexandria. In front of the poet’s writing desk all participants, and you too, read his poems, each in their own language. While I was reading my Bulgarian translation of the poem ‘Mirror at the Entrance’ I was looking at an old mirror on the opposite wall and ha the feeling that the reflection of the artist who lived in this house has remained there. Will the institution "Cavafia" inspired by Kostis Moskof evolve in the future?

MARAGOULIS: As you know, the initiative for organizing the “Cavafia” symposium belongs to the Greek Embassy in Cairo, a tradition inherited from the time of Moskof and even preceding him. When we are invited to get on with it we will bring forward our proposals, invariably within a low-budget program. I hope this institution established to promote the works of Cavafy in Egypt will not be abandoned for reasons related to the lack of funds.

QUESTION: An event in the artistic life of Athens was the exhibition of the artist Harris Xenos inspired by C.P.Cavafy’s poetry which was shown at the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art from February to March this year. They say that poetry is speaking painting and painting -silent poetry. Now, you've attempted to assemble in C.P.Cavafy’s museum paintings, photographic works and small sculptures by artists from around the world, inspired by Cavafy’s verse. After the The Anthology of Poems Influenced by C.P. Cavafy published by the Centre for Greek Language (Thessaloniki, 2000), which examines his influence on foreign poets, the focus now is on Cavafy’s impact on other arts. More than twenty works were donated to the museum so far. One of the artists already presented in this collection, Stoyan Donev, was born and educated in Bulgaria but has lived and worked in Athens for years. In 2010, the branch of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture in Alexandria organised an exhibition of his works. Which artists have already responded to the call?

MARAGOULIS: This is a campaign that began during the C.P.Cavafy Symposium in 2009. Then, the Bulgarian Stoyan Donev and George Angel, a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest donated their works to the museum. A year later, the Thessaloniki artist Sarandis Gagas with whom we met at last year's Biennale in Alexandria, showed a lively interest in the initiative and sent his canvas with dedication. Following the promotion of our efforts among artistic circles in Greece and other European countries about twenty paintings were donated - drawings and photographs of an equal number of artists, such as Panos Mitropoulos who lives in Amsterdam, Paula Kouwenhoven from the Netherlands, the German Wolfgang Brenner, the Lithuania Rolana Ceckauskaite, Dodog Soeseno from Thailand, to name but a few of the donors.