Lesbos and Syria

(Wednesday) (Monday)

To mark the sixth anniversary of the uprising in Syria, poet, classicist and Hellenophile Ruth Padel, joins artist Issam Kourbaj, to present an intervention that explores the millennia-long relations between the Near East and ancient Greece. In this display (case 14, Gallery 21) you can see Kourbaj's Dark Water, Burning World - a new artwork inspired by 5th century BC Syrian vessels from the Museum's collection which are brought together in this display. Fragments from Padel's new poem Lesbos 2015, influenced by her meetings on the island of Lesbos, both with the inhabitants and with some of the thousands of Syrians who have fled there can be seen below and on the display panel alongside the intervention.

 

 

 

 

 

…and their stories our stories

steered by the small

star-light of cell phones

 

waves like rings of a tree         

rings of the centuries

rocking and spilling

on the windy sea

as if water kept its shape

after the jug has broken

one shining petrified moment

before the shattered pieces fall away



© Ruth Padel 2017

 

 

The Fitzwilliam Museum
Trumpington Street
CB2 1RB Cambridge
United kingdom
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Lesbos and Syria The Fitzwilliam Museum Main address: The Fitzwilliam Museum Trumpington Street CB2 1RB Cambridge, United kingdom The Fitzwilliam Museum Trumpington Street CB2 1RB Cambridge, United kingdom To mark the sixth anniversary of the uprising in Syria, poet, classicist and Hellenophile Ruth Padel, joins artist Issam Kourbaj, to present an intervention that explores the millennia-long relations between the Near East and ancient Greece. In this display (case 14, Gallery 21) you can see Kourbaj's Dark Water, Burning World - a new artwork inspired by 5th century BC Syrian vessels from the Museum's collection which are brought together in this display. Fragments from Padel's new poem Lesbos 2015, influenced by her meetings on the island of Lesbos, both with the inhabitants and with some of the thousands of Syrians who have fled there can be seen below and on the display panel alongside the intervention.

 

 

 

 

 

…and their stories our stories

steered by the small

star-light of cell phones

 

waves like rings of a tree         

rings of the centuries

rocking and spilling

on the windy sea

as if water kept its shape

after the jug has broken

one shining petrified moment

before the shattered pieces fall away



© Ruth Padel 2017

 

 
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