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Casteliotissa Hall
It is with great pleasure and honour that I am among you today to welcome the Workshop organized by the Antzouli Foundation on the theme: "From the National Anthem to the "Hymn to Freedom" - Two hundred years since the writing of the "Hymn to Freedom" by Dionysios Solomos".
I would like to thank the Board of Directors of the relatively newly established cradle of culture, currently based in Larnaca, for the vital role it plays in cultural issues, in promoting Arts and Letters, in strengthening Humanities Studies, as well as in approaching issues such as today's Workshop, which are a source of inspiration for us participants and at the same time contribute to the deepening of our knowledge and cultural awareness. And for this I would like to thank in particular the President Mr. Kyriakos Antzoulis and the members of the Board of Directors of the Antzoulis Foundation for their professionalism and dedication.
Investing in the presence of this serious organisation, its complex action and its outward-looking policy, which will certainly make a qualitative contribution to the work of our own Deputy Ministry, I would like to note some other key elements that characterise it.
I know that the idea of creating the Foundation was born several years ago, as the fruit of the shared vision, common aspirations and aspirations of the Antzoulis family itself. This is, ladies and gentlemen, a non-profit Cultural Foundation, as the Foundation does not appropriate any income and profits from its activities. Everything is returned to society and citizens, provided that the requested actions serve the purpose for which the Foundation is established and for which the Republic of Cyprus has approved its establishment.
On receiving the invitation to give today's address, I was struck by the Foundation's emblem with the enigmatic phrase "edizisamin emeoautos". My memory turned to Heraclitus' On Nature, from which the phrase comes, and its rendering in Modern Greek as 'I sought myself'. A statement turning towards the depths of the human self, written in the Ionian dialect, which has a conceptual affinity with the ancient Greek phrase 'γνωθι σαυτόν'. I realised, therefore, that this Foundation seeks a turn to the depths of things.
Indeed, the Foundation's actions cover a wide range of cultural production, if one considers that they also refer to each of the individual fields of Humanities Studies such as Language, Literature, History, Ancient Greek and Latin Literature, Philosophy, Archaeology, even Visual Arts, Photography, Theatre, Film and other contemporary art forms.
The Foundation's work does not stop here. (a) Writers - Creators - Publishers, (b) Artists - Visual Artists - Producers, (c) Academics - Scientists - Researchers, (d) Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students and (e) Institutions and Organizations.
Furthermore, it actively supports the theatrical performances of secondary schools that are unable to support them financially, has offered scholarships, has purchased works of Byzantine and Contemporary Art and has supported museums, such as the "Kallinikio Museum" in Athiinou.
Based on its first five-year plan for the period 2021-2026, the Antzoulis Foundation has already launched a distinctive presence in the field of publishing, both by establishing its own publishing house in Cyprus and by cooperating with foreign publishing houses. The schedule of presentations of the Foundation's first publications in Cyprus is being extended abroad. I refer to the publication of a monograph on Dionysios Solomos in Athens and the publication of a collection of poetry by Andreas Georgallidis, a Cypriot, multi-award-winning, multi-translated and internationally known author, in Spain by a publishing house cooperating with the Foundation.
Today, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the writing of the "Hymn to Freedom" by our national poet Dionysios Solomos, the Foundation is organizing a special Scientific Conference at this great medieval site, the "Kasteliotissa".
This is the first official event held in Cyprus, on the occasion of this anniversary event, and one of the first at national level, along with the planned actions already taking place this year in Zakynthos and Corfu, by the Solomos Museums. We note that this is the first official event on our island, which is the exclusive responsibility of the Antzoulis Foundation, and which brings to our island the two pillars of the salmon heritage: the Corfu and Zakynthos Salmon Museums, through the official representation of the Society of Corfu Studies and the Museum of Salmon and Eminent Zakynthians.
As is known, the "Hymn to Freedom" was written, in the context of a loud patriotic outburst of our national poet, in May 1823 in Zakynthos, printed in 1824 in Messolonghi and set to music by the Corfiot Nicolaos Mantzaros four years later.
The first two stanzas of this extensive poem of Solomon's youth (158 four-line stanzas/632 verses) were designated by King George I in 1865, a year after the Union of the Ionian Islands with Greece, as the "official national song" and have since become the National Anthem of the new Greek state. A century later, in 1966, it was established as the National Anthem of the newly established Republic of Cyprus.
It is noted that the Antzoulis Foundation has already published in Athens a relevant volume on the mature poetic work of Dionysios Solomos, in the context of the anniversary of the 200th anniversary of the beginning of the Greek Revolution, while in addition to the publication of the Proceedings of today's Workshop, it will proceed to a new independent re-publication of the "Hymn to Freedom" on the basis of the original text. The publication will be sent to all public and private secondary schools in Cyprus and to the Solomos Museums - Zante and Corfu - as central distribution points, respectively, for the schools of the two Ionian Islands.
Concluding this brief intervention, I would like to refer to similar actions of the Foundation, on the occasion of this anniversary event of the writing of the "Hymn to Freedom".
In the context of these actions:
- a multi-level student competition has already been announced, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Sports and Youth of Cyprus;
- a multi-level student competition has been launched, in cooperation with the Regional Education of the Ionian Islands of the Ministry of Education, Research and Religious Affairs of Greece, the twinning of three Secondary Education schools of Zakynthos with three Secondary Education schools of Cyprus and
- a proposal has been made to the Postal Services for the design of First Circulation Envelope stamps for May 2023.
I am sure that soon, the Antzoulis Foundation, preparing its own multi-purpose hall with state-of-the-art facilities, will have much more to offer us. This is because the Foundation is about to move to its permanent headquarters in Athiinou. This is no coincidence, since the founders come from this remote region. After all, it is imperative for them to return to their hometown, and to do so by purchasing a masterpiece of mid-Orthodox architecture on the royal street of Golgotha.
It is the noble ambition of the Antzoulis Foundation that the citizens and the state should stand by similar efforts that have to do with Letters, Arts and Culture in general.
I wish the Antzoulis Foundation every success in its work and in the great conference it is organising today. The Deputy Ministry of Culture will actively support its work.
(ΕΠ/ΣΧ)
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