OH, THAT GERMAN HAND OF YOURS
Book Presentation · Performance · Text-based art exhibition
15 September 2023
Lettrétage, Berlin
OH, THAT HAND OF YOURS
by Artemis Chrysostomidou
Publisher: Rodakio
ISBN: 9786185697105
Dimensions: 21x14
Number of pages: 120
Bilingual Edition (Gr | En)
Athens, November 2022
2023 Young Book Designers Award
by Goethe-Institut Griechenland, Hellenic Foundation of Culture, EBΓE,
Stiftung Buchkunst and Frankfurter Buchmesse


SCULPTURE
After the war
the eyes of the ancient statues
should have tears carved all over them;
and not pretend that sorrow never touched them,
whereas beauty is deeply hurt.
I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY FINGERS
Things have no shape in absence.
I can slip on everything.
Your speed next to flying birds
passing by full of the ephemeral
while they are moving into a warmer place,
is making everything look so young
as if born just the day before crushing.
Eyes have so much to explore.
The statues arouse in silence
the hungry look of adventure.
Oh, that hand of yours!
A HIGH-LEVEL TRAUMA
Apart from the material
there is nothing else
separating your skin
from the abyss of colours.
BETRAYAL
The drama of being Odysseus
and not knowing it,
enslaved to inertia.
THE INCESSANT MARCHES OF ANTS
Still, she finds the simplification of things
quite disturbing.
Existence is not rationalised but,
life is simplified
when she listens to its complexity,
the incessant marches of ants
she had only read about
because she had never been a naturalist
and felt she needed words to describe the world.
Where exactly had she read about
the challenge of the gaze?
THE NECK OF HISTORY
Why is Babylon confused with Babel?
Hanging gardens are not a matter of vocabulary.
She knows the warmth of the candle
instead of the clumsy temperature
from the fever of a malady.
Warmth is not measured by thermometer,
it can’t cause fever
the already burning fire of love.
She deals with human conflict,
a possibility of death or depth.
Warming cream on the neck of history.
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