Michael-Angelos Englezos – Chan – The Way

We continue our series in which we present videos from the online platform MIXTAPE. This project is a collaboration of the “SARDAM interdisciplinary literature festival” and the Cultural Section of the Cyprus High Commission in the UK and is aiming at showcasing the work of Cypriot and international writers-performers. MIXTAPE offers a taste of several trends related to literature and literary performance, including videos of spoken word (slamming), sound poetry, visual poetry, literature in relation to video art, literature in relation to sound/music, as well as conversations about writing and literary performance and an online creative writing workshop.

This time we present “Chan – The Way” by Michael-Angelos Englezo – a combination of poetry and video. Footage of a city tour at night is accompanied by a Buddhist poem from the 6th century, which was translated into English. The text is recited by a computer-generated voice. As the artist himself puts it:

“This is not an endorsement of any religious tenet, principle, doctrine or dogma. This is a construed projection of the philosophical idea of Nondualism, in other words, the overcoming of the sensory percept of apparent universal multiplicity and its reduction to one essential and undivided reality. As above so below.”

You can find the video via this link.