Pavlina Marvin – Turn off the lighthouses for Ivan Ismailovic

This week 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 about sound/music, as well as conversations about writing and literary performance and an online creative writing workshop.

Pavlina Marvins contribution with the title “Turn off the lighthouses for Ivan Ismailovic”, which we want to present to you this week, demonstrates an exciting link of poetry, music, and acting/mime. Her text, which is read by the author herself in greek and displayed on the screen with english subtitles, tells the story of Ivan Ismailovic and his cat’s journey to the country of the narrator. Tense music and the mime and gestures of three performers accompany the presentation.

Pavlina Marvin, who initially studied history in Athens, was invited to several interdisciplinary art projects and festivals as an author and performer in the past. Her first book “Histories from all around my world” was published in 2017 and was awarded by the Hellenic Authors Association with the prize «Yannis Varveris». You can watch her contribution to MIXTAPE here.