Magda Barouta

The inspiration for the audiovisual poem “Ritual” was fuelled by the intriguing questions raised concerning the intricate relationship of re-writing between Sappho and H.D., the enigma and creative potential surrounding Sappho’s fragments and the significance of Sappho as a female poetic voice in the 21st century. My initial aim was to create a poem that could function as a space where a suppressed, silenced and misconstrued female voice could become a heroine and re-tell her own story. The poem itself contains intertextual elements and allusions to the works of both poets, as it utilizes striking natural imagery and symbols of femininity from various pieces, including my own translations of Sappho’s fragments, as well as symbolic references to their biographies. However, the aforementioned elements are re-contextualized and interwoven in a narrative inspired by my grandmother’s generation of women, bringing to life the mysterious “spell” they shared in order to exorcize the evil eye, from a granddaughter’s perspective. This amalgam of female voices, old and new, within the poem is complemented by the mingling of multimodal storytelling elements in the video, creating a contrast between natural sounds and images of the present with minimal shots of objects that constitute family heirlooms of the past. The audience is invited to delve, through nature, into an inward exploration of the self and its ties with the past, to celebrate a broader spectrum of womanhood that includes beauty and sensitivity, but also complexity, darkness and perseverance and, ultimately, to attain a deeper understanding of the intricate relationship between Sappho and H.D.