Phoebe Giannisi was born in Athens (1964). She studied Architecture, NTUA in Athens Greece and completed her Phd, (Thèse de Doctorat ) Langues, Histoire et Civilisations des Mondes Anciens in the University of Lyon II- Lumière. She is a member of the Urban Void, a group of architects and artists who have organized and performed a series of activities within the urban landscape. She works as a lecturer at the department of architecture in the University of Thessaly. She was co-editor and writer for the literary journal Black Museum (Mavro Mouseio). She has written the book of essays Classical Greek Architecture, (co-author Α.Tzonis), Flammarion, Paris, 2004 and
Urban Void (Collective book), Futura, Athens, 2008.
Her poetry and prose have appeared in many literary journals and on line journals such as Poiisi, Poiitiki, e-poema, poeticanet, and anthologies. She has published four books of poetry: Sea urchins, (Athens, Black Museum, 1995), Ramazan (Athens, Black Museum, 1997), Loops, Nefeli ed. , 2005, Homerica (Kedros ed. 2009). She has translated poetry by Gerhard Falkner, Barbara Koehler, Gregor Laschen, (Poiesi ), Jesper Svenbro (Poietiki), André Pieyre de Mandiargues and also ancient lyric poetry. She has published essays on ancient Greek poetry, lyric poetry,and also on poetics and its relationship to urban and natural landscape. Lately, recitation done in situ as performance, and recording, have become part of her poetic activity.
The dense minimal poems of Giannisi explore with arresting directness the relationship between language and the elements of the natural world with a language which is always subtle and inornate, skillfully bare. The seemingly loose images- often resembling fragments of a dream- which are outlined with a craft like diligence, become the material of an expressionistic depiction of the world.
Haris Vlavianos (poet, editor of poetry journal Poiitiki), Ta Nea (newspaper), 25-04-08
|
