ÉPÏKÂNÕVÀ
(The New, Definitely Post/Transnational,
Positively Polylingual, Palpably Ethereal, and Mostly Portable Open
Epic, as Rendered by The Elastic Circus of the Revolution)
(2007-present, Elastic Circus of the Revolution and other publishers, entities, and organizations; plurilingual, multimedial, and multiplatformal literary
epic)
ÉPÏKÂNÕVÀ is an ‘open epic’–the necessary poetic epic of our time–constructing the epic of its people… It is a polylingual total epic where prose and poetic fragments unfold on multiple platforms, in multiple arenas and spaces (private and public), and through various scriptural strategies–from the traditional (handwritten sheets and books) to the new (electronic, digital, web). Narrative conventions are challenged while poetic, stylistic, and performative operations exploit possibilities unique to different languages and mediums. The overall experience is orchestrated through the creation of lasting artifacts as well as ephemeral events and monumental constructs. The epic functions as a collection of stories and chronicles, an almanac of poetic prose fragments, a treatise on writing and a theory of literature in motion, and a universe of ruptures and metamorphoses that intertwines various forms, objects and materials in order to usher in a new species of literary creation. A theoretical apparatus and a critical enterprise engaged with the history and forms of literature and the reading phenomenon, ÉPÏKÂNÕVÀ also challenges traditional modalities of publication, exhibition, commodification, dissemination, and interaction.
In the past fifteen years, kantos and ketabs have appeared and taken place in a host of spaces in various cities and locales across the world. At official festivals like the Dumbo Arts Festival in Brooklyn, New York (2010), the Baroquissimo Festival in Puebla, Mexico (2010), the Paris en toutes lettres festival in Paris (2010), and Engendered Festival in New York (2009), throughout the years and with more recent events at the Festival Littéraire du 5ème Arr in Paris (in 2022 and 2026), along with a Tournée Intime (The Intimate Tour) across several cities in France, also in 2026. In various galleries and spaces including in our own backyard (Bowery Poetry Club, Queens Museum of Art, Uncomun 08 in Brooklyn, Janos Gat Gallery, Rio Gallery). Through impromptu actions at public and private spaces: a plaza in Santo Domingo, a lake in Dorset, Vermont, the streets of NYC. Readings, readations, incantations. Performances and performations. Publications–with Editions Caractères in Paris, UpSet Press in Brooklyn, and, of course, The Elastic Circus of the Revolution in New York, and in various reviews and setups ((Fiction International, Textpiece, Madbunkers). Through presentations and exchanges at residencies, such as the Bologna Museum of Modern Art in Italy (2015 and 2016), and Marble House Project in Vermont (2015). Writings across genres, fashioning new rituals and forms. Public literature, litpics, litclips, bookstills: new types of objects. An epic that fuses myths to create new ones, embraces rupture, presents the new body-poet: the neo-nomad, neo-derviche: a blend of the flâneur, the poete maudit, the dandy–a traveling troubadour, mystical Persian poet, underground punk rocker.
A new epic–for a new people. A new epic: for a new world.
For more on ÉPÏKÂNÕVÀ in general… epikanova.com