Translator: Peter Douskalis Reviewer: Chryssa Takahashi
Good evening, good evening.
How are you? Tired?
A very lively crowd we have here. (Laughter)
Sleepy perhaps? Audience: No
Vangelis Avgoulas: Anxious? Crowd: No
VA: Of course not, are you the ones speaking? I am speaking to so many people.
How could you be anxious?
I'm going to speak a little bit about love.
Good, catchy.
Now what can I say about love, it was a trap.
That's why so many have sung,
have written poems, serenades, everything.
And since we're at the Pallas Theatre, I don't want to say these things.
So I've decided not to repeat anything because there isn't enough time.
I would forget something and we wouldn't be satisfied.
It all began when I met Dimitris Kalavros and Marylou Thivaiou.
No, I'm not describing to you a threesome, I haven't started yet.
I'm simply describing the first time we met
and discussed the possibility of my speaking here today.
At some point they were trolling me
and proposed to me "Love at first sight"?
I said, "Okay". The atmosphere is starting to warm up.
(Laughter)
I said it warmed up, I didn't say I took or put anything, right?
Because I see that you are ready. There is a thirst for love down there.
I like it, we will make an epilogue together.
And I answered this way, to advertise my blog a little,
let's love each other with different eyes.
Somewhere at that point we solidified my presence here today.
This is where I ruin the rehearsals from the other day.
I'm speaking so much off text and incomprehensibly.
Ah, love is blind, you heard this from Petros.
That's not his saying though, you applauded him for nothing.
Theocretus, 3rd century B.C.
Our ancestors knew something back then, or since then.
And at our lunch break here,
as I was observing you,
I naturally remembered to add that love also passes through our stomach.
Yes, we have already gathered sayings that reject vision in love,
so of course, let's see what you are doing.
Let's say, in a novel, we often imagine ourselves as the hero,
we live their romantic adventures,
perhaps you even fantasize their described love scenes.
You have never seen them though.
In our daily lives, we hear a beautiful voice on the phone
and it flusters us.
Or we smell a nice scent and we get aroused.
Or we are moved by a caressing touch.
We can see it from a more scientific point of view.
Let's say in psychanalysis, what do we say?
That we love he or she that has the answer or an answer
to the question "Who am I?"
Obviously, we don't fall in love with him or her
that would answer the questions "How do I look?" or "Who do I look like?"
So the specialists, through science, and me, that I have experienced it since birth
and you, even through the alternative route,
we can conclude the following:
Vision is a lazy sense
that often condemns us to a sweet captivity
of first sight and of first impression.
It is everywhere.
From all of the products to all of the services
to attract interest,
a presentable display is the most important thing.
But we need to learn to fall in love without vision.
We must free the joys of love and affection
from the shackles of vision
because this is the only way to experience
these beautiful, divine I might say, feelings to their fullest extent.
And if some express that
they still prefer to love by cupid rather than by substance
then perhaps you could end up spelling 'cupid' with ST instead of C.
Yes, I insist.
I insist and I want you here and now, to imagine the flower that you have met
and thought that this one possibly smells better than all the rest.
Imagine it. Which is it? Basil? Gardenia?
There are many flowers in nature with unrivaled aromas
that cannot satisfy the eye.
On the other hand, we have all had the pleasure of seeing a rose.
Whatever color it may be, for whatever reason it is offered to us.
Truthfully, have you touched attentively a rose?
It may have the softest, most refined pedals
than any other flower.
You touch it and it immediately reciprocates to your caressing.
Kind like a handshake. A handshake.
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Avgoula" a young psychologist said to me, end of 2014.
In a handshake that lasted three seconds longer than the norm.
Only three seconds.
Enough to bring many beautiful evenings and wild dreams with her.
Three seconds that told me to come here today
and invite you to learn to read
the other messages from your other senses minus the sense of vision.
Because otherwise, believe me, you lose a major portion from the meaning of life.
When you look in the mirror,
I've observed it in friends, cousins, relatives, neighbors,
colleagues and coworkers,
these crises of self-confidence in the world of the seeing.
You recognize, I remember, disadvantages in yourselves all the time.
Meaning, you tell yourself reasons why someone wouldn't love you.
Don't deny it.
Wrinkles, white hair, extra kilos, these kinds of things.
I wonder if we have ever recognized in ourselves
reasons for someone to love us?
And I don't mean a description like, "Tall, blonde, with blue eyes"
or "Tall, strong, and manly" and these kinds of things
(Laughter)
I wonder why when someone asks us without seeing us,
"Tell me something about yourself, describe yourself to me",
why do we immediately start giving visual characteristics?
Are these the only things?
Let me see you now, here, I have time anyway.
We'll take a poll.
The question I'll pose is,
"For which of your characteristics would someone love you?"
Hold on. I will give you some choices and I want a show of hands.
Don't think about not raising hands because a blind person is speaking.
Petros is my snitch behind the scenes.
(Laughter)
For which of your characteristics would someone love you?
So...
(Applause)
We begin. I made it multiple choice because it is Saturday evening.
Saturday night you take your choice and implement it, right?
So, why would someone love you?
Perhaps you're giving lovers?
Hands, okay, those who believe it.
(Laughter)
Nice.
For your sence of humour perhaps?
Very good, I want a warmer participation.
Because of your looks? That plays a role, I'm not condemning it.
(Laughter)
Come one, don't be ashamed, some people believe it.
The Pompous aren't only in Pompeii.
(Laughter)
I'll know if you raised hands.
(Applause)
Please, if the organizers could stop the timer during the applause
because you'll yell at me backstage.
That wasn't timed.
Let's continue the poll. I still have two short questions.
For which characteristic would someone fall in love with you?
Perhaps you are unrivaled at flirting?
Let's go, hands. Yes, at picking up. Raise your hand.
I can tell there are some.
And a last one, it proved to express longing during the rehersals.
Would someone fall in love with you
perhaps because you are better than their ex?
(Laughter)
Ahhh? Yes, here, okay, I think...
In every instance I might not have direct contact
with the answers you have,
but I'm sure that the option of external appearance didn't dominate.
Even just because of a self confidence crisis.
However, since I'm actually finishing up,
you, who have been listening to me so long
and you don't like your I.D. photo
honestly, don't you cook well?
Don't you enjoy romantic walks under the moonlight?
Don't you like a cuddle
and when it rains outside, to listen to the rain together?
Are you not resourceful at matching nicely new chants
with your favorite football team?
Do you write nice music and nice lyrics?
Are you not the organized or the joker of the group?
None of these describe any of you that have been listening to me so long?
Are you only an optical description?
A photograph? An external appearance?
Do you mean to tell me you are only a shopping window of yourself
that you don't want others to ever examine
and you don't know at all how to describe?
Love...
If love was identified with an image,
if love meant attraction by vision
then in our current era of imagery
women models would be with men marionettes.
As for the others?
As I have been with you since this morning
I think the majority will remain unsatisfied with the need to love.
Yes, therefore, perhaps we should all together debunk the visual myth of love?
It's in your best interest.
(Laughter)
"Ugly and beautiful people don't exist, neither smart nor stupid.
There are only people who have been loved and who haven't been loved",
said the unforgettable Malvina Karali.
We each have the right to love and to be loved.
A non negotiable right.
Without obligation or compromise.
An interwoven right with this life.
Regardless of the opinion that vision might have about it.
Regardless of the image.
Regardless of any malfunction or deformity
that our body may have
or the body of the person across us.
And since time is passing and, of course, my talk is ending,
listen to this, it's not written anywhere and then I will leave.
Close your eyes now.
Close your eyes. Think of him. Think of her.
It can be either the person that you share your life with,
or you are together right now,
or him that you miss,
or her that you truly desire but she doesn't know.
Think of him. Think of her. Now.
A thought that has not been made public can't be prosecuted or forbidden.
Would you yell "I love you" now, if the thought was so intense?
Probably not, you'd say. They'd turn and look at us strangely.
Yes, today we've made the theory of vision stronger
than the theory of relativity.
However, I insist. Think of him. Think of her.
You now hold in your hands the ticket for an "I want you", for an "I love you",
that will take you off only if you feel it, if the other person feels it.
Do not gaze at the horizon, it isn't visible.
Don't look for it with the corner of your eye.
Some 'meanings' are designed only to be felt.
If they come out in the open, if the come into our field of vision,
they vanish, they fade.
So, if my own truth about love meant to you anything today,
until we meet again, at the paths of our heart and soul.
Thank you.
(Applause)