Something  
        to Keep us warm

As in the previous post, the book of this post is also situated in a war period which the author, Sakis Serefas, chooses to reminds us that the words "multicultural" and "multiracial" are contemporary terms used to describe something old and familiar - the smooth coexistence of people of many different nationalities. 


In his recent book "It΄s snowing outside" (Polis Editions, 2016), a theatrical performance is organised to mark the 100th anniversary of the arrival of foreign troops in Thessaloniki (the forces of the Allies entered the city in October 1915 on the grounds that they provide support to Serbia and Russia during the Great War). On the scene of a popular cinema-theatre house, a psychic using her various mental tricks calls the ectoplasms of six Allied soldiers to appear. The Englishmen Richard Johnson and John Smith, the Frenchman Achille Breton, the Italian Pietro Loretti, the Russian Nikita Smirnov and the Indian Bambalam recount some very typical incidents from their daily life giving out the feeling and rhythm of the time.  

These lively, very comprehensive testimonies are, of course, owning to the flexible skill of the author and his very special, stroboscopic narrative style that links history with the present in a text that demystifies fallacies and highlights misattitudes amidst cold weather and apathy.

Note: The installation by  Régis Dho (D.R.) is a detail from the cover of the book.