Reading the Future: Engonopoulos

The podcast

Karvounidou Maria, Kipourou Dimitra-Maria, Myrogianni Iliana, Stenos Ioannis

May 2025

Introduction

Nikos Engonopoulos managed to create a comprehensive work that combines his desire for inner search with the aesthetics of surrealism, leaving behind a great cultural legacy that transcended the boundaries of his time and remains relevant to this day. Thus, as senior students in the course ‘‘Modern Greek Literature in the Media’’ we decided to carry out our own work and research on Engonopoulos’s life through a podcast entitled “Reading the Future: Engonopoulos”.

Initially, we had the opportunity to visit the School of Fine Arts, where Engonopoulos' archive is preserved, where we had the opportunity to study up close an extensive collection of his personal items, as well as books that helped us better understand Engonopoulos as an entity and the various aspects of his life. Two books from the archive were of particular interest to us, which we will use to learn about his life. The first was titled “In the footsteps of Nikos Engonopoulos” which was written by his first wife Nelli Andrikopoulou and the second is called “...and I love you madly”, which is a collection of letters he sent to his second wife Lena Tsiokou, during their marriage.

Before starting our work, we conducted a poll on the Instagram application to see to what extent the modern public knows Engonopoulos. Although most people seemed not to know him, there was a significant portion of people who recognized him. Afterwards, we went to the recording studio to tape our conversation, with the help of Aristides Lykotrafitis, who was responsible for the sound and technical aspects.

The inspiration for our title came from the book by Vlachodimos Dimitris “Reading the past to Engonopoulos” published in 2006, only we will present Engonopoulos as he is today.

At the beginning of the podcast we mention some basic things about his life, such as the place he was born, the studies he followed and his professional development. Then, we enter the first thematic section concerning war and poetry, where we analyze his experiences from the war by making an extensive reference to his famous poem “Bolivar”. Then, we proceed to our second thematic section concerning current affairs and specifically the opinion that the artist may have expressed on contemporary issues, such as climate change and fast fashion. The third thematic section touches on fabrics and political views in which we present the way in which he chose to express himself through his clothing choices. The last thematic section relates to his love life and specifically his two marriages, which we discuss in detail below. Finally, here are some conclusions about the Engonopoulos, where each of us speculates on what Engonopoulos would be like as a young person of the modern era. Finally, we would like to mention that this podcast is the result of 4 senior students who conducted personal research and presented it in a free discussion. The goal is to discuss the question of what Engonopoulos would be like as a Gen Z person.

Epilogue

It is a given that Engonopoulos' works managed to touch the deepest aspects of human existence both in his time and today, while through the perspective of surrealism, he touched on various political and social problems and brought them out.

Based on his work, one could wonder how this artist would stand in the face of contemporary issues, such as climate change and fast fashion, but also to what extent the emergence and dominance of technology affects artistic expression, as he understood it.

Although Engonopoulos himself cannot answer these questions that he puts into our thoughts so that we can reassess our values ​​and beliefs. His work does not only concern the past, but the present and the future together. In a world that is constantly changing, he helps us discover new interpretations and draw our own conclusions. Perhaps this set of evidence that he left behind is what will help us live correctly and evaluate the world through his own eyes.

Bibliography

●       Andrikopoulou, N., (2003). In the footsteps of Nikos Engonopoulos: Potamos Publications

●       Engonopoulos, N. (2007) “...and I love you madly”. Ikaros Publications

●       Engonopoulos, Nikos. In an anthiro Ellini golgo. Athens: Ikaros, 1977.

●        Kalokyris, D. (1985). Tribute to Nikos Engonopoulos. I Lexi, 30 (6), 45-60.

●       Kalokyris, D. (2000). Nikos Engonopoulos: The poet and painter of surrealism. Patakis Publications.

Christofilogiannis, A. (1970). Tribute to Nikos Engonopoulos. Nea Hestia.