Conversation between Georges Didi-Huberman and Niki Giannari

Now silence / Let everything stop / They’re coming in

In March 2016 the European Commission decided to close the “Balkans Route”. In Idomeni, thousands of people are waiting to leave Greece. Held in a camp, they decide to block the railway line used by trains crossing the border. 

This is the background of Nikki Giannari’s epistolary poem Spectres Are Haunting Europe to which the philosopher and art historian Georges Didi-Huberman has responded with an essay inspired by the verses. Travelling from Idomeni in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Hannah Arendt about the condition of being stateless, in exile, or a pariah, he ponders questions of hospitality, citizenship, loss and survival.

Giannari and Didi-Huberman will discuss their joint work and the need to recognise and welcome all the people who enter through the gates of our cities.

Niki Giannari and Maria Kourkouta's film Des spectres hantent l'Europe can be seen in Zumzeig's cinema on Friday 19th of October at 18.00. It will count on the presence of Niki Gianari and Georges Didi-Huberman. For more information: http://zumzeigcine.coop/ca/portfolio/des-spectres-hantent-leurope/