Poetry Moves International Festival 2026

The Poetry Moves International Festival / Διεθνές Φεστιβάλ Ποίησης και Συν+Κίνησης is an innovative, multidisciplinary cultural event that places poetry at the core of all arts. It does not function as a traditional poetry festival but rather as a dynamic platform that fosters dialogue between poetry and other forms of artistic expression, such as music, contemporary dance, song, and photography. Each year, a new theme is selected as the starting point for the festival's artistic creation. Based on this theme, a careful selection of poems from Cypriot and international literature is made, combining works by both established and emerging poets. This research and selection process serves as the foundation for shaping the festival's program. The chosen poems inspire artists, serving as the catalyst for new artistic creations.

Theme of the 4th Edition

" Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future…" T. S. Eliot

The 4th edition of the Poetry Moves International Festival (2026) focuses on TIME as a lived experience, where past, present, and future coexist. The title “Flows of Time” was chosen to highlight the multiple ways in which time is experienced within the human condition, inviting artists and audiences to perceive it as an intricate web of moments. The Festival approaches time through art and poetry, rather than through theory. The poems selected capture the human experience of time, not its scientific investigation. Time is perceived as flow, memory, and transformation, like a river that moves ceaselessly within us, carrying moments from the past, through the present, into the future. This multidimensional experience lies at the heart of this year’s Festival programme. For this year’s edition, poems by creators from different eras and cultural backgrounds have been carefully selected. Exploring the theme of time from a variety of perspectives, they will serve as the starting point for the creation of new artistic works. Through these poems, the relationship between time and memory, decay, loss, renewal, and the ordinary moments of everyday life comes to the fore. The artists participating in this year’s Festival, through both commissions and open calls, approach the theme through their own expressive languages. They draw inspiration from the selected poems or propose poetry of their own that engages with the theme of time.