description | the role of the Chorus | the elements | thesmophoria | the music | the performers

video stills

timetable of the work

bio-performance theory introduction



The Garden

"Man is not intelligent.Only what sourrounds him is intelligent."

(Heraclitus from Ephesos, 148)



According to Heraclitus we become intelligent by drawing in this divine reason [logos] through breathing, and forgetful when asleep, but we regain our senses when we wake up again. For in sleep, when the channels of perception are shut, our mind is sundered from its kinship with the surrounding, and breathing is the only point of attachment to be preserved, like a kind of root; being sundered, our mind casts off its former power of memory. But in the waking state it again peeps out through the channels of perception as though through a kind of window, and meeting with the surrounding it puts on its power of reason.Sextus adv. Math. VII, 129.

God becomes man becomes fish becomes barnacle goose becomes featherbed mountain. Dead breaths I living breathe, tread dead dust, devour a urinous offal from all dead. James Joyce, "Ulysses".





the concept:

a performance for a male performer, 3 women performers, a female chorus, (with references to Thesmophoria , a celebration of Sporetos ,"Seed-time", the autumn sowing,

dedicated to Demeter and restricted to women.)

using hidden technological apparatus through which space becomes a field of interaction: a thermal camera,

electrodes connected to an electric valve, computers, miniDV cameras, loudspeakers



also mutant fruitflies (transgenic types with the Antennapedia gene) in glass sculptures lie on the ground

simulation still- large scale

Description:

the ground consists of sulphuric yellowish soil; the male performer is made up like a pan [1] rather than a satyr, a cross-species creature in blue skin (newborn animal-bird with extended legs). He uses hidden electrodes to activate an electrovalve mechanism for letting mercury enter the glass triangle and mix with saliva . The male performers' transformed genitalia recalls the androgyny of Dionysos, when young men carrying brances were dressed as women.



the glass tears of the male performer who occasionally takes the role of Demeter are remniscent of Demeter, the mother of Kore who grieved great tears for the loss of her daughter and searched the world leaving the fields fruitless and barren(that's why the ground in the performance is sulphuric)

the first female performer appears to be slightly mutated. She lies on the sulphuric ground. On her body She spits saliva which moves to the central part

of the glass sculpture to mix with mercury and drips on the sulphuric ground.

the second and the third female performers hide the organic-like silicone sculptures in the ground

the thyrsus acts as musical instrument: the male performer gets periodically the thyrsus [2] (a pole carried by Dionysus, and by Satyrs, Maenades, and others who engaged in Bacchic festivities and rites) and scans the performance space; a hidden thermal camera is concealed inside the thyrsus. The thermal camera measures the temperature of the female performer and the space

all temperature changes are transmitted to the computer which produces a real-time "foreground" synthesis, in contrast to the female chorus synthesis the female chorus consists of seven sopranos which perform a music synthesis based on abuse

The shamans' thyrsus is constructed in accordance to the scourge made of morotton or thyrsus,(woven bark) which was used from participants whipping each other at the 'Thesmophoria'. This celebration of autumn sowing was dedicated to Demeter and restricted to women in ancient Greece. The women also engaged in Aiskhrologia (Foul language. abuse), hurling insults at one another to commemorate the way in which Iambe made the grieving Demeter laugh.

glass sculptures schematised in the form of tears, host colonies of the transgenic flies.

duration of the performance might be 2 - 3 days as a continuous event (see below: During the Thesmophoria proper the women

camp for three days in the Thesmophorion, the hillside sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros)

All performers look neither male or female, with their genitals covered up by silicone skin.

3 women lay on the sulphuric ground. They also appear slightly mutated with the aid of silicone extensions. They occasionally

carry flesh-like sculptures made of silicone which they hide under the ground.