"Bacchic"

"Vintage," 2020

Composite photograph for the group exhibition: "Bacchic" at Match More gallery, Chania - Crete, 8/8/2019 - 6/9/2019. 

Giclée print on photographic paper (105 x 70 cm).
Curators: Dr. Constantinos V. Proimos, Ioannis N. Arhontakis.

 

The god of the ancient Greeks, Bacchus or Dionysus, represents the rebirth of nature, the intoxication of celebration and the joy of life.

Bacchus is the god of unbridled human desire that brings about fertility. He is the god of "sacred rage" and "divine homophagy". He is neither a child nor a man, but an eternal teenager, occupying a position between the two. In this form, he represents the spirit of energy and transformative power of the daily game of life, which is full of cunning, ingenuity and strategies that indicate either the divine wisdom or the archetype of the "cheater".

His father, Zeus, through the presence of Bacchus tried to bring to humanity the celebratory element of mental impregnation, divine infirmation and spiritual rebirth. It is the guide from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge that leads man ultimately to deification. His priestesses, the Maenads, are "crazy women", they are furious and imbued with his divine aura and essence, they are divine. And his numerous followers. the Satyrs and the Selenians, are constantly inspired and possessed by his divine refreshing spirit. The vine and the ivy are the sacred plant symbols of the god and the liqueur wine is his gift to the people in their effort to reach bliss.

The orgiastic spirit of the celebration in claiming life is manifested by extroversion and frantic dancing. Bacchus dances and dedicates to his father Zeus the ritual dance that reaches to the present day as "Zeibekikos" (Zeus + Bacchus = Zeubakchikos> Zeybekikos). The movements of the hands concern the flying of the eagle (symbol of Zeus), the domination and the defense (circular movements) and even the opening of the earth hitting the hand down, sometimes for gaining strength and sometimes for fruiting, throwing the fruit-seed to create life. The movements of the legs syrnbolize (forward) the attack, (backwards) the defense, (left & right) the flanking. Zeybekikos borrows some of the components of the ancient Greek war dances «Pyrrichios» and «Karpaios» and extends them to today. In his work «Dance» S. Zervoudakis records a spontaneous bacchic orchemia of mind and body.

With the presentation of the exhibition "Bacchic" opens a parenthesis corresponding to the Corona days of fear, inclusion and introversion that prevail in our daily lives. It was organized to remind us of the joy of life that today we must protect and tomorrow to enjoy again with more momentum and energy.

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Ioannis N. Archontakis - Director of The Contemporary Art Museum of Chania - Olivepress