CONTEMPORARY ART
The event is a continuation of the initiatives of the AMKE Scientific Group "Opsometha Eis Philippous" and aims to promote art through the eyes of contemporary local artists. It is an open-air art symposium during where artists are invited in seven days to create their works, in a predetermined area next to the archeological site of the Philippi Theater, as a parallel action during the Philippi Festival.
There, artists & local community will have the opportunity to get together, interact, get to know each other, be heard.
The symposium incorporates all the arts, such as painting, sculpture, architecture, theater, music, etc. Artists living and working in Philippi Park have been selected and will be hosted in this open space. During these seven days the works will come to life - in front of the public in the morning, in open art workshops and will be protected under specially designed structures. The afternoon will be dedicated to interaction with the public and society. During the evening, parallel activities (speeches, workshops, music events, etc.) will etc.) will take place.
The history and culture of the area will be the inspiration of the artists. The ultimate goal of the event is to connect the artists themselves with the history of their place and to highlight it through their personal works of art.
HISTORY OF THE PLACE
Between the mountains of Paggaio, Falakro, Menoiki and Syvolos, where the lake Prasiada used to stretch, is today the fertile field of Philippi, which has hosted man, his creations and activities for 8.000 years.
This place was already a home for prehistoric people around 6,400 BC and then for the Thracian tribes during the Bronze and Iron Ages. Later, it was associated with the Orphic and Dionysian cults, the abduction of Persephone by Pluto in the Nyssian realm, and the deep mysterious quests that still guide any human soul that may be seeking them.
This is also the place where the Thassians established their colony which was constantly thriving in the fields of Philippi but it was also enriched by the gold mines of Paggaio. It was not long before it was conquered by the Romans and became a battlefield with famous protagonists, Cassius and Brutus.
Christianity, the new religion, was established here, initiated with the baptism of the first European Christian, Lydia of Philippi, by the Apostle Paul of the nations. It is a mythic, mysterious and fertile place. It is therefore worth marking, highlighting it in various ways and ensure that it is engraved in the human mind as a world cultural heritage.
Rapture, incarceration, coercion, desperation, liberation, renaissance, sacrifice, purification, the cycle of nature, the cycle of life ...
Theme of Symposium of Contemporary Art
The Rapture of Persephone
One of the richest myths of ancient Greek mythology, but also one of the most primitive of humanity unfolds in the vicinity, or better still said “in the arms of Philippi Park.
The abduction site of Persephone, near Mount Paggaion, is associated with the ancient and mystical name Nyssa, hence the Nysson plain. There, the beautiful Persephone was gathering flowers accompanied by the Oceanic nymphs when Pluto saw her and fell in love with her. After secretly taking her from her company, he crossed the Zygaktis River - on its banks is the baptistery of Lydia, who is known to be the first European Christian - with his chariot to return to the Underworld. It is said that the river, in order to save Persephone from being kidnapped, broke the yoke from Pluto's chariot, but was unable to change her Fate.
There, on the banks of the river Zygaktis, whose name means "the one who balances two shores” one manages to distinguish the line that separates the Upper and the Underworld, life from death, the conscious from the subconscious.
No one heard the cries of Persephone until she was lost in the depths of the earth, no one except Hecate and the Sun. Having taken the disguise of a mourning old woman, Dimitra wandered for nine days until she met Hecate. Together they visited the Sun to find out what had happened. As a result of Dimitra's deep sorrow, the crops dried up, the plants no longer bore fruit and the land was barren. The animals were dying and the human species were in danger of extinction. So Zeus backed down and sent Mercury to the kingdom of Pluto / Hades' brother to return Persephone to her mother.
But the wicked Pluto, who wanted her as his wife, before allowing her to return to the surface of the earth, gave her some pomegranate seeds. Once Persephone ate food from the Underworld she was doomed to always return there! So they came to an agreement proposed by Rhea. Let the Daughter stay with her mother for two thirds of the year, while the earth blooms and bears fruit and the rest in the chthonic world of Pluto as his wife and queen, that being the time of the year when the landscape dies and the vegetation withers, till it the shoot will grow from the seed and will bear flowers and fruit.
#covidquarantine
#covidquarantine
#covidquarantine
#metoo
#metoo
#metoo
The natural theory of vegetation and the rural cycle of the myth was first formulated by the Stoic philosophers, arguing that Persephone is identified with cereals and her absence with their preservation in the subsoil. Her abduction is the allegory of the cycle of euphoria of nature: the descent of the Daughter to the Underworld every autumn is identified with the absence of the crops, which sprout in the spring with her ascent.
The myth has also acquired anthropocentric symbolism which is associated with marriage and death but also with the traumatic separation of the mother from the daughter and their reunion. It also symbolizes the eternal journey of the Soul from Spirit to matter and from matter back to Spirit.