TITLE: Dionysus Project

Dionysus Project is based on the composition of two sculptural costumes of the god Dionysus. This double costume, which was presented at the exhibition Aspects of Tragedy in Stage Costume Design (at the School of Drama, Aristotle University, Greece), curated by Professor Chryssa Mantaka as part of the SKG BRIDGESFESTIVAL 2019. The project is inspired by Nietzsche’s idea on the contradictory, mystic nature of Dionysus and by Otto Walter’s viewpoint on the duality of the god‘s spirit, the bipolarity of life and death that defines him. I imagined a version of the God in a form of a two-headed snake that combines life and death. Life is expressed by calm pleasure and mature feelings, while death is expressed by violent pleasures and immature feelings. A variety of materials and symbols are manipulated in the complex costume construction in order to visualize both elements. This bipolar god can move like one body but can also be divided into two different creatures as seen on the video performance.  I decided to become part of the story as a performer and to investigate by myself the world of the duality of the god in action. Thus, the spectator follows the metaphysical wandering of the Man’s Soul through the contradictory existence of the god.