It’s both a site-specific walking performance in the modern city of Eleusis’ seaside scenery and an invitation to a new Odyssey. The focus is on the 14th chapter of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” which deals with the myth of the horrific slaughter of sun-god Helios’ sacred Oxen on the island of Thrinacia, drawing inspiration from Homer’s Odyssey’s rhapsody M.
MetamorphoSEA seeks a modern cleansing of this ancient sacrilege by using the story of hubris perpetrated by Odysseus’ company as a vehicle. The audience is invited to confront the new Sirens as they roam the industrial complex of TITAN in modern Eleusis. The voices of an Eleusinian woman who no longer exists, as well as the ancient Hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries’ call KONX OM PAX, will be heard in the “vrachákia” area. After passing through today’s Scylla and Charybdis, the audience will arrive at the symbolically charged waterfront of Vlycha Bay.
The half-submerged and decommissioned ships, tankers, barges, and passenger ships stand as witnesses to another kind of infamy that has been committed there, involving the annihilation of the famous – and praised since antiquity – nature of the Eleusinian coastline. At metamorphoSEA, we seek out any beauty that may still be hidden among the ruins. A new language will emerge, capable of informing us about the required modern metamorphosis within all of us, Odysseus’ modern companions.
A few more notes regarding the Mystery 60 metamorphoSEA
The Mystery 60 metamorphoSEA is being implemented in Eleusis as part of the European initiative Ulysses European Odyssey, which is co-financed by Creative Europe and aims to connect 18 European cities by mobilising local communities to address contemporary urging issues through cultural practices. metamorphoSEA is a creative and artistic type of participatory action in which local people, artists, environmentalists, and experts with significant roles in Eleusis are invited to imagine a better future together. In this regard, Dutch theatre director Sjoerd Wagenaar will stage a site-specific artistic intervention inspired by the Eleusinian coast, notably the bay of Vlycha. This performance intervention begins with a social opening that addresses the residents of Eleusis’ love of the sea and their yearning to be reunited with its shoreline. Greek and Dutch artists collaborate on the performance’s implementation, kicking off an international exchange of skills, practices, and experiences.
Photo credit: Jurjen Jellema
