Performance
I n t e r s p a c e (2021) | Inspire Project 2021 at Momus Experimental Center of the Arts in Thessaloniki
The performance ''I n t e r s p a c e'', based on the video performance ''ritual_'' (Eirini Roumpi / 2018), was completed when it encountered the idea of Plato's allegory of the cavern and this particular space at Momus building in Thessaloniki, thus taking its final site-specific form. It focuses on the path of consciousness, the path leading out of the cave, on the captives who have already been released from their bonds and are heading towards the light.
The cave, though a fake reality contained some truth, its fake nature. If something contains some truth, does that make it true? The line, is it realization?
If all the captives come out of the cave, what will happen to the cave?
Is it worth getting out?
If they all come out and the “Republic” becomes reality, won't it become the new cave?
If you get out, will you go back into the cave by yourself? Will you choose acquired ignorance?
Are we doomed to endless enclosure?
The way out of the cave is Art itself and the scribble is just Its trace?
The futility of smudging in place of cleaning.
And after all, if you scratch the surface, the substance stays on your nails.
Ritual_
Performance by Eirini Roumpi (2018)
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words and objects, characterized by formalism, traditionalism, symbolism and performance, mainly with a spiritual purpose. Keeping in mind the activities of ritual, I decided to create an artistic performance dealing with the acceptance of being and its emotional results, in particular the relation between existence and knowledge. Specifically, I tried to research whether people who are not concerned with existence, are more calm and prosperous, than those who question the nature and the character of their reality. In order to achieve that, I directed a circle-schemed activity, comprehended three stages (peacefulness- anger- tranquility). These stages reflect the triptych of unawareness, doubt and acceptance. The activity itself is the cleansing of a black painted glass that is placed before my face covering it. By cleaning the glass, calmly at first and more intensely afterwards, based on the three stages, the face is unveiling progressively, revealing also its true self, trying to reach awareness/consciousness. The whispering and the repetitive movements, almost obsessive, of the cleaning procedure, underline the ritualistic character and can also remind us the “ritual of cleaning” in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).