Initiation: Kallichoron

Artist list

Kalliopi Andrikopoulou, Vivien Bedwell, Petra Bole, Daria Borovkova, Satomi Kawai, Bibi Klekachkoska, Anna Lewis, Lyra Lin, Panayiotis Panayi, Ting Quetzaljo, Loukia Richards, Martina Turini, Eva Van Kempen, Daniel Von Weinberger, Christoph Ziegler, Evgenia Zoidaki

For two thousand years Eleusina, a farmers' community close to Athens, was the spiritual capital of the Greek-Roman world. The cult of Demeter and Persephone - Mother and Daughter – celebrated the establishment of human settlements and agriculture, the cycle of nature and life, the preparation and sharing of food and gave a metaphysical explanation for the soul's destiny after death.
 
Many elements of the Eleusinian cult - its sacred architecture, objects, rituals, teachings – were taken over by Christianity after the decline of the ancient faith, thus becoming a vital part of Europe's spiritual heritage and cultural language.
 
Kallichoron - The Well of Fair Dances - still to be seen at the very entrance of the sacred site of Eleusina, alludes to the ecstatic dances the initiates performed around it to honor the goddess Demeter, Mother Earth. Kallichoron was the boundary between life and death, conscious and unconscious, upper world and Hades, the initiates had to cross to reach eternal truth.
 
For two thousand years, initiates joined hands, danced together and drank the kykeon behind the walls of the protective Sanctuary, celebrating the victory of civilization over the hybris of inflated egos.
In our days, Eleusina stands for the urgent need to reconsider dead-end patterns for growth, adopt sustainable development strategies and abolish acute inequality and misery which breeds ignorance, hate idelogies and war.
 
Daniel von Weinberger‘s work - Honored Guest of the show – is a bitter reminder of the end of civilization Europe already witnessed between 1933-45. It can recur under a different ideological disguise, if we do not remain vigilant.

At the show opening, jewellery artists present performances they developed during an Artist Residency in Athens.