To be continued…
Η γή όλη ευρίσκετο εις τας χείρας ολίγων ανθρώπων. και αν οι καλλιεργηται δεν επλήρωναν τα ποσά των εκμησθώσεων ημπορούσαν να περιέλθουν είς κατάστασιν δουλείας και οι ίδιοι και τα παιδιά των. διότι τα δάνεια εδίδοντο εις όλους με υποθήκη τα σώματά των…
The earth is in the hands of a few; and if the field workers did not pay their lease they would enter a state of slavery both themselves and their children; because the loans were given to everybody in exchange for their bodies… (Aristotle, 1939 [330-322BC], pp. 55-57)
This is an extract from The Athenian Constitution by Aristotle. The first time I read this text, in 2011, I was shocked. It seemed unbelievable that Aristotle, more than 2300 years ago, was concerned with and wrote about difficulties that I encounter in contemporary society. Since then, my mind has not been able to accept the idea that the human, supposedly clever race, inherently behave in cruel and destructive ways so as to satisfy personal needs.
Deeply influenced by humanity’s perpetual inhuman behaviours I decided to dive deeper into the notion of expectations.
Violence towards other humans, nature, animals and objects, the thirst to gain power over them as well as the will to have control, are the things that emerged from my previous showing. While reflecting back to these, I realised that they have actually been concerning me for the last four years and therefore I wanted to further explore them.
I decided to experiment with myself, my dreams, my perception on the world’s current state of warfare, my current state of warfare, the expectations the world has from me and the expectations I have from the world.
This piece is a work in progress, an experiment of new ideas, a wander into unknown paths and disciplines, a combination of my past and my now. I sought to retain and further explore the uncanniness of the human body and play with words and physicality.
Borrowing text from Tim Crouches “An Oak Tree”, as well as borrowing his aesthetic to compose my own, I created an ode to non-humanness.
