Dionysos
Extraordinary books are door keys opening to new worlds, and indeed a whole world was uncovered to me when I found myself absorbed in Karl Kerényi’s Dionysos, Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, an outstanding account of the cult of Dionysos from its origins to late antiquity.
While reading Kerényi’s book, I was overwhelmed by a series of images that blossomed spontaneously and continually in my head, images that seemed to be asking for a transposition into physical form, into painting.
Few products of human imagination are as fascinating and compelling as Greek god Dionysos, a multifaceted entity rooted in a remote and obscure past but still resonating today.
In this project, I tried to follow Dionysos’ development in a roughly chronological way, focusing on foundational elements of the extremely rich Dionysian iconography, always having Kerényi’s text as a guiding thread through the labyrinth.
At the heart of the labyrinth, of course, is Crete, the land that first adopted Dionysos’ cult and that spread it to Greece, where it flourished.
I had the privilege to have access to Heraklion’s Archaeological Museum for two weeks in September 2021, and most of the paintings and drawings in this project are the result of my work there.
