PCAI presents
Searching for the Oracle: an expedition
by Norwegian artist Helle Siljeholm in Delphi
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Free admission
On April 25 Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative (PCAI) presents Searching for the Oracle, a participatory expedition by Norwegian visual artist and choreographer Helle Siljeholm, in Delphi.
Driven by recent researches on Delphi’s geomythological history, stating that the oracle’s hallucinative fumes were due to seismic raptures Helle Siljeholm invites the public for a one-day expedition in search for the Oracle. While on the one hand, references in geomythology describe a metaphysical connection in which Gaia, Mother Earth, produced from its bowels fumes with hallucinogenic effects, capable of creating powerful images in people’s imagination, on the other hand, urban legends report that these fumes seem to have disappeared from Delphi in the 1930s. Searching for the Oracle is a speculation and a meditation upon Delphi as a site, the fumes that disappeared, and the form they might have transformed into.
Inspired by the ancient journey to meet Pythia (the Oracle) the audience is invited to join the performers on an 8-hour participatory expedition from Athens to Delphi. Leaving Athens at 15.30 and returning by midnight, the expedition takes the form of a participatory performance with intermediate stops, including a meditative walk in nature, resting as well as a festive ritual. The last stop of the journey will be the Delphi PCAI venue, the former Pikionis pavilion, now “pi”, where the participants, will be served a vegetarian dinner surrounded by the Delphic stunning scenery. All the while, performative and spiritual elements might appear and disappear throughout.
Searching for the Oracle is part of Siljeholm’s ongoing and long-term project The Mountain Body based on the development of unique site-specific works in different locations. Together and over time these works and processes form a “mountain range” inspired by the nomadic movements of the continental shelves and the land surface, which are always in motion across borders and in various stages of transformation. The sites, research, and interventions that make up this mountain range can be understood as a community; a whole, that while possessing individual characteristics, is collectively rooted in one another, much like the ecosystems we depend on for survival.
More about Helle Siljeholm
Helle Siljeholm is a visual artist and choreographer based in Oslo. Her work encompasses film, installation, sculpture, choreography, performance, and curatorial practices. She is a Ph.D. candidate in artistic research at the Oslo National Academy Of The Arts. Siljeholm’s artistic work often involves extensive collaboration across a range of artistic and academic disciplines. In her research project, she explores entanglements of human and more-than-human bodies and places, in the light of geological (deep) time and space. The more-than-human bodies are defined as geological entities, like mountains, structural formations, landforms, and deposits such as delta, sand, and others. Bodies that exist in different forms, have different mobilities and span different time intervals. A relational approach to nature, body and culture opens the possibility of studying how alternative perspectives and imaginaries may arise in encounters with nature as the more-than-human bodies themselves represent them.
www.hellesiljeholm.com
www.themountainbody.com/
Concept, choreographer and researcher: Helle Siljeholm, Co-creating performer and sound design: Ilios, Co-creating performers: Pernille Holden and Marianne Kjærsund, Curator and research: Kika Kyriakakou, PCAI Artistic Director, Curator and costume design: Poka Yio, Production: Vasia Magoula, Vicky Tsirou, Pi facilitator: Menelaos Bakratsas, Performance documentation: Maria Toultsa, Visual documentation: Espen Haslene & Fred Arne Wergland, Administration: Guro Vrålstad, The Mountain Body Communication: Bjarne Asp, PCAI & Zuma Communications
Organised by: Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative – PCAI
Supported by: Arts Council Norway, OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Danse- og Teatersentrum, Norwegian Embassy in Athens
Admission is free
Transportation: Free from Athens (Syntagma Square) to Delphi and return on the date of the event. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. The bus will depart from Delphi to Athens after the end of the event. Reservation is mandatory.
Reserve your seat on the shuttle bus, by filling in the form:
https://forms.gle/xVDLXnNmEPD2jhpeA
Date: Thursday 25 April 2024
Departure time: 3.30 pm
Arrival time (Delphi): 6 pm
Return time (Delphi): 9.30 pm
Arrival time (Athens): 12 am
Venue: Pi, Global Center for Circular Economy and Culture (former Pikionis’ pavilion), Delphi, Greece
Map: https://goo.gl/maps/4xhmefaS55xg3tyVA
Information: pcai.gr, info@pcai.gr and via phone: +30 2104060088
(Monday-Friday: 9am-5pm)
Spread the word and use the hashtags #oracle #HelleSiljeholm #pcaidelphi #pi
Image credits: Helle Siljeholm, The Mountain Body, 2021 © Istvan Virag
With the support of:
Activity aligned with Goals 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 16, 17
