May Pole To the Sun & The Minotaur’s Daughter 

Artist: Eleni Giannopoulou & Benjamin Craig

ZAZ10TS GALLERY EXHIBITION
July 6 - November 6, 2023
10 TIMES SQUARE | 1441 Broadway, New York, NY 10018

Το γαϊτανάκι / May-pole

Constant/vibrant rotation around the Tree, eternal plant matter colors of featherwings and leaveflowers, reflective moments of sun, fire and water, the light blue flames. Blue is the portal. The blue of a feather hanged by silk thread blowing on the Άνεμος (ánemos). The North wind turns the asymmetrical line of bone milky blue white blurry. The curves of the seven lines are in creation of the stamen of a snowflake petal. Bodies all in air for a second and eternity—foot all on earth for a glimpse of eyelids. 

Idealized for eternal imperfection, light passing through leaves carrying spirits moving the invisible threads that dance around us constantly. The contemplation between blood running through veins:

Altars built by the Moon’s orders and the Waves obliged with burning tongues, licking the atmosphere created by all the beings, celebrating fasting/feasting on the dead flesh wounds and dried by the Sun goddess that moved the blood sacrifice. Eternal offering. Pagans observe the beings feast on Gaia's other flesh and their insides rumble with a fire hunger. Ultimate consumption. A prayer to the sky for balance so they don’t start feasting on each other's blood.

T o    t h e    S u n

We traverse both paths, the dark and the bright one, the fertile commune that can exist between—that internal energy may be moved to follow within the body, to induce the flight and within women the flowing of nectars woven with another person or object—a star or a planet. The comet that passed a hundred million times and a tiny little flame is visible, appearing/teetering between light and darkness the ecstasy of sinking teeth onto energy.  A fruit as a body, the ultimate shine yellow and not—dark crimson sea.

Everything in space between smoke and flames, volcanic eruptions through Gaia's body, the light from the shine on human eyes illuminated by fire flames around the world, all at the same time. Recreating the mountains through blurry eyelids and becoming seeds—intention/intensity—Silk in between teeth and throat—the discomfort of sharing true rotations around ones’ self, annihilating acting perceiving/transcends existing.

To dance around the May-pole with conviction ruthlessness like a bull that escaped the rope and the cold heated burning iron. To speak from the winds of the heart. Amarillis.

Can we re-enact our birth many times anew to remember the feeling of being chased with no fear. To just slip/step on this mud. To activate movements as subtle as old age. In the end I will relearn what I know deep in between my forehead and flower/feather. Relearn the conviction of my humanity—the color of teal—blue of a tuft of deer hair.

Tremblings of the earth—tremors of tree leaves—tortured trtrtrtrtrtr teeth rattles turning into shiverings of pleasure.

“Bone women, throw our fate with conviction.” No hesitation to running barefoot on Silva earth wild soil and mud and telepathy letting the wild thoughts unveil. Masticando—the way a grandfather sucks the meat off a bone. Fused together.

Artists’ statement

Rooted in Crete, we are privileged to have deep connections with elements, raised/annealed with instinctual trust in one's internal sensual nature. To provoke through interactive performative installations, sensations akin to the ancestors' tradition of circular dances entangled with freedom—invoked within self-induced trembling [love] as an anguished relation to nature and oneself. Inviting the viewer to the Chaotic forms of humanness and cultivation of untutored curiosity while rejecting the illusions of the progression of modernity.—To escape programmed behavior by remaining erratic.

Inspired by the traces left by the Maenads raving ones on damp earth, Grotowsky’s poor theater, Artaud’s Reality insertions into the performative, and Japanese Gutai ideology of embodiment, bodily Instrument, or Concreteness, connecting the world within a sole “collective spirit of individuality” where the principles of community consciousness are crucial, yet give way to individual paths. 

Our interest lies in instinctual, creative collaborations that overcome and reweave the conforming limits of the artist as an individual.

Featured on ZAZ Corner’s In Between | July 6

The exhibition also features a video by Eleni Giannopoulou in collaboration with Mateo Correa, Noah Miller, and Benjamin Craig as part of ZAZ Corner's In Between Programming from July 6th to August 10th.The artwork is displayed for 15 seconds at a time on a large LED billboard in the heart of Times Square.

Location: 41st Street and 7th Avenue, New York, NY

Film Credit
Direction: Eleni Giannopoulou, Mateo Correa, Noah Miller | Art Direction: Eleni Giannopoulou | Producer: Benjamin Craig | DP: Eleni Giannopoulou, Benjamin Craig
Starring: Hayley Maier, Adriana Jamieson, Eleni Giannopoulou, Mateo Correa, Noah Miller, Benjamin Craig, Oly D Remembers | Editing: Mateo Correa, Noah Miller

PAST ZAZ10TS Exhibition by ELENI Giannopoulou: THE MEETING OF THE HORSES INSTALLATION | Jan 15, 2021