Harpies / Άρπυιες
"The first gods were beasts of primordial dream—daughters of genesis/chaos—
untamed bodies; unbound repetitions—Chimeras—theater of emerging and extinguishing infinities
—a mask; a sight of the unseen; a common flesh—monstrous; at once refined and brutal
carnality of bodies and their permeating myriad languages that inhere throughout consciousness—
an incipient site of defiance—before the mind's eye—held oracle/capacity of collective fascination/
surrender to life as well as to death—each wearers movement begins—engenders transfigured/
enchanted space—dance; a rite of passage; of protection—from human to divine to animal—traversed
with sacral lifeblood of the Daimonic—to threaten the historical the human the real—from the status/
scorn of Being—seen—origin—of impure purity/multiplicity/animistic impulses subsumed—beneath
a hierarchy/centrality—containing a differential truth; the knowing I—but that—I am not I—lost
among a phantasmagoria of peripheral forms—primordial aspects of a bestiary spatiality of senses—
lost upon our measured/objective body—yet their libidinal oscillations/rhythms cannot be displaced—held
visions within pregnant air/chaos of a moment met—aptitudes of flight/evanescence—becoming
aware--the dance; in time/life can only be represented in pure voluptuous movement—
of energy pulsing through—the other in its unconscious totality—internal oriented flow/
empowerment/womb—amidst vicious elemental births/encapsulations of fantastic trembling/infinity
—this Entrancement—entry into terrifyingly intimate/prismatic revitalization—of processes;
of transmutation—exchanging actions and passions—to join with the other—the impossibility or
potential of bodies enduring—visceral and vital creative/amorous conflict—coalescence/
ecstasy of betrayal of sacrifice of radical emergence—giving rise to visionary outburst
—to feel this dance within the body is power—nothing is finished—"Energy is eternal delight!"
Benjamin Laverne
–
Ἇρπυια / harpies
by Eleni Giannopoulou and Tania Reza
This is stillness
this is a perception of stillness:
the unsayable and polysemy
braided in full erotic release
generating a kind of truce in Time.
Under ground I burn coffins of my past lives,
with its remains I have conjugated a savage mask,
with it I invoke stillness.
My body basks in a lot of magic
When I wear that mask I get visions,
I can exchange knowledge with people-masks,
I enter the dance of the Mystic Mansion
I witness the Dances of the Animals
I toast with those who are no longer here
I germinate, I oscillate in languages that I speak and then forget.
Mind is something too old;
there are ancient miracles happening at every moment.
Constellations of masks and silences,
waterfalls and rivers of rainbow chthonic water.
The expression is a living fossil,
it is a raw material of complexity and mystery.
I enter the mask suspended in Time
towards the event of my body.
Harpies / Άρπυιες is a collective piece by Eleni Giannopoulou (Greece) and Tania Reza (Mexico), a hybrid between sculpture and video art. The harpy, seen as a winged monster, is really a magical creature capable of conjuring, protecting, and holding many souls. A representation of the ritual, of the magic and the brutality of the woman. These pieces are an ode to the alchemical body, seen from the different perspectives and tasks of these two artists.


Eleni Giannopoulou
Harpy / ‘Αρπυια, 2022
Mixed technique / Mixed media
Variable measures / Variable measures

Warped Terrain, 2022
HD Video Infinite Loop
Edition of 3

Eleni Giannopoulou
Sphinx, 2022
Mixed technique / Mixed media
Variable measures / Variable measures
Eleni Giannopoulou
mask, 2022
Mixed technique / Mixed media
Variable measures / Variable measures

Eleni Giannopoulou
Siren, 2022
Mixed technique / Mixed media
Variable measures / Variable measures

Eleni Giannopoulou
4 headed bird, 2022
Mixed technique / Mixed media
Variable measures / Variable measures