This project is based on the 12 labors of Hercules, which correspond to twelve works grounded in psychoanalytical and social criteria.
It consists of 6 videos, 4 photos, 1 sound synthesis, 1 installation and one poem.
The labors of Hercules are a series of episodes recorded on Greek mythology as twelve accomplishments made by the mythical hero Hercules
in penance for the murder of his wife and children, which he carried out while driven mad by goddess Hera. As the son of the most powerful
of the gods, Hercules is by definition the greatest of heroes, and both his achievements and his sufferings are, in consequence, greater than
those of any other hero. Hercules can be understood as a hero of civilization, who rids the earth of natural threats and monsters, but he does
so through acts of the sheerest savagery: through violence and slaughter. Hercules can thus be thought of as a “man of pain,” in both the active
and passive senses; someone who can inflict pain on others — for good or bad —but also someone who himself, and necessarily, experiences a great
deal of pain.
In essence, my project constitutes a research based on the concept and the qualities of the hero and on how modern societies mold this image while
they reproduce its opposite. Τhe madness of modern man has a consumer origin, which appears with two faces: he wants to consume and he wants to be consumed by any means of social networking, where even for a few seconds he becomes the hero, feeling coveted.
These works don’t miss out on reminding us that “A hero is one that does what one can” (Romen Rolan, 1866 -1944).
We are writing for the first time
With red flowers
WE NEED HEROES NOW*
In a world
where permanent turbulence
repeatedly develops into
horrendous violence
of huge proportions
It is also a world
that offers incessant opportunities
to our hero
Where’s our hero?
I can smell him
Where’s that beguiling form
who goes to battle with red flowers
Who knows about the violence of aesthetics
and the aesthetics of violence
Beauty spawns heroism
* On September 12, 2001, in front of New York’s Ground Zero, a group of people
was photographed with a banner saying: “WE NEED HEROES NOW”.