Ancient of Today
In my project „Ancient of Today“, I transpose characters of Greek mythology in our age. I took notice that the human being in cyber-age has the same needs as people of former times. Mankind has maintained the same patterns of behaviour since antiquity, which have changed in the course of time in form, but not in quality of experience. The thirst for adventure, the hunger for power, the fear of death, the fear of loneliness, the urge to explore, the passion for love also belong to our lives. We are currently experiencing the digitization of the world.
Mankind has maintained the same patterns of behaviour since antiquity, which have changed in the course of time in form, but not in quality of experience. The thirst for adventure, the hunger for power, the fear of death, the fear of loneliness, the urge to explore, the passion for love also belong to our lives. We are currently experiencing the digitization of the world.
Today, more than ever, we are experiencing „Greek times“. Never in history have humans been allowed to live as hedonistically as they are today – only the ancient Olympian gods are equal. Greco-Roman culture revered life, in its most beautiful form: healthy, young, full of energy – a striking contrast to the culture of Egypt, which focused on death and life after death. As far as their characteristics are concerned, the mythological figures of the Greco-Roman pantheon can also be found in other cultures, such as in North German mythology or the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé mythology of the Yoruba. It seems that such figures form in the general collective unconscious. Just think of the parallels between Zeus, Odin, and Ogum or Hermes, Loge and Exú. Considering that these figures actually represent personifications of the many facets of the human soul and thus archetypes, they have an eternal validity. Although our age may be determined by digitization, man himself is the same as in antiquity: his sensibilities and basic needs have remained the same, regardless of fashions and technological progress. The Olympus of antiquity has gone down with the people of that time. The Internet is the new Olympus. So, a place that does not exist, yet at the same time masters everything. A platform or stage where you can show yourself the way you want, excessively and without inhibitions, like the ancient gods. But what is the Internet, the digital world, other than a tremendous amount of information? This is the interface to the medium of my artistic work, the newspaper: „Newspaper = Information“. Like the world of antiquity, the newspaper will also disappear in its paper-printed form and will be replaced by the digital version. It still exists, but is already „ancient of today“ and clad my models of today, who behave like gods.
MEDUSA
the headlines of the newspapers want that we become petrified like the medusa
HEADS OF POWER
Busts of powerful politicians, made with the newspaper of their country of origin.
OLYMP
Photographic essays with the sixteen gods of the Greek pantheon.