Helen’s Dress - an innovative digital visual hospitality program / e-Residency designed by Loukia Richards and Christoph Ziegler, 22-27 June 2020, Vamvakou - Lakonia
Myths are like the stars in the night, tiny lights in the dark sky, that talk to us about the past, the present, and possible futures. Dots that have been connected to form various constellations. Is it possible to reconnect these dots in a different way, to draw new maps, give new directions?
We had to travel in our minds, a very classic approach: so many artists tried to become Greek in spirit. Five days to investigate, to sketch, to talk, to fantasize about the myth of Helen, merging Spain and Greece.
text and textile, weaving and writing so connected.
is weaving writing with threads? frilly dresses, knotted and pinned together.
queens and goddesses wearing, carrying, bearing their clothes, the girls from Karyai, carrying the cosmos.
girls and slaves on flowering meadows,
flowering meadows on their dresses and blossoms in their hair, like bird nests.
seven girls from Lesbos stitching scarves and flags in black and white, and blue, stripes and squares.
temples are groves of columns.
a portrait of Helen, Kore and Persephone and so many angry women, grieving and weaving.
Five days to investigate, to sketch, to talk, to fantasize about the myth of Helen of Sparta. Who is she? Who is she for you?
The best of women, the worst of women. Queen of Sparta; a moon goddess, or at least an embodiment of the moon goddess, connected to Artemis; a traveller, stranger, guest; the most beautiful woman, wealthy and powerful; a skillful weaver and embroiderer, a strong woman and sorceress; daughter of a queen, a king and a god; a heroine, confidante and cheater; a wife, lover, mother, widow and slut; a male fantasy, scapegoat, projection and idol; a war victim, survivor, hostage. In the end, she defeated.
We all love love stories, don't we? First encounters, looks and accidental touches that prove to be meaningful. Love at first sight. Kiss and escape. In the end, it's love that matters, isn't it? Against all odds, against all dangers, against time and distance, until death separates the lovers, or even better, eternal, immortal love.
Immortal love, killing and tearing apart thousands of families, destroying cities. Love hurts. It’s Helen’s fault, that's for sure! Proof that women are uncontrolled, emotional, unable to assess the consequences of their actions. That you can't trust them. Men who risk everything to win a single woman back, that's romance. But the face that launched a thousand ships was not Helen’s face, it was Menelaos, who wanted to possess her, and her power. He has to bring her back alive, if he wants to stay king. How many men do you need to defeat a woman?
“Seduced? Kidnapped? I don’t really know it myself anymore and that is precisely the attraction of the matter.”
Was Helena seduced or kidnapped? Wronged queen or shameful whore? 3000 years after Helena left for Troya, this question still arises and Helena is still condemned. The interpretations of the story often say more about the present than about the events themselves. Even if a feminist perspective is used, as in one of the most recent BBC films, it turns out that it is not possible for us to introduce a powerful woman. It was a male story. It is still a male story.
“I was thinking about the psychological depictions of unhappy marriages and the wrenching pain. Instead of stabbing your treacherous wife in a carpark you send the Greek army. It’s not that different and her desire for self-empowerment, by leaving in this case, it has catastrophic consequences.”
A marriage drama is the most advanced version imaginable. Helen is still the cheater to blame for the war. The whole thing got a little out of hand at Menelaos, by answering the private story with the army. It would have been enough to stab her, right?
Only now I notice my own blind spot, the job title missing from the list above: Helen was a politician. The private is political. The greatest love story of all times only covers the violent takeover of patriarchy.
So many parts of the narrative are worth re-evaluating. It is said that Helen was able to choose her husband from all the Greek princes who gathered in front of the palace. Was it a voluntary choice, maybe even love? Or was it simply the factual constraint, a state of siege that could only end by joining in a marriage? Was Menelaus the least of all the evils gathered? As the brother of her sister Klytaimnestra's husband, the best way to count on family support was to choose him. But the power of men's alliances, the noble alliance of the Greek princes to support Menelaus and to “protect” Helen, was stronger. If Helen was a politician, she looked for her own allies, for support that she found in Troy. Did she also travel to Egypt to promote her cause? Surely the Amazons were on her side when they were finally defeated in the Trojan War after many previous battles.
It took many generations to achieve this fundamental change in society, and sides were not always clear. There were matriarchal men, defending female supremacy and patriarchal women. Just as a thought experiment: Is this the true story of the Trojan War? It always pays to check male stories. And there are so many more stories to re-read and re-think, not only once, because the stories are too deep in our tissues. And then, we have to tell the stories anew.
How to turn a queen into a housewife? It gets personal, as is so often the case thinking about myths. The exercises added one piece at a time: choose a word, a movement, a thing, some textiles, a scenery - blue, bow, a bowl, a fishing vest and a mosquito net. The Mediterranean sea in front of my terrace and some words, all ingredients for my first short performance. I am Helen, the goddess of the moon, always traveling. Can you carry the moon in a bowl? I am well equipped with a fishing vest and a mosquito net, that turns into a veil, a waterfall, a cloud. Magic. A salad bowl rises. An old bed cover and a pack of pins transform into Helen's divine dress.
I travel.
carrying my bowl filled with fishes and birds I walk over mountains, cross cities, and battlefields
I walk over beaches, ships, and water
the sea is blue, my eyes are blue, the sky is blue.
and the moon is golden.
Nothing could stop new experiences and encounters and, I am sure, one day I will walk through the alleys of Vamvakou.
The participating artists are: Carla Castiajo, visual artist, Portugal / Anika Gupta, author and Trisha Gupta, visual artist (fabric), USA / India / Anastasia Hasiotis, choreographer and writer, Greece / Christina Mitrentse, visual artist, United Kingdom / Greece. / Amelie Spitz, visual artist (jewelry), Germany / Hannah Stippl, visual artist, Austria / Aggeliki Symeonidou, embroidery and activist for the revival of traditional arts, Greece.
The team will record daily the challenges they meet on the program blog, while information about digital workshops will be available to the public at
www.vamvakourevival.org