INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL “SARAJEVO WINTER”
Turkish Cultural Center, 7 February - 21 March 2006
THE RING OF GYGES
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At first, everything appears peaceful, fair and tranquil where absence of excess rules and imposes a balance of counterparts. A timeless myth, the ring of Gyges, which is analysed in Plato’s Republic (Republic 539d 360 b3) by Glaucon, proves that justice is a compromise, creating the appropriate conditions for the personal to co-exist with the collective. Following an ‘apocalyptic’ deluge that created a huge fault, Gyges, a shepherd during the reign of the King of Lydia, is shocked to discover the hand of a dead Giant wearing a magical ring with supernatural powers that allows the wearer to disappear and reappear (turning it inwards makes a person invisible, while turning it outwards makes a person visible). The double nature of the ring, which refers to basic concepts and fundamental questions, may be interpreted at many levels through the video-installation by Elli Chysidou. The fictional narration and plot of the project, at the level of meaning and reference, places the viewer at the point where chronicity and narration meet. The eye, forever locked in time space creation, faces the ultimate fascination of opposites: oblivion / memory, light / dark, obvious / concealed, knowledge / ignorance, judgment / hubris, death / immortality, measure / chaos, power / freedom. “Faced with the dilemma of obscurity, Gyges reacts as most would: he wants to rationalize the unknown…”
While inclined towards the obscurity of absence, he chose power over esotericism. Through both his reason and psyche, Gyges personifies the internal division of humans, which Plato tries to overcome by seeking justice. His story is the test of humans and particularly modern ones… Is there justice at the age of the absolute power of method? Dr. Sania Papa Art Theorist, independent exhibition curator |
Stelios Ramfos, The ring of Gyges. Wandering through a Platonic Myth, Kedros Publications, Athens, 1977, p. 66-70.
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In her work The Ring of Gyges, Elli Chrysidou attempts a contemporary reading – re-interpretation of the familiar Platonic myth. The many forms of social injustice make the question posed by the myth a timely one, which uses the behaviour of the young shepherd Gyges when he discovers a ring that makes its wearer invisible. Current complexes of power and authority, which hinder the application of the rules of law, form the political core of the work. The motif of the woman hacking at her hair underlies and structures the shocking narrative of a personal, agonized quest, seen through groups of people who are displaced, become victims of violence, are annihilated. The artist sees her red dress transformed into a tragic screen on which are projected a frenzied succession of images of human misery, which she is unable to manage or control. The only response remaining to her is to offer up a voluntary sacrifice -almost as a self-punishment- of all that might represent her feminity, her maternal nature, her power: namely, her hair. By renouncing the external characteristics of her gender, she adds force to her desperate protest.
The video which forms the core of the narrative operates in counterpoint with the static image of the beacon, its light revolving eternally out at sea, offering an uncertain hope of a safe heaven. |
Text for the catalog of the Exhibition:
MASQUERADES Feminity, masculinity and other certainties STATE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART 06/12/2006-04/02/2007 |
