ANTIDOTE SECTION MYKONOS BIENNALE

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The "Antidota" section of Mykonos Biennale gathers artists from all around the world, constituting the first contemporary art action on the sacred island of Delos. A box with the inscription "Antidote" is delivered to each artist to enclose a small-scale work. Once the collection of the boxes is completed, the are are hidden on the mythical island. The "Revelation Ceremony" follows the collection.

Every day like a poison, news of culture infect human consciousness, plunging it into a deep hibernation, fatalistically awaiting the end. However, they say that if a tarantula bites you, you sink into a sleep that leads to death. The Antidote is to spend a day and night leaping in dance, which is why the Tarantella is the secret dance of awakening. What is the Antidote? Is it love? Is it power? Or is it sorcery? The artist, the scientist, and the alchemist seek eternity, the philosophical stone, the invisible gate. It is the very quest that holds the answer, as the steps of the dance of the Great Awakening are already being followed.

(Lydia Venieri, 2014)

In 2023, Antidote followed the title of the Biennale Φ, Orphic Mysteries.

 In 2023, the Mykonos Biennale completed ten years, uniting the living tradition with the most unexpected visions of contemporary art. The sixth Mykonos Biennale, Φ, Orphic Mysteries, took place from September 27th to October 3rd at the Archaeological Museum of Mykonos, the sacred island of Delos, the labyrinthine streets of Chora, and the Yellow Tower of Ano Mera, Mykonos. 

The title and theme of Mykonos Biennale 2023

Φ, Orphic Mysteries, the theme of the 6th International Art Exhibition of Mykonos Biennale, is drawn from a series of Greek myths and ceremonies involving the preclassical figures of Minotaur and Dionysus. This corpus of practices and mythopoetic allegories is reappraised as narratives saturated with occult elements derived from the Orphic tradition and associated with the chthonic form of Dionysus, Zagreus. The primaeval character inaugurates a contemporary evocation of antiquity that prioritises pre-classical civilisations, rapturous rituals, and Dionysian ecstasy.

Lydia Venieri, the founder of Mykonos Biennale, explains her choice: 

«Φ is the child of one and two, of the unit and its binary hypostasis.

It is the magical number that never ends: the eternal hermaphrodite, son of Rhea and Cronus, of the sphere and time. The Logos of the Golden Ratio, the eternal division of the genetic amoeba, the dance of the cosmic DNA, the endless fermentation. The greatest Orphic mystery is the Coherence that the celebration gives to the world. By celebrating, Dionysus defeated real armies. The power of Intoxication breaks the limits of restraint and strips man and feelings from Himself, seeking to share Himself: I am the Vine, the bread is our body, the wine is our blood, the dance is our soul united. The unit is divided and reunited in the dance. In the theater, the repeated pantomime of each drama, as roles are projected and cut off from oneself, brings catharsis.

The Orphic Mysteries are not conveyed by logical words but by feelings that reward instinct. They concern the click of a higher sensual knowledge, where the initiates communicate united. Then sadness and joy, mourning and resurrection, feeling and reason become our trial, our unique and indivisible, and panhuman memory.

“Snake, monkey, and eagle

with the great feast 

we will finish the ballos” …. »

For her part, the art historian, Alia Tsagkari stated:

«As the primal Dionysian Mystery, Orphics lie in the blurry territory between a mystical philosophical system and a corpus of ceremonies that involved rites of initiation and purification in conjunction with sanguinary rituals that revived the sparagmos (suffering) and death of Dionysus. In this primordial repository of myths and practices, the sacred ecstasis, the jouissance, emerges as a unifying catalyst among the initiates. In his historico-sociological analysis of the ‘Dionysian Virtues’ the French intellectual Roger Caillois remarks that the mysteries ‘made participation in ecstatic rites and the communal understanding of the sacred into the unique cement for the collectivity’ they established.»

«(…) Mykonos Biennale 2023 focused on the democratizing essence of art. It  provided a platform for artists to articulate and transcend the profound distinctions and diversities inherent in human existence—be it in identity, nationality, race, gender, sexuality, wealth, or freedom. In doing so, the Biennale seeks to engage with the complex interplay of these elements, fostering a collective discourse that transcends individuality, mirroring the profound unity found within the mystical embrace of the Dionysian mysteries. »

«From a ritual-anthropological point of view, Dionysus was a late-comer into Greek religion, a post-Homeric ‘immigrant god’ who displays a multitude of regional variations across various Mediterranean cultures. As a syncretic figure, he is frequently identified with Zagreus, his Orphic counterpart. As such, Dionysus, who ‘came storming in from Asia’ epitomizes the international ideals that define the core of Mykonos Biennale. »