Mary Zygouri | LYSIS - a therapeutic dream

14.09.2022 | 7:00 pm - Press conference at Istituto italiano di Cultura

18.09.2022 | 11:00 am - Performance at the Archeological site of Amphiarao of Oropos, with the support of NEON

The artist, performer and researcher Mary Zygouri continues her long commitment to the visual practices of site-specific performance exhibiting her latest project “LYSIS” at the archaeological site of the Amphiareion of Oropos (a celebrated dream healing and divinatory shrine in classical era) on Sunday, 18 September 2022, under the auspices of NEON Organisation of Culture and Development. The ruins of the Shrines’ topography, the natural environment and the geomorphology of the Amphiareion are inextricably associated with the nature of the dream per se. The core on which the healing practice of dream divination was based involved a. a cleansing and purification ritual, b. preparation, and c. healing via dream incubation (“enkoimesis”). At the Amphiareion, induced dreams, i.e. healing dreams, are explored and interpreted. The dream was the vehicle, the remedy, as well as a promise for a rehabilitation and cure process.

During the experiential process and the in-situ practice at the Amphiareion of Oropos (May 12^th -June 12^th), the artist Mary Zygouri sought to apply a different angle and perspective, far beyond anthropocentric dualisms. To encourage a deeper connection with the natural landscape based on the body, senses, feeling, and imagination. To listen to the landscape, to feel its actual skin. To listen to its oneiric power that has flown in its waters forever, to this day. To explore a kinship with the place, so that the meaning originating from the physical traces of the past emerges cohesively as well as organically.

LYSIS performance will be a site-specific tour among the ruins of the ancient dream healing shrine and its surroundings.