Themes to address a global challenge
Is the integration of our light and dark natures embodied in the mother and daughter Goddesses, Persephone and Demeter, our way forward?
Is this a plea from Mother Earth to redress the imbalance of our times?
The resurrection of this banished myth and its embodiment holds power and potency as a living archetype for our times.
Today, we’re fast approaching the final flick of the dinosaur’s tail – climate crisis, politics of greed, capitalist consumerism – heralding the need to depart from sclerotic regimes and divisive systems, towards a re-establishment of humanistic paradigms and deeper value systems.
Midst the clumsy ‘noise’ of the heavy-footed dinosaurs, where do we turn for guidance?
Over 2000 years ago the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were considered the most sacred teachings of the ancient world, were administered by the Mother & Daughter Goddesses every year to the initiates, who travelled the Sacred Way from Athens to receive them.
In 365 AD, the Mysteries were banished by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I to suppress Hellenic resistance to Christianity. A patriarchal order arose over the next 2000 years to shape our global landscape in its image.
In depicting the themes of matured identity (in Persephone’s maturation from Kore - an immature young girl - to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld) and the assimilated empowerment of feminine leadership, its wisdom is a beacon for the modern era.
Embodying Divine Archetypes:
The Influence of Persephone
Since first visiting Greece as a young girl, Vicky has identified the myth of Demeter and Persephone as a metaphor for the 20th-century migrant experience of living between cultures; a time of abduction and loss of the child from the motherland by the lure of the new world.
Once they have partaken of its fruits, the migrant is changed and can never return the same.
This has underpinned her work as an artist over the last 30 years. Her film and multimedia works, which combine moving images and the written word, have been screened and exhibited internationally.
“I think it has always been inside me. The myth of Persephone and Demeter. I think I was born with it pre-existing in the underbelly of my subconscious; an archetypal template, waiting to spring into life, fully formed, through its seasons. I never know when, except I’m always at a crossroads, struggling with a situation or a project: wrestling with myself for answers.
Until there, on the battlefield, the emotional fervour fires hot enough for the myth to appear. It somehow needs that heated charge to be born, to spring from the depths of my very own winter.”
— Vicky Yiannoutsos
‘First Steps’
Opening track - Composer John Psathas, Clarinette by Manos Achalinotopoulos. Closing soundscape Briar Prastiti
Camera: Vicky Yiannoutsos, Pablo Araus
The Myth
Persephone is abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld to be his Queen.
Grieving the loss of her daughter, Demeter, the Goddess of Fertility threatens to starve humankind, forcing Zeus – king of all Gods – to order his brother Hades, to return his bride.
But before doing so, Hades convinces Persephone to eat six pomegranate seeds, ensuring she will always return to him.
In ancient Greece, the Mother/Daughter myth of Demeter and Persephone embodies the cycle of the seasons and the phases of birth and death.
Background to The Persephone Project
The Immature Persephone
1987
Visible Passage
Documentary
Antigone travels from New Zealand to the island of Kastos in Greece, where she was born and is reunited with her sister Olga, whom she hasn't seen for twenty years.
Written and Directed by Vicky Yiannoutsos, Produced by Dorothee Pinfold and Pinflicks
VIEW HERE
2010-2012
Persephone’s Plight: The Four Seasons of Migration Multimedia Exhibition
This multi-media installation exhibition was mounted for the Moving Image Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2010. In 2012, it was invited to the Kefalonia International Arts Festival in Greece.
Interview with Anastasia Bakoganni Massey University Classics Department.
The Mature Persephone
2019
Persephone’s Return:
Duologue
Inspired by the 3000-year-old Mycenean Tombs at Mazarakata, VIcky wrote "Persephone's Return", a duologue, in the form of a lyrical poem between the mother/ daughter Goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, addressing their journey from separation to integration.
2020
Persephone’s Gift:
Second Spring Memoir
Persephone's Gift (working title) Memoir VY.
2021-Present
The Persephone Project:
Persephone’s Return: Multimedia Exhibition
The Persephone Project aims to contemporize a Greek myth for a contemporary audience through innovative platforming.
Planned works include a Digital Exhibition & Opera with a digital AR experience to challenge traditional art forms like music, opera, and dance by employing meta-narratives towards a multi-dimensional exhibition.
Testimonials
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"serious artist with a strong vision"
Nicolas Greanias (Ex-US Consul in New Zealand) who attended opening night of Persephone’s Plight Exhibition at MIC in Auckland, New Zealand
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“With the incorporation of the film-maker speaking with her own voice into the filmic discourse ‘Visible Passage’ brought a new resonance to New Zealand documentary.”
Russell Campbell: Film in Aotearoa New Zealand, edited by Jonathan Denis and Jan Bieringa 1992
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“...your language is so immediate, your imagery vivid. Persephone’s feeling of desire for Hades is an extraordinary touch and stands in tense contrast with Demetra’s worn mothering – you’ve captured the complex, multifaceted nature of this passage. The change from girl to woman, from daughter to peer.”
Rainer Mack: Art Historian and lecturer at Oxnard College, California