ARIADNE, 2025
Performed at the Darkness Visible II showcase at PLEX in Athens, Greece, on October 16th, 2025. Presented and co-facilitated by Ron Athey, Hermes Pittakos, Federica Dauri, and Michele Occelli. DV II poster & video documentation by @jeremycarne. Production coordinator @nikolaskasinos.
Performance photos by Makis Evangelatos.
ARIADNE is a mediumship-based performance developed during Darkness Visible II, a 10-day intensive led by Ron Athey, Federica Dauri, Hermes Pittakos, and Michele Occelli at PLEX in Athens, Greece. The work draws on trance, somatic ritual, and ecstatic states to open the body as a site for spirit possession.
In the piece, I built an altar to Ariadne by weaving a web — a live invocation of Ariadne’s thread — while dressed as a spider. The action was slow and repetitive, designed to open the body into a receptive state. Over time, I entered trance and was possessed by the spirit of Ariadne. She took the form of the spider and continued the weaving — until the web overtook her completely, entangling her in what she had created.
The performance was durational and unscripted. The focus was on allowing the conditions for possession to occur, and remaining in that state until it resolved. The performance ended when the altar candles were nearly burned out.
Ariadne is a figure from Greek mythology, the daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphaë of Crete. Her half-brother was the Minotaur — a creature named Asterion, with the body of a man and the head of a bull, born from Pasiphaë’s cursed union with a divine bull sent by Poseidon.
The backstory to this punishment begins with a parallel death: Minos’s son, Androgeos, was killed in Athens. According to one version of the myth, King Aegeus of Athens sent him to slay a wild bull — the Marathonian Bull — where he died. In grief and fury, Minos blamed Athens for his son's death and imposed a cruel penalty: every nine years, seven Athenian boys and seven girls were to be sent to Crete and locked in the Labyrinth to die at the hands of the Minotaur.
To contain Asterion, Minos commissioned the craftsman Daedalus to construct the Labyrinth: an inescapable maze beneath the palace at Knossos. It served two purposes — to imprison the Minotaur and to ensure that those sent inside could never escape.
Years later, Aegeus’s own son, Theseus, volunteered to join the third tribute — not to die, but to kill the Minotaur and end the cycle of human sacrifice imposed on Athens. In a twisted echo of Androgeos’s fate, he too was sent to face a bull. But this time, Ariadne intervened. She saw Theseus, fell in love, and betrayed her family by giving him a thread to trace his path through the Labyrinth. With it, Theseus was able to kill the Minotaur and escape — breaking the cycle of sacrifice.
Fearing Minos’s wrath, Theseus and Ariadne fled Crete. But after their escape, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos, where she was discovered by Dionysus at the Sanctuary of Dionysus at Yria. They fell in love, and he made her his bride, later granting her immortality so she could live with him among the gods on Mount Olympus.
The performance took place in Athens — the city Ariadne saved. By offering the thread, she ended the violence and delivered the Athenians from a sentence of death. In return, she was forgotten. Staging this work in Athens returned Ariadne to the center of the story — not as a helper or an afterthought, but as the one who made survival possible.
Darkness Visible II artists:
Alberto Bustamante @mexicanjihad // Amy Kingsmill @amykingsmill // Amanda Roy @enriclizano // Annette Voll @afelizlombriz // Athina Kanela @athinakanela // Bimbi Mafia @angel.hubris // Chiara Simonetta @black_absinthe // Dagger Wound @dagger.wound // Danai Gkougia // Emma Wheeler @tofuttti // Fearless Longing @longingforsong // Filipa Fernandes @scalpel_priestess // Frank Leasing // Gina Stella dell’Assunta @queershoulder // Haillim Herrera @ouch_tatu // Halo Starling @halo.starling // Harald Stojan @hrihro // Graeae @_heather_gray // Hollow Eve @holloweve // Irene Karamitroglou @lrene_karamitroglou // Isabella Mirales Vik @isabella.v___ // Jimm Bo @jimmbo_in_limbo // Josie Wreck @josiewreck // Jude Vallette @babushkabebe // Katherine Hillson @sainerine // Kelli Jean @kellijeandrinkwater // Kris Canavan @kristina_canavan_ // Kyara Gonzalez @bloody__vag // Lady Monster @firetassels // Lana Del Rabies @iamlanadelrabies // Lola Gillies Creasey @lola.upload // Moka Lopez @mokalp26 // Muza Luz @muzadelaluz // MYRGON @myrgon_ // Riven Ratanavanh @transgressrrr // Miammy @termagay // Wick Simmons @wicksimmons // Yunuen Rhi @yunuen_rhi
Alberto Bustamante @mexicanjihad // Amy Kingsmill @amykingsmill // Amanda Roy @enriclizano // Annette Voll @afelizlombriz // Athina Kanela @athinakanela // Bimbi Mafia @angel.hubris // Chiara Simonetta @black_absinthe // Dagger Wound @dagger.wound // Danai Gkougia // Emma Wheeler @tofuttti // Fearless Longing @longingforsong // Filipa Fernandes @scalpel_priestess // Frank Leasing // Gina Stella dell’Assunta @queershoulder // Haillim Herrera @ouch_tatu // Halo Starling @halo.starling // Harald Stojan @hrihro // Graeae @_heather_gray // Hollow Eve @holloweve // Irene Karamitroglou @lrene_karamitroglou // Isabella Mirales Vik @isabella.v___ // Jimm Bo @jimmbo_in_limbo // Josie Wreck @josiewreck // Jude Vallette @babushkabebe // Katherine Hillson @sainerine // Kelli Jean @kellijeandrinkwater // Kris Canavan @kristina_canavan_ // Kyara Gonzalez @bloody__vag // Lady Monster @firetassels // Lana Del Rabies @iamlanadelrabies // Lola Gillies Creasey @lola.upload // Moka Lopez @mokalp26 // Muza Luz @muzadelaluz // MYRGON @myrgon_ // Riven Ratanavanh @transgressrrr // Miammy @termagay // Wick Simmons @wicksimmons // Yunuen Rhi @yunuen_rhi