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TEOFANIE 
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ELEONORA PACIULLO     Works     Editorials     Info

TEOFANIE 
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Theophany is a project born from an intimate reflection on ritual. “Magical are those actions that aim to achieve a certain goal by an unfathomable but direct path,” writes Walter Burkert in his book Greek Religion. This contemplation of rituals and ways of inhabiting a place led the artist to Locri Epizephyrii, a historically sacred site where numerous rituals have been passed down through generations. It is also where she spent her childhood summers, a place where family stories blended with fragments of Greek history. Was it not here that the Greeks chose to honor Persephone and Athena, as evidenced by the archaeological site, as well as the Sapphic poet Nossis, whose statue faces the sea?

The artist felt a need to revisit and understand the stories that define this land. In a sense, she invoked its magical character by immersing herself in the narratives connected to this place—reading Calvino’s fables, consulting them site’s archives, and listening to the elders’ tales. Through this process, she came to perceive the landscape as a "ritual theater," a space where ancient energies are reawakened. Her approach questions dominant narratives, highlighting memory and imagination embedded in the territory, while underscoring the interdependence between human beings, nature, and invisible forces.

Theophany embodies the artist's effort to retrace ancient ideologies and religious liturgies that shaped the pagan world of southern Italy. Her knowledge of Locri—connected to Persephone, Athena, and the cult of Nossis—serves as a guiding thread throughout her work. These fragments of truth, drawn from various sources, come together to form a visual compendium of ancient rites and beliefs that once permeated the region.

Her deep connection to this land and its rituals drives her to breathe new life into these ancient practices, combining oral traditions with archival research. She also captures fragments of the landscape transformed by ritual in blackand- white photographs, illuminating the alienating and magical qualities inherent in the nature of Locri. These images do not merely document the final moments of ritual; they focus on the preparation—the intimate and delicate suspension before the sacred moment—inviting the viewer to feel the eternal flow of these practices.

The theme of theophany in this work transcends the classical notion of “manifestation of the divine” and instead explores an inner divine manifestation—a saturation of memory and knowledge now brought to light. It is an exploration of the sacred that goes beyond representation to enter an intimate experience of the sacred within the landscape itself.

The connection between the land, water, and wildlife of this place is deeply rooted in the artist’s visual testimony. Her body, immersed in mystic rites, transcends her contemporary identity, taking on an archaic and telluric role that evokes Greek initiatory rituals. In these rites, participants are invited to become epoptai—those who have the vision, the awakened ones.

All these elements—the ancient and the contemporary, the oral and thearchival, the physical and the spiritual—interweave to create a synthesis ofLocri’s heritage and the artist’s vision. Through this, she seeks to revive the sacred memory of this place, celebrating its beauty and its ongoing relevance in the present.

This journey led the artist to create video performances in which she reinterprets and reclaims the stories and rituals of the ancients. In these performances, her presence guides the viewer through an enchanting and hypnotic experience, embodying devotional gestures that channel nature’s cycles and apotropaic practices. Her body, present in these rituals, acts as a bridge between past and present, linking ancient knowledge with contemporary experience.

Text by Sara Bernhard Poli