Summary

The Thebes Project. What is ANTHROPOS?

While our world is falling apart and a city pregnant with the foundations of human civilization is sinking into forgetfulness, a group of volunteers, artists and citizens, revive the famous riddle of the Sphinx with a question about man and his destiny.. Will the soul of the sick city rise and shine out of its skin, or, will it collapse in the abyss?

Looking for his sister Europe, Cadmus founded ancient Greek Thebes or Cadmeia. Here is the house of Hercules. Here is the first theatre (Dionysus) in the sacred site of the Cabirion, where Prometheus and PAI (Primordial Child) assisted the birth of primordial man (Anthropos)... on the borderline of this city lanscape, moulded in myth and legends, the enigmatic Sphinx, is, still, lurking... Here is an attempt to change the 'language game' of this small city, which, has, clumsily, cemented, in its unconscious texture, the precious remnants of a dynamic past, which we long to drill in our present, enhancing our reality.

In this endeavor, we will echo back to the Sphinx, Oedipeus' answer to its riddle: “Why ANTHROPOS?” we ask. “What is ANTHROPOS?” the Sphinx replies, intensifying, this transhuman, transtemporal mystery .

This question is the central theme of our international, exhibition project, spread on the canvas of the city, conceived in the light of contemporary space age, genomics, robotics, Artificial intelligence, internet; a question set in the darkness of modern crisis; a state of persistent crisis which illuminates our essence...

This is an awareness-raising experiment, eliciting new questions on the nature of man, in a real/virtual city space, in which, artists, scientists and citizens interact and propose possible solutions, concerning the foundation of a new, healed, Thebes, firmly rooted, on its particular, ontological, unconscious layers...

The experiment includes:
- A psychosocial research in the particularity of this landscape, uncovering its cultural potential
 -A diagnostic evaluation of the city profile - An evaluation of the effects, of our socio-cultural experiment, on the inhabitants' feeling of well-being, sense of belongingness, identity, degree of involvement in cultural life.

Form
- Constellation of international multimedia artworks, in situ performances and interdisciplinary meetings for research -dialogue, set all-over the city canvas with collaboration and participation of citizens and students..
- Follow-up doc. recent archeological excavations of Apollo's temple
- Cleaning-highlightning the neglected sacred site of the Cabirion Mysteries.
- Artistic web platform-dynamic virtual map of the city: 1. open ended adventure journal: participants' artistic works and interventions, in dialogue with the cultural substructure of the place 2. interactive network social game based on a blend of ancient and contemporary life, in Thebes- landscape/legend/ exchanges with other countries, in an effort to define ANTHROPOS in our global hybrid age.

Target
Through its increased cultural awareness, forsaken Thebes becomes a living example of 'examined' life, renewing our existential enigma; “what is Anthropos?” asks the Sphinx as we shift from an ego-centric to a logo-centric state of mind...