Panos Sklavenitis: #thehead

What do a mascot, a carnival bell-bearer and a bank robber have in common?

What worlds does a mask connect and what kind of transgressions does it allow?

Can we change age, gender or species?

What would a genealogical mapping of disguise look like?

Who are the carnival animals?

What are the politics of carnival?

How carnivalesque is a public shaming?

How literally torturous can a carnival prank be?

What is carnival love?

#thehead is an artistic research in progress, in which Panos Sklavenitis attempts to trace different categories and discourses of the carnivalesque and the masquerade, to juxtapose them and, through this juxtaposition, think around them. What connects them? What is the world they create? What are we when we wear someone else’s head instead of our own?

During the artistic residency, Sklavenitis’ research will focus on the attempt to construct a cultural custom from scratch. Drawing on elements from the Greek and wider Balkan and Mediterranean traditions and linking existing and constructed narratives and practices, Panos Sklavenitis intends to create a fertility and wellness custom that, while appearing “real”, will be connected to a more mysterious, more unorthodox and more inclusive world than our own.