ecdysis | Michalis Theophanous

Ecdysis is a natural transformative process. The revelation of a reborn creature under the prison of the exoskeleton or the old skin. The process of undressing serves the growth of the organism not through addition or swelling ― on the contrary, evolution requires vulnerable undressing, a moment of fragility in which the creature is exposed to the voracious gaze of others, tries to protect itself by trying various tricks, plays and mocks the stifling identities.

The performance dives into the process of molting, elevating it to a ritual, a rite of passage, where time expands, and identities are liquified. It consists of audiovisual images, at times abstract and at times uncomfortable. The creature sheds its no-longer-needed flesh, trapped in a familiar space that turns into a hostile environment. It is no longer what it was and is not yet what it will become. How many of me are there altogether, finally?

“I live within glass walls, transparent, unyielding, cold. I appear to be a cruel, intact man, but something is happening inside me. Beneath the shiny surface of my existence, something is tightening me. Something that has no name. Yet. My exoskeleton is a prison, once fitting from edge to edge of existence, now suffocating instead of protecting me. It’s a confinement, a barrier, and a display. Every cell in my body hurts. Cracks, rifts, trenches form inside me. I await the stripping. An agonizing expulsion that will make me disappear. I have no name, only questions. In my liminal space, I shed my roles and wait.”

—Marina Xenaki