EROS AND PSYQUE. A contemporary representation.

The project revisits the emblematic myth of Eros and Psyche in Greco-Roman mythology. It is one of the most prolifically represented myths in the history of Western Art and has contributed to the conceptual foundations of romanticism and heterosexual relationships in the West. "We believe in an imaginary order, not because it is an objective truth but because believing in it enables us to cooperate effectively" Yuval Noah Harari The diffusion of these myths, like all stories, depends on them being "felt" and on their societal resonance – only thus will they endure – and, to the extent that they are retold they will be assimilated in patterns of acceptable behavior and organization. Myth helps us preserve the established social order and its existence depends on many people’s belief; if people stop believing, myths will no longer be perpetuated. For this Project, one must seek a literal representation of the story as written by Apuleius in an environment that emulates a Renaissance “Locus amoenus” – underwater. The idealization and placidity represented historically is confronted with a contemporary literal representation that evokes the aesthetics of classicism.