The
Mountain
Body
Searching for the Oracle
– an expedition 

On April 25, Polygreen Culture & Art Initiative (PCAI) presented Searching for the Oracle, an expedition by Norwegian visual artist and choreographer Helle Siljeholm, in Delphi. Inspired by the ancient journey to meet Pythia (the Oracle) the audience was invited to join the performers on an 8-hour expedition from Athens to Delphi.

Driven by recent researches on Delphi’s geomythological history, stating that the oracle’s hallucinative fumes were due to seismic raptures. On the one hand, the myth describes a metaphysical connection in which Gaia (Mother Earth) produced one of the most powerful human imaginaries that ever existed, whereas according to urban legends, the fumes seemingly disappeared from Delphi in the 1930s. Searching for the Oracle was a speculation and a meditation upon Delphi as a site, the fumes that disappeared, and the form they might have transformed into.

With and by

Concept, choreographer and researcher: Helle Siljeholm 
Co-creating performer and sound design: Ilios
Co-creating performers: Pernille Holden and Marianne Kjærsund
Curator and research:  Kika Kyriakakou, PCAI Artistic Director
Curator and costume design: Poka Yio
Production: Vasia Magoula, Vicky Tsirou
Pi facilitator: Menelaos Bakratsas
Performance documentation: Maria Toultsa
Visual documentation: Espen Haslene & Fred Arne Wergland
Administration: Guro Vrålstad, The Mountain Body
Communication: Bjarne Asp, PCAI & Zuma Communications

Supported by: Arts Council Norway, OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway, Danse- og Teatersentrum, Norwegian Embassy in Athens

Image credits: Helle Siljeholm, The Mountain Body, 2024 © Maria Toultsa and PCAI