Despina Kapetanki: On paradise circus and unveiled visions
MICHELA FILZI | FEBRUARY / 2024
A text on the performance “Paradise Circus” created and performed by Despina Kapetanki on the 9.12.2023 in Uferstudios, Berlin.
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Human: “How to be a badass?”
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A.I.: “Get your shit together!”
“Paradise Circus” is a theatre piece which, by means of movement, music, lights and spoken texts, brings to the stage a representation of the inner visions of the mystical journey outlined in the book “The Psychedelic Experience” by Timothy Leary.
The psychedelic experience can be referred to as a non-linear odyssey into the depths of one’s own unconscious, beyond the protective veil of the rational mind, the ego and the personality. „The psychic changes and unusual states of consciousness induced by hallucinogens are so far re- moved from similarity with ordinary life that it is scarcely possible to de- scribe them in the language of daily living.“1
The theatre apparatus ofers a playground for these indescribable visions to be given shapes, colours, smells, movements and afects.
The following text, commissioned by the artist, is an account of my per- sonal experience of the piece in relation to my reading of the book it was inspired by.
A quiet and almost solemn atmosphere receives us, the audience, as we enter the space and leave behind a dark and rainy sky on a cold December evening.
On stage the musician Nilsen Grey is standing at his table flled with instruments for live elec- tronics; a downtempo beat breaks the silence and into the spotlight the performer Despina Kapetanaki emerges from a hidden corner of the stage, with red curly hair and glittering eyes. She is approaching the audience, walking with hesitation, convulsing her upper body and limbs. Her hips and hands are shaking in spasmodic gestures, slightly scared. Her fgure brings to mind the memory of “the witch dance” (1926), the iconic piece by Mary Wigman, while her dance difers from the spellcasting of the witch. As she turns her neck from side to side, her gaze fxes on something just above ours, her movements hint to something we can’t see, something she is hallucinating on.
As she reaches centre stage, she sinks into a purple beanbag that moulds to the weight of her seated body. A robotic-sounding voice amplifed by the speakers says: “Hello human. How are you today?” she replies: “Burned out.”
It seems to be a dialogue between an A.I. voice and the performer which consists of the human desperately seeking for answers to her existential anguish and the A.I. dispensing advice on how to improve the human’s quality of life.
“Checking for solutions… shopping frst, antidepressants, sleeping pills, call a friend, call family, music”. The list is a mixture of neoliberal quick-fxes and general approaches to the fulflment of emotional needs.
The human’s psychological state is compromised by negative emotions and lingering despair, the support of the A.I. is cold and pragmatic, and rather than helping, seems to exacerbate the state of the human. The conversation ends with various existential questions and a clear task.
Human: “How to be a badass?”
A.I.: “Get your shit together!” – “you have to kill your ego, you have to turn your mind of”.
This introductory interaction between the human and the non-human opens up an interesting refection on the role of technology in the expansion of human consciousness and on the eter- nal question on what consciousness really is and whether non-humans are conscious beings. In traditional Western thinking we are conditioned to believe that only humans have conscious- ness, while in most indigenous cultures, an animist understanding of the world acknowledg- es that all things are diferent expressions of consciousness. Furthermore, plants and other non-human entities (mushrooms, toads, cacti and other) that when consumed (in very specifc and respected rituals, under the guidance of shamans and other spiritual guides) induce an hallucinogenic efect on human, are considered gods and higher forms of consciousness. Could A.I., as well, represent a new form of consciousness in the universe and could it become a guide to the expansion of our own consciousness?
As the voice of the A.I. disappears, the rhythm of a heartbeat takes its sonorous space, en- gulfng us in the inner body. The performer is now lying down on the foor, shaking her body in contact with the foor and her limbs slightly lifted in the air.
The heartbeat transforms into the sound of an underwater world of mufed bubbles, and the performer is foating and drifting towards the back of the stage, until she becomes stranded on the back wall, a shipwreck washed ashore by the waves, red and blue lights shining on our path beyond the veil.
In esoteric practices like the Tarot, water represents the emotional side of the psyche and by diving into the pool of the unconscious we leave the rational mind to face our irrational fears, uncontrolled emotions and deepest terrors. The prepared initiate of the psychedelic experience wouldn’t be discouraged to continue their journey into the unconscious, but for the unprepared these energies are too great to face without the protection of the rational mind.
For this purpose, Timothy Leary lays out a detailed description of how to prepare and undergo the psychedelic experience, in order not to be intimidated by the unveiling of what hides be- yond the personality.
The performer disappears behind the scene and reappears wearing a mask that reminds me of the flm by Pitof “Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq”. In this 2001 mystery flm the inves- tigator Eugène Vidocq pursues an assassin who wears a mirrored mask which has the power to trap the souls of his victims.
She comes very close to the audience and I observe the refection of myself along with the rest of the audience in the mirrored mask. The lights are changing fast, almost at a stroboscopic pace, creating a frenetic vibration, a fickering of my own refection, a faring of my own image, perhaps hinting at the volatility of my identity, self-image and “beloved personality” that we are asked to leave at the gate of the psychedelic voyage.
“In traditional Western thinking we are conditioned to believe that only humans have consciousness”
1 Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann and Christian Raetsch, Plants of the Gods, their sa- cred, healing and hallucinogenic powers pg. 14
2 Timothy Leary, Flashbacks: A Personal and Cultural History of an Era pg. 253