Publication Title: Metamorfoseis
Editor: Eleanna Papathanasiadi
Publisher: Self-published with support from the Ministry of Culture and Sports (YPPOA)
Language: Greek
Date: 2021
Location: Athens
Metamorfoseis is a publication by Eleanna Papathanasiadi, shaped through extensive research and a series of commissioned texts on contemporary forms of storytelling, especially folk tales and their relationship to Greek visual art. The anthology explores myth, oral history, folk tradition, narrative, ritual, and performativity, offering an open-ended understanding of how stories are transmitted and transformed through art.
My contribution is based on my PhD dissertation and examines the concept of myth through the work of the Greek artist Bia Davou, using a structuralist methodology that understands mythic narrative as a meaningful system of communication with its own logic, structure, and social function.
Within this framework, Davou’s practice is understood not as a nostalgic return to tradition, but as a contemporary mode of thought and representation. Drawing on ancient Greek heritage, weaving, and the figure of Penelope, she transformed textile labor and repetition into a conceptual and feminist visual language that connects memory, time, storytelling, and women’s creative agency. Through this specific example, I aim to highlight the relationship between narration and visual language, offering a perspective on contemporary artistic practice that is shaped by the symbolic and transformative power of myth and weaving.