“Theseus, after the deed was done”, Stuttgart, 2019

Acrylic painting, drawing cutout, collage on 1,00 x 1,20 meter canvas. As obvious by his tear tattoo and his relaxed mimics, this shows Greek Theseus shortly after the whole Minotaur situstion was dealt with. Since I stumbled upon some lines that science giant and lovely human being Joseph Campbell wrote on the Minos myth it always made me think about more things than i can put together in some sentences. That is usually the point when I turn to capturing it in a “visual Post-It note”.Originally in my notebook its working title was “Why is Europe!?” As most of the times this piece is sort of a visual note for a train of thought. Minos wanted to be king, but also keep all the perks of being a rich bull breeder and casual casanvoa. He prayed to Poseidon that he might send a magical bull from the sea as sign that he should be king of Kreta – he himself being the son of a mortal Woman and Zeus in form of a bull. He promised he will give away and sacrifice said bull as a token of his modesty and thankfulness. Poseidon was like “Cool. We’ll see if he’s legit.” Minos wasn’t. His wife felt amorous with the bull.The child wasn’t – as with Minos – a nice-looking guy with smarts, but a monstrous Minotaur that – kind of on the nose symbolism there – only ate virigins. To hide the shame he caused, he hired Daedalus the science guy to build a labyrinth to hide his shame and turned into a tyrannt – as in all mythology or real life, anyone is bound to turn when he refuses to abandon his old roles and if someone turns to greed.Remarkable that the Greek felt like capturing that lesson even for kings in profound poetic myth that will live on: You don’t bargain with the gods aka your own psyche and the collective of humans. As the symbol for and part of Europe’s name sake origin story I found that interesting.Europe was the stage for countless atrocities sometimes in monstrous perfectionism, at the same time – later on – it showed the capability of being the cradle for the realiziation of the Human Rights Charta – while horror happened in the 1900s AFTER the original ideas inspiring Human Rights in the Age Of Enlightment and the Renaissance. Europe is odd.