What makes Odysseus such a contemporary character even after 2,000
years? Why is the quality that Homer attributes to him (polytropos,
which loosely translates as "cunning" or "many-sided") so evocative of
questions that bind art and reason, creativity and ethics, freedom and
conformity?
Odysseus and the Bathers documents the 2018 eponymous exhibition by
the internationally acclaimed artist Paul Chan (born 1973) at the Museum
of Cycladic Art in Athens, Greece. Inspired by the "polytropic" nature
of Odysseus, Chan has created a body of work he calls "breathers"
kinetic sculptures that are unlike anything else in contemporary art. An
essay by Chan explores the concept and history of polytropos and its
relationship to what Marcel Duchamp called "the creative act." This book
also features an essay by curator Sam Thorne, a conversation between
Nikolaos Stampolidis, Director of the Museum of Cycladic Art, and Elina
Kountouri, Director of NEON, on the notion of "polytropism," and
fragments by the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, newly translated
by classicist Alexandra Pappas, which illuminate how Odysseus' "cunning"
echoes traditions of thinking in ancient philosophy.
