To be born twice presents the notion of dual being, of dual states of consciousness. The circle of dying and rebirth. That which we believe true and that which we generate momentarily in the liminal spaces of being and becoming, of categorisation and the borders of reality.

The word Διγενής relates more specifically relating to Βασίλειος Διγενής Ακρίτας, the legendary medieval epic hero saddling East and West in his origins and thereby being twice born of the borders as his name implies. Perhaps he is the evolution of the borderless deity Dionysus who as well as being literally born twice, had his duality dissolved beyond the East and West, to states of birth and death, segueing the realms of the underworld, physical bodies, be that of species, gender, states of consciousness or categorisation.

As Βασίλειος Διγενής Ακρίτας was the controller of the borders Dionysus was the dissolver. Terence McKenna insists that the psychedelic revolution prepared the soil for Buddhism to flourish in the West, a fractal hero of ascetics dissolving rigid structures of birth and death. The great revealer, opening up a portal into the Απόκριες. As the lights of the solar system are dimmed by our frantic electricity and surveillance, the mycorrhizal network running below the soil pumps, devouring our waste and regenerating in fractal networks. The chasm opens to the Angel of the Abyss, or Apollyon, sharing the same name as the ancient deity who slayed the Pythia, the python goddess upon his arrival at Itea port before overcoming the navel of the world at Delphi.

These paintings were made over a period of four years in a village crooked into the foothills of Parnassos Mountain. I see them as titans, humanoid in representation because that is the physical form I embody and through that form a channel of understanding the world around me.

This world is one of smoke and mirrors and though our physical presence is pure matter; ύλη, our conscious state within it is a battle of psychological ebbs and flows. The ancients thought it was the mischievous gods playing tricks on us, we absorbed their assaults and created our own set of rules and morals.

The ceramic sculptures were also made during this last four-year period of transition, glazed, even their skin crackled at the moment of alchemy. They are liminal figures merged into one. Sculptures are physical bodies, paintings are psychological vortexes. Twice Born – Διγενής is an exhibition led by the vines of Dionysus and the pheromonic fumes passed through mycorrhizal fissures between the real and the imagined.

Zoë Paul, Athens, June 2026