ORACLE Performance in Roja as part of the Roja Art Lab residency in Latvia 2019 Performed by Kristine Maslova and Agnieszka Foltyn as High Priestesses of the Oracle. Photography by Oscars Redbergs and myself. The Delphi Oracle is a performative intervention where the high priestess Pythia tells a prophetic myth tailored to each individual seeker. It is an intimate meeting of vulnerability that plays on the entanglement of symbolism and fates through the narratives of humanity’s collective myths, legends, and folk tales. Prophesies are delivered within a constructed installation space, laden with locally sourced flora with historic symbolic value. When performed, the audience is invited to participate individually in a ritual shared only between Pythia and themselves. It necessitates an interaction of agency, a desire to seek something and patience to listen to the response. The intervention performs the ancient art of storytelling, spinning a narrative and an atmosphere in which this story can come to life. The Oracle is possessed by the spirit of the gods to tell the fortunes of all who seek her audience. Be they kings or peasants, each stands equal in front of fate. The ritual is performed through a combination of myths, rituals, and legends spanning many cultures and eras specifically selected in response to the site, the local audience, and the performer (with consideration given to local traditions and the appropriation of cultures). It is a reminder that we live solitary lives which the fates bestowed upon us, though entangled with those of others, are ours alone to bear. Once articulated, we are powerless to change our fate though how we face it is our own free will. The guest and performer enter into an intimate exchange of desire, vulnerability, gravitas, and intimacy tailored to their active participation. The audience holds in their hand a stone or a branch sourced from the surrounding environment, to serve as a bodily reference to their connection to the earth, to others throughout time. The situation is an immersive sensory experience: the touch of the item, the telling of the tale, the smell of the drying herbs and the rituals, the tension of prolonged gaze and the bodies in close proximity. The ritual concludes with a gift, items specifically chosen from those collected and drying within the space. These items bear traditional symbolic significance and relate directly to the exchange that has just come to pass. They are given along with directions for a certain action to the fulfilled outside of the performance space. This final closure of the gift exchange creates a durational endurance of the moment, highlighting its trace after the conclusion of the performance. Paired with a highly absurd situation, in a space never quite a match to the experience, we negotiate layers of desire, participation, and context. Pythia and the Delphic Oracle appear as if summoned by a need or a desire, becoming as mobile as those who used to seek her fortunes. Perhaps this is the model of contemporary prophesy. Pythia, the head of the cannon of ancient knowledge, too, bows to state of precarity of the creative fields of today.
