LETO
FURTHER MYKONOS 2019 : THE ETERNAL FESTIVAL, MYKONOS GREECE
I was Commissioned by Scorpios Mykonos and Design hotels to create a sculpture for the Eternal Festival. I created this piece with refrence to the mythical story of Leto the mother of Artimis and Apollo.
The piece was created using wicker cane to work with the aesthetic of the Scorpios . It created an immersive environment for attendees for the duration of summer.
Read below for more info on the piece and the festival.
"The Eternal Festival, which brought the South African festival artist Daniel Popper to Mykonos to construct a large-scale figurative sculptural installation that reinterprets the story of Apollo’s birth, building a metaphorical bridge between the Scorpios peninsula and ancient Delos. To mark the sculpture’s unveiling, a three-day music and arts gathering celebrated the legacy of the Delia at a time when festival culture is once again ascendant, from contemporary gatherings like Burning Man and Primavera Sound, to the resurgence of more traditional festivals, like the world sacred music gatherings in Fez and Rajistan.
For Popper, who began his career creating large-scale immersive installations for festivals like AfrikaBurn, festivals are an ideal venue for people to experience his art. “They‘re in an environment where they‘re very open,” he said. “There‘s music. There‘s dancing, and there‘s a sense of accessibility and freedom. It’s totally different to the white walls of a gallery,” he added. “It’s a whole new way of experiencing and accessing artwork.”
In creating the installation for Further Mykonos, Popper looked to the mythological story of Leto the Titaness, the mother of Apollo and his twin sister Artemis, who according to myth, had to flee the mainland after she was impregnated by Zeus to escape his jealous wife Hera. No island would take her in until she eventually found a free-floating rock that accepted her. Once Apollo was born, he filled the sky with sunlight and anchored the rock—Delos—to the sea."
Creative Director /Lead artist : Daniel Popper
Crew: Moritz von skinnen, Oliver Denby, Benji Neverson
