De Tranquilliate animi

2018
Installation

satellite works: visuals, live performances 

De tranquillitate animi consists of a series of photo prints on thirteen double-layered organza canvases (each 70x100cm ca.) depicting a body in motion. The body portrayed is Antonio Stella, former dancer at Dance Ensemble Theater Bremen. The composition of single diverse fragments of actions recreates a bigger movement:  the trace of the moving image. The whole installation is around nine meters long. Even though silkscreen printing is normally used to reproduce images in series, just one single copy has been printed and hence every canvas is unique.

The installation has been inspired by the book "On the Balance of the Soul" (De tranquillitate animi) written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca in 62 A.D. 

The book takes the form of an epistolary dialogue between Seneca and his friend and relative Serenus Annaeus. Serenus writes in a letter to Seneca that he is suffering from a state of mind which he calls a disease or defect of character. From Seneca, Serenus expects a name and a cure for this condition.

The guiding principle of Eugenis' work is the exploration of the state of serenity. Balance here is not to be associated with a static stasis indeed. The idea of movement is closer to the state of harmony, lightness, openness. The impossibility of remaining still brings human beings into a constant restlessness.

At Teatro Stabile Isola del Liri, the project has been shown in 2017 under the Italian title “Serenetitá, stasi, movimento e caos” and has been accompanied by an illustrated art publication.

At the University of art Bremen Auditorium (2018), for the opening ceremony  of “Hochschultage 2018” the work has been put in dialogue with video projections, exposing the installation to a cinematic dimension.