MMXV Bestiary explores monstrosity amid Greece's post-2008 financial crisis. Having witnessed violence, poverty, and youth unemployment driving many to self-destructive behavior, I draw from these personal and friends' experiences. Blending tales of mental health struggles and substance abuse with ancient myths of innocent figures cursed into monsters by divine powers, I create semi-fictional stories and transform them into visual narratives. My aim is to illustrate how monstrosity arises from social inequality and its potential to shift from an ontological claim that excludes to a space that disrupts the status quo and evokes empathy and social challenge.

In my fictional world, the mythical Greek animalistic monsters are entangled with their modern counterparts, both victims of unjust social contracts from which escape is impossible. Their stories are mixed and overlapping: Claws merge with cocaine and tails with Xanax. Their monstrous parts are different, but their experiences are universal: Oppression, injustice, despair, anger, violence, and love recur throughout the centuries. The myths are reactivated, and the stories are retold. In this revised order, the monsters are weary of the social reality; it’s their time now to seek understanding, freedom, and equality. 

Each piece embodies a monster adorned with intricate details blending the ancient forms with modern symbols like phones, snowflakes, black holes, and pills. The divine mixes with the eevryday and the underground. Together, they form a temple of monsters, a space from the underground, a space where traditionally monsters were only allowed as victims. Some of these monsters speak to us with their noisy, repulsive, and sensitive voices, sharing their stories through music and demanding to be heard. 

Music piece by Xato

Photos by ShaoChun Hsu and petrkroschinsky