Nasim Goli 

The artist challenges us to question the official narrative.

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This installation refers to the zone where Icarus fell into the sea in the painting of Pieter Bruegel the elder, to look for the answers. In Bruegel’s painting, the sun is seen disappearing over the horizon far from the scenery of the fall. However, according to the official narrative of Ovid, the sun should have been at the zenith in order to have the capacity to melt the wax that secured Icarus’s wings. Nevertheless, Bruegel suggests that the sun is setting in the horizon, as well as revealing a dagger in the foreground and a decapitated head in the darkness of the woods. In Bruegel’s painting an alternative theme emerges that challenges us to question the official narrative of Ovid and the unresolved truth behind the story. This installation was presented in two parts: A piece of wax melting under the heat lamp; a reference to Ovid’s narrative of the sun melting the wax that held the wings of Icarus. The second part is a photo installation with a scratch on the spot of the fall to investigate the cause of Icarus’s death, indicating the anomalies of Bruegel’s painting compared to the official narrative. Was Icarus responsible for his own death? Could he have been murdered and then thrown into the sea? What is the connection between Icarus’s death and his imprisonment? If we consider Daedalus as the one who narrates Icarus’s fall, what could have been his motive to blame Icarus for his own death? Was Icarus meddling in something that drove him to his death- while other spectators in the painting refuse to get involved in the incident that happened before their eyes.