HYDRAHEARTS, 2021

7.11min video & audio

HYDRAHEARTS is attempting to challenge anthropocentric and patriarchal perspectives, that are dominant in the contemporary western world, by bringing in concepts of eco-feminism, eco-psychology and animism. The work is exploring liquid futures of matriarchal, inter-species, symbiotic worlds as a way of surviving and healing a damaged planet with radical love, care and fearlessness.

Four women of the same family, each of which symbolically embodies a sea creature: halcyon, sea turtle (endangered), moon jellyfish and sea daffodil (endangered), are found at the edge of land, where a river enters the ocean and are surrounded by water and orca sounds.

Orca’s are endangered species that live in matriarchal societies. Water, is a universal solvent, and therefore the ultimate medium which both physically, as well as metaphorically, ties together all kinds of entities. The liquid solvent which can slowly dissolve the boundaries between human and more-than-human worlds.

A setting one can find in any living room, is now found within a liquid environment, slightly submerged into the sea. A space in-between land and ocean, in-between culture and chaos, in-between human and animal. A dream-like scene which brings the everyday human life event of gathering around a table, in water.

Written & Directed by: Martha Panagiotopoulou.

Director of Photography: Panos Astor Koffas.

Video & Audio edit by: Panos Astor Koffas.

Performed by:

Elli Stergiou | Moon Jellyfish

Ntiana Tzortzini | Sea Turtle

Aria Tzortzini | Halcyon

Martha Panagiotopoulou | Sea Daffodil

& Rocky.

Spoken by:

Martha Panagiotopoulou | Ocean & Oceanides

Wei Zhou | Halcyon