Oedipus and the Sphinx at Palazzo Smith

Watching a neatly drawn face get slowly torn apart by plump maggots is a peculiar sight, yet strangely meditative. The video art piece OEDIPUS AND THE SPHINX takes a classical portrait and turns it into a meal for larvae, while also serving as an ironic commentary on human nature. The title directly references the riddle of the Sphinx, the answer to which was human. In antiquity, this response stood as a triumph of reason and wholeness. But in the video, this ideal "human" on paper literally crawls apart in every direction. Traditional painting has always tried to freeze time and immortalize a moment, whereas here time operates in direct defiance of preservation.

It is easy to trace the logic of bio-art and the ideas of Eduardo Kac in this process. Kac was one of the first to show that living organisms can become genuine co-authors. In this video, the maggots act as spontaneous artists: they decide where the facial features will drift and when the portrait will lose its shape entirely.

This effect grows even more compelling when considering the exhibition context. A monumental classical interior adorned with frescoes and gilding, designed to build an illusion of permanence, wealth, and victory over time, collides head-on with a video of larvae. Screening a writhing biomass within the walls of a traditional palazzo becomes a subtle act of aesthetic sabotage. Where the palazzo puffs itself up to immortalize human status, bio-art uses the screen to inject the microorganisms of processuality. Ultimately, the riddle of the Sphinx remains unanswered, but leaves us with a stark certainty: any attempt to freeze "the human" is doomed to be consumed by time.

Oedipus and the Sphinx. TrailerThis is "Oedipus and the Sphinx. Trailer" by Eliyahu Yudovich on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.vimeo.com