VITAM, as I am more interested in taking care of all other creatures with a pumping heart, eyes to see, ears to hear, a nose to smell, a tongue to taste and a skin to feel. Creatures that are able, like me, to have and express emotions. Not excluding insects (yes also the plague insects, spiders are welcome etc.) I welcome all my fellow creatures.

Between Ritual and Rescue:

Dimitri Kotsaras’ The Goat Standard turns one living goat into 100 tradable shares, exposing the brutal logic by which capitalism reduces life itself to commodity. The project echoes the Arte Povera Movement after WWII: Jannis Kounellis bringing horses into an exhibition space, Joseph Beuys cradling a dead hare while whispering to him explanations of art. But Kotsaras goes further — the goat, already rescued from the butcher six months earlier, is bound to the machinery of finance, where ethical tension cannot be kept at arm’s length as mere aesthetics.

The work refuses indoctrination; indoctrination demands unquestioning acceptance of a single ideology; authentic art provokes thought and widens understanding. Capitalism promises market rituals to resolve contradictions. Vegetarianism, almost by definition… promises moral purity through rejection of animal consumption, tipping mostly into fanaticism. Both betray human complexity.

Kotsaras’ goat is neither sermon nor parable, but a mirror of dissonance: to live is to consume, to consume is to kill, and yet to love at the same time. Between ritual and rescue, the Goat stands as the measure of our contradictions.

Elisavet Logotheti (host of the Tragos)

As a christian I grew up with the conviction, that profit (lucrum) and life (vitam) are no contradictions. If you follow love and compassion, losing your life as a selfish and hard-hearted person, you will enter the joy of being really alive (forever).
As a part of the art-world, the choice between profit and being true to your vision as an artist, is part of my life. As everybody knows, making a living as an artist rarely works. Compromises, betraying your inner soul just to pay your rent etc. is what every artist faces every day.
So the choice for “vitam” seemed to be an easy descision. But at the same time it somehow felt hollow and cheap.
Recovering from a bad virus infection I still struggle to eat properly. But thinking about voting for or against life,  suddenly I felt a big appetite for a crispy goats meal, with wine and friends. Though I also felt a big wish to take care of this little goat. I wanted to have both: the meal and the goat. I think this little animal is me. The older I get I feel, my task in life is getting in touch with this little goat in me. Getting in contact with real life. With love. With trust in my friends. Trust in myself. It’s easy to express that in words. We all do that all the time. But how hard to really get in touch with life. This project is part of my way to get in touch. With myself. With my old friends. Taking care about the shaky little barn of my life. Turning Gold into Gold. That’s what it’s all about. Thank you, Dimitri. Thanks to the little pink goat of your childhood. I guess we all have had.

Excited to be a part of this project!

I have always considered goats my cousins, being a Capricorn, a winter baby, nearly same birthday as Jesus, according to contemporary (past millennium or so) popular belief, ruled bu Saturn, the grumpy wise grandpa. They are my kind of funny connection to the land, to the earth, the majestic mountains. I always admired them, their resilience, strength, amazing climbing skills, jaws that can chew through anything, weird eyes that make you doubt about where and what they are looking at. My first memory of tasting goat was in the family tavern of Gravia, a village at the foot of mount Parnassus, in the form of an extraordinary goat soup (gida vrasti). I did not eat much as a child, in puberty I ate whatever was prepared at home, then I left Greece to study abroad. I returned for good nearly 15 years later at 33 (the age of Jesus when he was crucified), when I actually started properly experiencing Greece and Greek cuisine again as a grown-up. It was then I discovered the magic of goat cooked in so many different mouth-watering ways. The Goat is sacred for the Greeks, as it is in many tribes and lands around the world. God Pan, the God of Panic, frolicking, feasting, celebrating, singing, dancing and generally having a good time, was half goat and savoured, not only good food and wine, but also the company of the forest nymphs.

Having said all that, being an omnivore and a nature-lover, I thought voting would be easy. MF it is not! I am eager to experience the VITAM ceremony and meet the Goat, visit him in his space. On the other hand, I would also love to experience LUCRUM (which, by the way, sounds like LUCUM) as I know Mr. Kotsaras is such a good cook! Somehow, growing up in this capitalist-consumerist society, has removed me from sentimentalizes. Or, is it, that our society has created the ethical dilemmas..? Never before the industrialization of food production was there any second thoughts about consuming meat. So there. I reserve my vote for a later time, I need to think about this carefully. Is there going to be some food in the VITAM ceremony…? As you can se, I have gotten well over my childhood indifference towrads a good meal…