Supported by the 2023 Creative Capital Award, ASCLEPEION premieres at Copeland Park as part of tFuture Ritual’s CEREMONY Festival in London, England on November 27-28, 2026.  

Ron Athey’s (2023 Creative Capital Awardee) ASCLEPEION is a ritual performance installation that reimagines the ancient healing temple through the lifelong exploration of the body as a site of healing, sacrifice, ecstasy, and transformation. Developed through field research with longtime collaborator Hermes Pittakos, the work brings the mythic imaginary of Ancient Greece into an industrial space. ASCLEPEION’s imagery is heavily inspired by Athey’s engagement with Los Angeles’ body modification, punk, and performance scenes. 

In ASCLEPEION, audiences enter a living ritual environment of water and washing, nonlingual prophecy, clay creation myths, and dream sequences. At the center of the piece is Athey as a headless statue of Asclepius: a wounded, sexualised, grotesque body invoking the incorruptible flesh and standing in for a missing god. Athey is joined by an international cast of collaborators, including Hermes Pittakos, Carmina Escobar (2026 Creative Capital Awardee), Myrgos, Federica Dauri, and a community chorus of thirteen ablutionists sustaining a hair-brushing ritual, functioning as an autonomous psychic machine. Through these dynamic partnerships, unique soundscapes, live sculpturing, and set pieces inspired by the votives of the Asclepeion at Corinth, “ASCLEPEION” invites audiences into a timeless healing temple.