Atum 2008. Vinyl and wood. 3.8 x 2.4 x 2.7 m.
Both science and mythology recognize the origin of life in water.
According to the Egyptians, in the beginning there was something uncreated, a Primordial Ocean, the Nun, vast and dark, an inert water, devoid of life but containing all the germs of all things and all beings before creation.
In the Nun lay Atum, inert, dissolved in Chaos, as if deprived of existence. His name means "The All" or "The Perfect One," the "Not Yet Being."
Later, when neither the earth nor anything existed yet, this primordial and creator god, self-emerged thanks to his will and his energies and mysteriously appeared on the surface of the waters of Nun, where he was latent.
Atum brings together all creation and represents the first creative cosmic force.
When he became aware of himself, creation began.
It seems evident that Atum, with an androgynous and very archaic personality, was initially an abstract principle that underwent a process of personalization until it took human form.
This intervention is my personal interpretation of Atum. He remains mysterious and multi-interpretable; floating on the water, his entire form is impossible to discern.