Katabasis by Matheo Delalle-Putniković (Original Painting)

“Katabasis” traditionally refers to a descent or passage from one realm into another. Rather than understanding this descent literally as a journey into the underworld, to me, I interpret Katabasis as a crossing of the boundary between realities — a movement away from the familiar world and into a parallel or hidden one.

This parallel reality does not necessarily exist somewhere physically. It can emerge through consciousness, memory, dreams, imagination, or altered perception. It is a world that exists alongside the reality we recognize, yet follows its own internal logic. The descent becomes a movement through a threshold, from the visible toward the concealed, from the familiar toward the unknown, and from an established understanding of reality toward another possibility.

This painting captures the moment of entering, or “descending”. It is not necessarily a descent into darkness, nor is the other reality necessarily better or worse than the one we know. There are no ordinary boundaries, different states of existence can overlap. This happens when the world we perceive is no longer treated as the only possible reality, and when crossing into another one becomes a form of transformation.