SEED STUDY installation & audio performance, is a combination of elements, parts from three separate projects, two of them made in the past and one in the present.
It consists of:
Part of “THERAPY” project (2003). The wounded nurse heals herself with various actions recorded and exhibited as parallel video projections. Here loop the one who examines her syringe and, the one who is listening the sound of her own heart (heartbeat), while balancing the sound as a juggler. The links are many, the large video images speak for themselves, while the sound vibrates warning, almost threatening.
Part of “DEAR WOLF” project (2017). The memory of the Nazi holocaust as a modern world crime against humanity. It consists of actions/ performances, mainly in external public spaces (shopping malls, parks, museums, large exhibitions), that try to manage or cure the pain that this memory causes. This crime is fed from burnt places , burnt economies, burnt people. Among the actions that took place, basically in German cities, is the offering of Greek coffee as a memorial, to random passers-by in shopping centers. Hot coffee in disposable cups bearing a label, a name. 80 names, 80 toponyms, villages, places that resisted and were burned by the Nazi during the Nazi occupation.
In the cups that hadn’t been filled up with coffee at that time, i put soil and seeds that have been carefully made into seedlings (seed cups). The semi-dark environment of the installation space, is the test whether they are able to survive in the dark environment, with the aim to be cared for and grow. Everyone can take care of them during the show to quench the thirst of that which are thirsty.
Part of the “GARDEN PLAN” (2020-2023) is combined with elements of the two projects mentioned above.
The GARDEN both as an internal or external reality may be given, but is not self-evident. I have been trying to plan the garden for three years of collecting files, materials, seeds and studying. The time of the season, the composition of the soil, the percentage of light, and many other factors are involved in the germination process of a seed. The seed itself. Does it have substance? Is it hollow? Is it worth planting? Is it meant to give food? What kind of food? And suddenly that magical moment happens when the seed bursts and something begins to spawn, then it must cool and lighten! Where; How; How much? These among others are some of the questions worthy of study on the design of the garden.
Some of the necessary materials for the garden appear in the installation and remind us what was attempted to be silenced, hidden, burned in the fire of a modern middle age, in the name of a supposed safety and an absolute pseudoscience, which threw away the basic component of the concept of science: the questioning.
In the growth containers, I note some of those people who overcame the fear and threat of brutality, gave light and information, which traveled, mainly through the dark virtual universe of the internet but not only, with consequential consequence, apart from the constant censorship (“video not found”) who accepted and accept such voices, attacks of all kinds, as well as the loss of their very lives. Contemporary heroes, whom the official world narrative wants to throw into oblivion, are the bearers for the containers I define as containers of development. Containers for growth and protection of life. Despite the censorship placed on such exemplary voices, the information is, if not right there, at least somewhere along the way, for anyone willing to dig it up and be enlightened. I am placing these containers to remind them, against any effort to sweep their light and energy under the rug. From any rug, big or small. People who honored and honor universal ideals, which, as humanity, we are in danger of forgetting.
The supports bases are also included in the basic materials of the creation of the garden. They provide protection from various external factors, mainly from winds. They are bases on which a plant can freely climb. The scarecrow use to be a support base, but now is the robe, with all the connotations that the word itself creates. Who is afraid of what exactly, or, who should fear what exactly. The answer depends on each perspective. Some go hand in hand with the wolf. The wolf in sheep’s clothing. What can actually can make the wolf to be afraid of?
Dark vocabulary, a musical instrument. When pressing the buttons you hear words. Nothing good and innocent, nothing pure and good. Another Pandora’s box that you can play its music if you want. As much as you want. As you want. This is another seed, the one that causes pain. It exists too. Everyone experiences it, now and ever. I include it too, putting it in a way that can be played with the viewer’s fingers, as much as he wants, if he wants to. Trying to put it in control. Trying to get the control. To have the choice.