Horos (My Space, Your Space, Our Space)
Horos, khoros, choros: a space, a boundary marker, dance,
Many of the man-made structures, buildings and settlements visited on a study trip to Athens and Aegina had a visible as well as tangible, layered, complicated history. Their purpose was multi-functional and has un-definable identities.
Acropolis in Athens (Acro, meaning edge or extremity, polis, meaning, city) functioned as a sacred space, a temple to worship and receive protection from the gods. But it also served as a fortification, for if the city was to be successfully captured by enemy forces, the Acropolis also had to be possessed as well.
Kolona Archaeological Site – layers of time are visible in a series of ten towns each built on the ruins of the previous one during the Bronze Age (2500-1600 B.C.) The architecture of the houses changed and responded to outside attacks from the sea, doors and windows turning inwards, the walls of the domestic home becoming a part of the city wall and fortification.
Kapodistriako Orfanotrofeio Orphanage building has been a refuge for children, housed vast numbers of war refugees, as well as functioning as a Prison to incarcerate Greek citizens during the German occupation of the Island, and later political prisoners post-2nd World War.
War Bunkers at Perdika Concrete and Iron defences built into the headland of the Island, materials and construction originally carried out by Germans during WW1, they were subsequently used against the allied forces during WW2.
Although not inspired by such painful and traumatic events, this kind of complicated overlapping of space and place, is one I relate to in the aims of my own installation practice.
Making use of boundaries, barriers and edges I am inspired by the Edgelands and non-places of the city to create a space of indeterminate identity, which contrasts and jars with its surrounding environment. The purpose of these experiential installations is to make the viewer more aware of both their surroundings and of themselves ‘Being there’ in that moment.
The physicality of the act of creating these sometimes uncomfortable interventions is important, as is the kinaesthetic sense they instill upon entering. They are a way of exploring a sense of ‘not Belonging’, not ‘Being at home’ in the world, and the mediation between feeling rooted in a place and conversely the freedom, heightened awareness and possibility of movement that comes from being put in the position of the Foreigner, or the Stranger.
These physical installations can be described as embodying the concept of Horos – a space, a non-place, a boundary marker, a choreography – an area defined by movement / action of the Body.
Ehfkhareesto Pollee to Elika Vlachaki, Nancy Avgery and George Mouratides.
Wood, palettes, scaffold safety netting, pattern paper, digital photographs, steel wire, wool. 2.5m x 2.5m x 3m
