layeringATHENS | Lomvardou Eleni, Martinou Eleana and Papavasileiou Mara

Opening: Wednesday, June 8th 2011
Free entrance

Beton7 presents layeringATHENS, an optical/audio/visual documentary by 
Lomvardou Eleni, Martinou Eleana and Papavasileiou Mara
 ...The city is the archive par excellence.

The buildings, the streets, the squares and the monuments bear evidence of memory and historical continuity on a continuous layering. The sonar environment is added as an extra layer, filled with the voices of people, vehicles and nature (or what's left of it).

In a city like Athens, however, we read big ruptures in memory: this leads to ignorance and therefore in a rupture in the relationship between person and city. We propose the unveiling of the memory of the city and the rediscovery of the hidden information of Athens historical center, in order to enforce the citizen's attitude to it.

The goal of linking the present data to their past memory will be achieved using as a tool the multiple layering of

-text: describing Athens historical data, flows of people and sounds, literature extracts
-image: buildings and streets in Athens then and now
-visual compositions in response to the urban imaginary
-audio: material collected from the contemporary city. To highlight the multicultural character of Athens, we intend to show the visual enhancement of linguistic diversity through the alphabet. The written material will be given in several languages, and the visual relationship of the various alphabets reveals the rich potential of the city which is influenced by the ancient Greek past, and by the Ottoman elements, the narratives of Αsia Minor, the residues from the German occupation, the modern Chinese “invasion”, the Pakistani and Indian visit, the Albanian, Slavic and Cyrillic identities.

We intend through this projection to make the information –visual and audio- accessible and enjoyable. Eventually, the spectator will take a moment to confront himself with the fragments of the memory of the city and he will reevaluate it and face it through a new point of view.

We seek, through discussion, to enrich the project with ideas and actions proposed.