parallel-city9
parallel-city8
parallel-city7
parallel-city6
parallel-city5
parallel-city4
parallel-city18
parallel-city17
parallel-city16
parallel-city14
parallel-city13
parallel-city12
parallel-city11
parallel-city10
parallel-city1

Athina by Art | Athens, 2004

Athina by Art

Cultural Olympiad Athens 2004

Curated by: Efi Strousa

Organised by: The Municipality of Athens & AICA

Project Participation: Parallel City

Athens, Greece, 2004

PARALLEL CITY was shown in Athens during the Olympic Games in August 2004. It participated in the exhibition ATHINA BY ART, a large scale exhibition which took place in the wider central area of old Athens and which was commissioned by the Municipality of the city of Athens and curated by AICA. It is a site specific, interactive installation, which consists of 28 «optical view-finders». Planted equivalently in 28 different spots of the city’s old center, the viewfinders, act as intimate private frames through which the viewer can accomplish a different experience of the City. The viewing through the view finders along the chosen route, isolates certain aspects of the city from their surroundings, each time directing the viewers eye to a certain detail and thus revealing different elements and textures of the city a new.The functioning of the work is based on the thought that by limiting the view, space is created in the minds eye, for a new one to appear and through the repetition of this viewing procedure the mind is energized in reconstructing the landscape and creating a parallel intimate experience of the city. The points of view are chosen based on juxtaposing the elements of which the urban landscape consists of. Elements such as scale -proximity of the chosen sites, time -by choosing sites from the past/ present /future- and human presence -by choosing sites were allot of action takes place. The choice of the sites is such so as to bring out the scent of the specific area of the city.