IMG_5500_web-1
Danai Nimata Mnimis yerolymbos 04 v2
Danai Nimata Mnimis yerolymbos 12
Danai Nimata Mnimis yerolymbos 09
Danai Nimata Mnimis yerolymbos 10
Danai-Nimata-Mnimis-yerolymbos-17lr
Danai Nimata Mnimis yerolymbos 16 sample
Danai Nimata Mnimis yerolymbos 18
Danai Nimata Mnimis yerolymbos 14
Danai-Nimata-Mnimis-yerolymbos-15lr
Danai-Nimata-Mnimis-yerolymbos-20lr
Danai-Nimata-Mnimis-yerolymbos-19lr
Danai Nimata Mnimis yerolymbos 24
DSC06129 ok 90x60
Danai Nimata Mnimis yerolymbos 21

Memory Threads

Site Specific Installation

Part of the wider project: Patras, the City of Factories, Rembetiko & Karagiozis

Part of the European Project NeTT

Co-founded by the E.U., European Regional Development Fund (E.R.D.F.) and by National Funds of Greece & Italy

PIRAIKI PATRAIKI, FORMER TEXTILE FACTORY

Patras, Greece, 2020

 

A site specific installation by Danae Stratou, realised in one of the old textile factories of PIRAÏKI – PATRAÏKI in Patras, in the context of the wider project: “Patras, the city of factories, Rebetiko and Karagiozis”.

This ephemeral installation was realised in an old derelict and hollowed out spinning mill factory within the larger (and long abandoned) textile industrial complex Piraiki–Patraiki. The work comprised two elements: a soundscape and a physical installation. It was then documented so that the final work would take the form of a film.

The soundscape is composed of sounds of the old textile machines, such as spinning mills and looms, in operation. The rhythmic sound of the machines prevails while the faint voices of the factory’s former workers emerge in passing as they narrate the whole production process that went on in the now abandoned space decades ago.

Traces of the (now gone) textile machines were made on the floor, staying faithful to their original size and location as preserved in copies of the mechanical floor plan. Then, a layer of sieved unprocessed salt was used to fill in the traces and thus to ‘replace’ the missing machines, maintaining the original layout; the machines ‘returning’ as if in the form of salt-made ‘ghosts’.

Once the physical installation was completed it was filmed in a manner that gives the viewer the feeling of wandering through the space. The film, enhanced by the soundscape, revives the memory of the humans and the machines driving the production process in that space. The machines’ rectangular cross-sections within the linear floor space, aided by the repetitiveness in their operating sound, emit a recurring rhythm – a trace of the past that potentially enlivens the memory and activates the abandoned space. The human narratives that faintly fill the air add the ephemeral, human dimension.

 

Memory Threads  was realised as a part of the wider project: Patras, the City of Factories, Rembetiko & Karagiozis

Part of the European Project NeTT, co-founded by the E.U., European Regional Development Fund (E.R.D.F.) and by National Funds of Greece & Italy.

Director: Fanis Diplas, BIOMICHANIKI

Producer: Municipal and Regional Theatre of Patras

Executive producer: MOSAIC//Culture and Creativity

Memory ThreadsInstallation Credits:

Production Manager: Georgia Voudouri

Executive producer: Vital Space

Production coordination: Georgia Voudouri, Esmeralda Momferratou

Production Assistant: Vassilis Chatzopoulos

Sound Synthesis: Vassilis Kountouris – Studio 19st

Still Photography: Yiorgis Yerolymbos, Danae Stratou

“Making of” documentation: Esmeralda Momferratou, Nicholas Momferratos, Dimitris Zografakis

Collaborating Architects:

Georgia Voudouri, Katerina Liarommati,

Elena Xypolia, Thanos Balafoutis (Karma Architects)

Installation Volunteers:

Katerina Angelopoulou, Eva Ardavani, Christos Doulas, Angeliki Maria Doufa, Zinovia Loukoumi, Marianna Lyberatou, Maria Malatara, Yiannis Mitropoulos, Eleni Mousteri, Marianna Moisidou, Andreas Palaiologos, Sophia Pantazi, Theodoros Raftopoulos, Evangelia Spiliopoulou, Angelos Tabakas, Mariam Tegou, Electra Terzi, Konstantina Vartzioti, Evangelia Voukelatou

Volunteers Coordination: Tonia Satou, Mosaic // Culture & Creativity

Interviewees:

Dimitris Koletsos, Anna Malopoulou, Ioannis Rizos, Ioannis Smailis, Theodoros Stratos, Evanthia Tseretzoulia, Panayiota Tzoumerkioti, Ilias Vatsiantonopoulos

With the Support of:

Patras Port Authority S.A.

CHION S.A. (Chion Salt Industries)

Karma Architects

Video Credits:

Artistic director: Danae Stratou

Director of Photography: Konstantinos Koukoulios

Still Photography: Yiorgis Yerolymbos

Sound Design & Editing: Vasilis Kountouris – Studio 19st

Steadicam operator: Giorgos Petrakis

1st Camera Assistant: Stamatis Kouros

2nd Camera Assistant: Vasilis Bofilios

Gaffer: Giorgos Hatzimitros

Electrician: Christos Moschos

B-roll video footage: Dimitrios Zografakis

With the Support:

Patras Port Authority S.A.

CHION S.A. (Chion Salt Industries)

Karma Architects

Special Thanks to:

Fanis Diplas, Panayiotis Tsonis, Fotis Smyrnis, Theodoros Stratos