Dialogues on Maritime Athens


Sea Figures, Liquid Grounds and a Lighthouse




The Island Orthograph

The drawing is about an approach, a journey from (an) Atlantis to (a) SNFCC. Five figures, Stavros Niarchos: the oligarch, Renzo Piano: the explorer, Plato: the mythmaker, Zisis Kotionis: the poet and Gilles Deleuze: the philosopher, are sailing the Aegean Sea, whose levels have risen covering almost entirely the Attica peninsula. Visible are now only the tips of the four mountains: Pentelicon, Parnitha, Hymettos and Aigaleo as well as a partial surface of the Acropolis and Lycabettus Hill. The rest of the city is submerged.

The drawing and the film are set next to each other. Printed on a 0.8m by 2.3m piece of transparent paper, the Island Orthograph hangs from a cross diagonal wire and is illuminated by a sharp beam of light, acting as a translucent index next to the film. Projected on a wall painted in light grey, the film is enlarged, occupying the same height as the drawing. It becomes a (drawing) copy since it is viewed through a projector (a device that by default generates copies).



© Eirini Makarouni