Cart

Absence - Section 3

In the second room of the exhibition complete darkness dominates, while twelve 130 x 200 cm long papers hang from the wall, with texts of different nature in Greek or English, prose or poems, signed or unsigned, with common denominator the idea of ‘absence’ which governs the whole exhibition. Visitors to the exhibition are given a flashlight in order to walk around the place and be able to read the texts in the dark. Every time this light is turned on a paper, it activates a recorded reading of the text by the person who has written it. But as each viewer, who is in the place, chooses to illuminate –both literally and metaphorically- a story, the result will be different each time and this diversity will depend on the number of visitors and their behavior. Supposing that there is one visitor in the room, a single voice will be heard-narrative. If there are more people in the room, the result will be a crowd of shuffled voices ignoring one another and ‘struggling’ to be heard while making the visitor try to concentrate on his chosen text and comprehend its meaning. As long as the texts are not revealed and finally are not decoded by visitors, speech and writing will remain absent. By this interaction the viewer ultimately becomes an integral part of this work.

These photographs were taken at the opening of the exhibition by Eva Vaslamatzi.

 

Monday, 21 March 2016