A research project on the notion of change using the archaeology process as a starting point to trace the relationship between memory and the transformative dynamics of places.

 

The natural element of water has defined the shape of the location in different ways over the centuries. During the excavation, the experts were able to uncover a definite water route on the earth. Finding the moment of this discovery particularly interesting, Athina created casting molds to preserve the impression that the movement of water had left on the landscape at a certain point in time. A fragile trace on soil formed by humidity, yet it survived for centuries and is now exposed only to become ephemeral.

The molds created form a site specific installation that represents the inverse or negative impressions of two distinct spots and were created in 3 different moments. When the archaeologists exposed the layer of the trace, the first set of molds was produced and recorded the movement of water as a negative trace as close as possible to the original time period in which it existed. A few days later, at the same two spots, but after certain acts by the archaeologists had been completed, the second and third set of molds were made. Thus these sets of molds document both the passage of water in the distant past as well as human behavior during a brief period of time in the present. 

They were presented as fragments on site, which is what they finally are. These "fragments" address the presence of a moving substance with the same care that stable humanmade structures hold in an excavation trench but also record the transformation of the landscape because of that movement.

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The project was realized in collaboration with Alexandros Khan, was funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe-Institut, 

realized in collaboration with ECeC laboratory 

under the scientific direction of  Francesca Romana Fiano (University of Ferrara).