One may call this island a ‘place with no evident definition’. The participation of the invited people consisted in attending a theatrical duration of uneasiness on the spot, on the undefined places themselves, ‘in situ’.The collection of designed results was a collection of the uneasiness particular to each place in a specific moment. Theatricality in the ‘built event’ projects is conceived as a recording of this uneasiness that leaves traces. This is why the ‘built event’ projects are abundantly filmed, photographed and otherwise recorded, a procedure in which local newspapers were also involved.
The workshop of the island built event project was organized by the initiators, the invited people and the participants in the form of a congregation or a provisory school-university structure where the people invited interpreted the uneasy condition of a particular place. The congregation of people (initiators, invitees and participants) was committed to give a ‘definitized’ response to this place following their particular way of focusing on it. This focusing, the responses and the traces of the entire procedure, formed a theatrical play that actually constituted the sum of the work. Every participant deposited his own definition of the selected insignificant place through personal involvement and vision. The deposited constructs derived from people of different disciplines (architects, theorists, historians, philosophers, film directors, mathematicians, literature scholars, artists...) These were presented in various forms and media: architectural designs, processed images, texts, but also talks and recordings, each one in its own set terms. The ‘built event’ works were done in the background of a self recording and vice versa. The procedure itself was a response to the particularities of the selected place. The selection of it was neither arbitrary nor the outcome of an analysis: The search for a distant island could not anticipate that Youra could be the final focus. It happened that this island condensed many factors of the place we were looking for. But Youra as a specific place became more important than initially expected after the search principles. This happened in every built_event project. The terms under which the place had been searched were always abandoned as soon as the place had been found. Then the place "itself" constituted the only starting point, setting the persistence of a conceptual theme. However the place in its “built event” version is never simply “in itself”. This premise creates a difference in the architecture of any place. The very “presence” of the place denies its own metaphysical conception. Presence seemed to be organized (in the ‘built event’s structure) as a heterogeneous accumulation of constructs, with no articulations. The place itself acted as the binding of these accumulated concepts, as is also the case with the pages of a book. The place was defined through this possibility of concurrent maintenance of different versions: it is rechargeable.
‘Built event’ came out of this architectonic investigation that began to focus on specific insignificant places. Furthermore, “built event” is conceived as a way of defining places through ‘in situ’ meetings of people and the collection of the material they have contributed. By conception, this “built event” procedure produced works that installed a singular relation between the selected places, their ‘conceptual constitution”, their common witnessing by the group of invitees, and the collection of the visit’s remains in the form of a book. The “built event” strategy was aiming at proposing a particular curatorial work, focused on a concrete locus. The selective editing of meetings and remains created an intended inversion: Focusing on a particular place was finally conceived as a cloud of different approaches to something missing: the place; the focused place, through this focusing, appeared blurred again, lost in an archipelago of isolated approaches. The work was purposefully an exercise of conceptual dispersal while the target appeared to be a blown-up concretization. The very act of focusing created the intended dispersal of meaning.
The built Event's series of works ended up with a real result formed as an open bounded book. The book is bound with screws; it can be opened, be recharged and re-bound. The works’ deployment consisted in the collection of the pages that form this book. The bounding keeps together different pages set in series. Structurally, the bounding keeps the continuity in an assemblage of juxtaposed things. The bounding assures a possible line, traced between distinct points. The bounding is a structure for a travel or for an archipelago. But if we accept that the pages can be reexamined, that we can read different sees within different complexes, then in the same bounded assemblage emerge infinite possibilities of recharging and reordering that construct different maps of different islands. If the book can be a possible map for an island, it will never end to a stable form. Our island, Yura, in Northern Aegean is already an archipelago because we decided to describe it this way. If we conceive the territory as an island function, we can then have a new condition about politics and space._ Aristide Antonas
The island built_event book is constructed by filippos oraiopoulos.
O θεσμός των εκτοπίσεων ανθρώπων από τον τόπο διαβίωσης τους σε απομακρυσμένες περιοχές της ορεινής και νησιωτικής χώρας εφαρμόστηκε ως ποινή σε περιπτώσεις αδικημάτων του κοινού ποινικού δικαίου (ζωοκλοπή κ.α ), αλλά και ως ποινικός ή διοικητικός περιορισμός για τα εγκλήματα γνώμης 1 που σχετίστηκαν με τον «κομμουνιστικό κίνδυνο» όπως ορίστηκε ήδη από την εποχή του μεσοπολέμου η πολιτική απειλή που υφίστατο το αστικό καθεστώς από το εργατικό κίνημα. Το μέτρο της εκτόπισης ως μέθοδος απομάκρυνσης από την πολιτική σκηνή εφαρμόστηκε επίσης κατά την ίδια μεσοπολεμική περίοδο και σε βάρος πολιτικών προσώπων των αστικών κομμάτων από αντίπαλες κομματικά κυβερνήσεις σε μια προσπάθεια αποδυνάμωσης του αντιπολιτευόμενου πολιτικού προσωπικού. Το μέτρο εφαρμόστηκε σε ευρεία κλίμακα κατά την διάρκεια της δικτατορίας της 4ης Αυγούστου και σε βάρος στελεχών του βενιζελικού και αντιβασιλικού χώρου.
Κατά την εμφύλια σύγκρουση που διαδέχθηκε την απελευθέρωση της χώρας η πολεμική διάσταση των πραγμάτων συνδυάστηκε με μακρά σειρά απάνθρωπων διώξεων που υπέστησαν στελέχη, μέλη και συμπαθούντες του εαμικού κινήματος. Η συνθήκη της Βάρκιζας με την οποία έληξε η δεκεμβριανή σύγκρουση του 1944 άφησε πολλά κενά και δεν προφύλαγε από τις δικαστικές διώξεις τον εαμικό κόσμο. Εκτός των επίσημων διώξεων που υπέστη ο κόσμος της αριστεράς, μέλη παρακρατικών ή παραστρατιωτικών ομάδων της δεξιάς έδρασαν σε βάρος του στην ύπαιθρο σε ένα ευρύτατο φαινόμενο αυθαιρέτων διώξεων υπό την ανοχή των επίσημων αρχών.
Το οξύτατο κλίμα που καλλιεργήθηκε ποινικοποίησε την πολιτική ζωή της χώρας και τα αντιπολιτευτικά πολιτικά φρονήματα εξισώνοντας έτσι τους πολιτικά αντιφρονούντες με τους εγκληματίες του κοινού ποινικού δικαίου. Εκτός των καταδικαστικών αποφάσεων σε θάνατο και την εκτέλεση των αποφάσεων αυτών, μέλη του εαμικού κόσμου καταδικάστηκαν σε εξοντωτικές ποινές φυλάκισης. Στο πλαίσιο των επίσημων διώξεων χιλιάδες άνθρωποι χαρακτηρίστηκαν ως ύποπτοι ότι διέπραξαν ή ετοιμάζονταν να διαπράξουν πράξεις εναντίον της δημόσιας τάξης και της ασφάλειας της χώρας και υποχρεώθηκαν από τις αρχές ασφαλείας σε εκτόπιση μακριά από τον τόπο διαμονής τους. Ο θεσμός της εκτόπισης-εξορίας διατηρήθηκε με κάποια μικρά διαλείμματα της δεκαετίας του 1960 έως την μεταπολίτευση του 1974.
Στους τόπους συγκέντρωσης που δημιουργήθηκαν σε όλη την χώρα, ήδη από το 1945, οι αρχές ασφαλείας εγκατέστησαν δεκάδες χιλιάδες ανθρώπους όλων των ηλικιών. Στην αρχική φάση του εμφυλίου πολέμου ο μεγάλος αριθμός εξορίστων είχε διασπαρθεί σε όλη την χώρα σε πρόχειρες εγκαταστάσεις συγκέντρωσης εκτοπισμένων: φρούρια, σχολεία, δημόσια καταστήματα, επιταγμένα κτίρια, υπαίθριους χώρους, κ.α.. Στην συνέχεια, το 1947, διαμορφώθηκαν τρεις μεγάλοι χώροι συγκέντρωσης, δύο σε άνυδρα και έρημα νησιά και ένας σε ένα νησί που βρισκόταν κοντά στον χώρο των πολεμικών επιχειρήσεων, με βλάστηση και πολύ περιορισμένο αριθμό κατοίκων. Οι τόποι ήταν: η Γυάρος για φυλακισμένους που είχαν καταδικαστεί, το στρατόπεδο της Μακρονήσου στο οποίο συγκεντρώθηκαν χιλιάδες νέοι στην ηλικία της στράτευσης τους με κριτήριο την συμμετοχή ή την συμπάθεια στην εαμική αντίσταση ή ακόμη και την συγγένεια τους με πρόσωπα του αριστερού χώρου και το Τρίκερι, κυρίως για γυναίκες που είχαν συλληφθεί προληπτικά ως πιθανοί τροφοδότες των ανταρτών κατά τις εκκαθαριστικές επιχειρήσεις του στρατού εναντίον του ΔΣΕ. Στην Γυάρο οι κρατούμενοι εγκαταστάθηκαν σε σκηνές και στην συνέχεια έκτισαν οι ίδιοι κτίριο φυλακών. Στην Μαρκόνησο έχτισαν κτίρια μόνο για τους αξιωματικούς και τις διοικητικές υπηρεσίες του στρατοπέδου και οι στρατιώτες ζούσαν σε σκηνές. Στο Τρίκερι ζούσαν και εκεί μαζικά σε σκηνές. Ως χώροι εγκατάστασης εξορίστων εντός οι σε παρυφές των οικισμών να αναφέρουμε την Ικαρία και τον Άι Στράτη.
Σε επίπεδο βαρβαρότητας, τρόμου και απανθρωπιάς το στρατόπεδο της Μακρονήσου διαφοροποιείται από τους υπόλοιπους τόπους εξορίας τόσο λόγω της σωματικής και ψυχικής βίας που εφαρμόστηκε σε βάρος όσων πέρασαν από εκεί προκειμένου να υπογράψουν δήλωση όσο και γιατί την διαδικασία απόσπασης της δήλωσης την χειρίστηκε στην προκειμένη περίπτωση ο στρατός και όχι η χωροφυλακή γεγονός που καθιστούσε τα πράγματα πολύ περισσότερο αδιέξοδα για τους στρατιώτες που υπηρέτησαν στις μονάδες της Μακρονήσου αλλά και για τους πολίτες που εντάχθηκαν στις μονάδες αυτές προκειμένου να υποστούν την βία και τον τρόμο της «εθνικής διαπαιδαγώγησης» προκειμένου να ακυρωθεί η πολιτική τους γνώμη και να καταστούν πολιτικά ασφαλείς για το καθεστώς.
Ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει η οργάνωση της ζωής των εξορίστων εκτός Μακρονήσου μέσω των Ομάδων Συμβίωσης οι οποίες λειτουργούσαν με τρόπο ημιεπίσημο εξασφαλίζοντας αφενός την επικοινωνία με την διοίκηση και αφετέρου την λειτουργία της κοινότητας των εξορίστων μέσω κανόνων που επέτρεπαν την επιβίωση στην εξορία και την διατήρηση του φρονήματος. Οι υπεύθυνοι των Ομάδων διαχειρίζονταν μέσω του ταμείου που είχαν επί τούτου οργανώσει τα όποια χρήματα λάμβαναν οι εξόριστοι και κατένειμαν σύμφωνα με τις ανάγκες του κάθε ένα τα όποια εφόδια σε ρουχισμό, υλικό ενδιαιτήσεων και τρόφιμα ακόμη και τσιγάρα έφταναν στους εξόριστους από τους οικείους τους. Αξιοποιούσαν επαγγελματικές γνώσεις, εμπειρίες και δεξιότητες των εξορίστων προκειμένου να γίνει η ζωή στην εξορία περισσότερο υποφερτή και οριακά ενδιαφέρουσα. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό λειτουργούσαν σε σταθερή βάση εκπαιδευτικές δραστηριότητες που κάλυπταν ευρεία γκάμα ενδιαφερόντων που εκτεινόταν από την αντιμετώπιση του αναλφαβητισμού έως σεμινάρια πολιτικής φιλοσοφίας. Στην ίδια κατεύθυνση οργανώνονταν θεατρικές παραστάσεις από τους εξόριστους. Οι υπεύθυνοι των Ομάδων καλούνταν συχνά να προβλέψουν και να αντιμετωπίσουν τις μεγάλες ελλείψεις σε τρόφιμα αλλά συχνά και σε νερό που προκαλούσε ο πολύ προβληματικός και άτακτος εφοδιασμός των νησιών.
Συνοψίζοντας, το μέτρο της εκτόπισης-εξορίας μεγάλου αριθμού ατόμων στόχευε τόσο στην πολιτική αποδόμηση της ευρύτερης αριστερής παράταξης όσο και στην τρομοκράτηση των ίδιων των εξορίστων μέσω της ανατροπής της οικογενειακής και προσωπικής τους ζωής. Εκτός στελεχών και μελών της αριστεράς την εκτόπιση-εξορία από τον τόπο τους υπέστησαν και μεγάλος αριθμός ατόμων που ενοχοποιήθηκαν από την συγγενική τους σχέση με μέλη του αριστερού κινήματος. Η πίεση και η βία που υφίσταντο από τις αρχές ασφαλείας οι εξόριστοι αφορούσε την εκ μέρους τους υπογραφή δήλωσης αποκήρυξης του ΕΑΜ και του ΚΚΕ η οποία πέρα από το ηθικό πλήγμα που έφερνε στις σχέσεις τους με τους συντρόφους τους, ακύρωνε πλέον την όποια ενεργοποίηση στον κομματικό μηχανισμό του ΚΚΕ αφού το γεγονός της υπογραφής της δήλωσης κοινοποιείτο με ποικίλους τρόπους στην κοινωνία του τόπου κατοικίας: τοπικός τύπος, ανάγνωση από τον παπά στην εκκλησία, τοιχοκόλληση σε τόπους συνάθροισης των χωριών καταλόγων «ανανηψάντων» κομμουνιστών κ.α..
Τασος Σακελλαρόπουλος, ΙΣΤΟΡΙΚΟΣ
from Plato's Timaeus: "The most famous of them all was the overthrow of the island of Atlantis. This great island lay over against the Pillars of Heracles, in extent greater than Libya and Asia put together, and was the passage to other islands and to a great ocean of which the Mediterranean sea was only the harbour; and within the Pillars the empire of Atlantis reached in Europe to Tyrrhenia and in Libya to Egypt. This mighty power was arrayed against Egypt and Hellas and all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean. Then your city did bravely, and won renown over the whole earth. For at the peril of her own existence, and when the other Hellenes had deserted her, she repelled the invader, and of her own accord gave liberty to all the nations within the Pillars. A little while afterwards there were great earthquakes and floods, and your warrior race all sank into the earth; and the great island of Atlantis also disappeared in the sea. This is the explanation of the shallows which are found in that part of the Atlantic ocean". from Plato's Critias: "Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean. The progress of the history will unfold the various nations of barbarians and families of Hellenes which then existed, as they successively appear on the scene; but I must describe first of all Athenians of that day, and their enemies who fought with them, and then the respective powers and governments of the two kingdoms. Let us give the precedence to Athens. In the days of old the gods had the whole earth distributed among them by allotment. There was no quarrelling; for you cannot rightly suppose that the gods did not know what was proper for each of them to have, or, knowing this, that they would seek to procure for themselves by contention that which more properly belonged to others. They all of them by just apportionment obtained what they wanted, and peopled their own districts; and when they had peopled them they tended us, their nurselings and possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting only that they did not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do, but governed us like pilots from the stern of the vessel, which is an easy way of guiding animals, holding our souls by the rudder of persuasion according to their own pleasure;-thus did they guide all mortal creatures. Now different gods had their allotments in different places which they set in order. Hephaestus and Athene, who were brother and sister, and sprang from the same father, having a common nature, and being united also in the love of philosophy and art, both obtained as their common portion this land, which was naturally adapted for wisdom and virtue; and there they implanted brave children of the soil, and put into their minds the order of government; their names are preserved, but their actions have disappeared by reason of the destruction of those who received the tradition, and the lapse of ages. For when there were any survivors, as I have already said, they were men who dwelt in the mountains; and they were ignorant of the art of writing, and had heard only the names of the chiefs of the land, but very little about their actions. The names they were willing enough to give to their children; but the virtues and the laws of their predecessors, they knew only by obscure traditions; and as they themselves and their children lacked for many generations the necessaries of life, they directed their attention to the supply of their wants, and of them they conversed, to the neglect of events that had happened in times long past; for mythology and the enquiry into antiquity are first introduced into cities when they begin to have leisure, and when they see that the necessaries of life have already been provided, but not before. And this is reason why the names of the ancients have been preserved to us and not their actions. This I infer because Solon said that the priests in their narrative of that war mentioned most of the names which are recorded prior to the time of Theseus, such as Cecrops, and Erechtheus, and Erichthonius, and Erysichthon, and the names of the women in like manner. Moreover, since military pursuits were then common to men and women, the men of those days in accordance with the custom of the time set up a figure and image of the goddess in full armour, to be a testimony that all animals which associate together, male as well as female, may, if they please, practise in common the virtue which belongs to them without distinction of sex".
note : the "text films" presented in this site are elaborated by Iliana Tsapatsari
Τό ἔργο τελειώνει ἐπί τόπου, πάνω στό νησί ὅπου βρίσκονται ἐκεῖνοι πού τό γνωρίζουν τόσο καλά. Σέ ἕνα δεύτερο μεγάλο τραπέζι, τοποθετημένο «in situ» ἐνῶ οἱ μέν δέν γνωρίζουν ὅ,τι γνωρίζουν οἱ δέ. Τό σῶμα τοῦ νησιοῦ εἴτε μένει ἀσύλληπτο εἴτε ὀργανώνεται ὡς συλλογή στοιχείων πού κατατίθενται γιά νά τό ὁρίσουν. Ὁ καθορισμός τοῦ τόπου ταυτίζεται τώρα (μέ θεατρικό τρόπο) μέ τή συνάντηση τῶν ἀνθρώπων καί κάποια συλλογή στοιχείων πού κατέθεσαν οἱ ἐπισκέπτες στά δύο τραπέζια.
Aristide Antonas wrote this 3-months-duration-theatre-play after a discussion on the theatric character of the work (then under preparation) with Filippos Oreopoulos
The project is not only a collection of material submitted by the participants; furthermore a decisive representation of this collection, organized with a single "book", gathering original and printed stuff, rechargable, bounded with screws.
Ο Δίων ο Προυσαεύς (περίπου 40/50 – μετά το 110), γνωστός ως Χρυσόστομος, ρήτορας και στοχαστής, πέρασε μεγάλο μέρος της πολυτάραχης ζωής του ταξιδεύοντας. Παρά τις καλές του σχέσεις με την αυτοκρατορική αυλή, δυσαρέστησε τον Δομιτιανό (81-96) και εξορίστηκε, όχι μόνο από την Ιταλία αλλά και από τον τόπο καταγωγής του, τη Βιθυνία. Περιπλανώμενος σε μέρη που δεν συνήθιζαν να πηγαίνουν οι μορφωμένοι άνδρες της εποχής του, διδάχτηκε από βαρβάρους και από αγρότες. Έμαθε τον κόσμο καλά και ακόνισε την κριτική του σκέψη. Προβληματίστηκε πάνω στην κοινωνική τάξη και την κοινωνική ιεραρχία και αμφισβήτησε πολλές από τις πολιτισμικές αξίες, που άλλοι θεωρούσαν δεδομένες. Η ριζοσπαστική του προδιάθεση τον οδήγησε σε στάσεις ζωής αρκετά ακραίες και, κάποτε, ανατρεπτικές. Ένα από τα ταξίδια του τον οδήγησε στο κέντρο της Ελλάδας, όπως του φάνηκε. Από τον τόπο όπου βρέθηκε είδε ολόκληρο τον κόσμο, όπως κοιτά κανείς πλούσια θέα μέσα από μικρό παράθυρο. Για να καταγράψει τις σκέψεις του συνέθεσε ένα μυθιστορηματικό δοκίμιο. Με σκοπό να κατανοήσουν τον κόσμο διάφοροι μορφωμένοι άνδρες επισκέπτονταν την Αθήνα: κέντρο της Ελλάδας γεωγραφικό και συνάμα μόρφωσης. Ανατρεπτικός ο Δίων χαρακτήρισε κέντρο ένα ξεχασμένο νησί που δεν διέθετε φιλοσοφικές σχολές. Άλλωστε, στα Κοίλα της Νότιας Εύβοιας, στα στενά του Καφηρέα, όπου τον έριξε η μοίρα, σπανίως μετέβαινε κάποιος οικειοθελώς. Ο Δίων έφθασε ως ναυαγός.
2. Το ναυάγιο
Το ναυάγιο μοιάζει κάποτε με γέννηση. Ιδίως τη στιγμή που βγαίνει κάποιος από τη θάλασσα γυμνός και ξέπνοος. Αναχωρώντας με βία από τη Χίο, διωγμένος ή κυνηγημένος, ο Δίων ταξίδεψε στην αρχή του φθινοπώρου, όταν πια η ναυσιπλοΐα γινόταν επικίνδυνη και οι περισσότεροι ταξιδιώτες την απέφευγαν. Αντί να περιμένει ένα μεγάλο και ασφαλέστερο πλοίο, μπαρκάρισε στο πρώτο μικρό ψαράδικο που βρήκε διαθέσιμο ─ ένα σκαρί από αυτά που χρησιμοποιούσαν συχνά οι πειρατές. Στον Κάβο Ντόρο, έπεσε σε μεγάλη θαλασσοταραχή ─ γνώριμη άλλωστε και στους σημερινούς ταξιδιώτες. Για να σωθούν, οι ψαράδες τσάκισαν το μικρό τους σκάφος στα βράχια, κάτω από έναν γκρεμό. Στις συνθήκες εκείνες, οι επιβάτες ενός μεγάλου πλοίου δεν θα είχαν καμία ελπίδα. Η Νότια γωνιά της Εύβοιας προξενούσε συχνά τον τρόμο. Οι καιρικές συνθήκες που επικρατούσαν εξηγούσαν επαρκώς γιατί πολλοί ταξιδευτές έβρισκαν τον όλεθρο. Από τα τσακισμένα πλοία λίγοι έβγαιναν ζωντανοί. Οι φήμες ήθελαν ωστόσο να παρεμβαίνει και ο ανθρώπινος παράγοντας. Παραπλανητικές φωτιές, καθώς λεγόταν, αντί να τα οδηγούν τα πλοία σε ασφαλή λιμένα, τα έριχναν στις ξέρες. Κάποιοι ανέμεναν τα ναυάγια για να πλουτίσουν από τα φορτία τους, όσα έφταναν στη στεριά. Στην ξέρα που βρέθηκε ο Δίων υπήρχαν μόνον αλιείς πορφύρας. Οι ψαράδες ναυαγοί έκαναν αμέσως την επιλογή τους. Προσφέρθηκαν να συνεταιριστούν με τους ντόπιους συναδέλφους τους και να αναζητήσουν την τύχη τους αλιεύοντας και αυτοί πορφύρα. (Είναι προφανές ότι δεν είχαν σκοπό να επιστρέψουν στον τόπο τους.) Μονάχος του ο Δίων άρχισε να αναζητά τρόπο για να συνεχίσει το ταξίδι του. Περπάτησε στην παραλία με το βλέμμα στραμμένο άλλοτε στη στεριά, μήπως εντοπίσει αραγμένο πλοίο, και άλλοτε στη θάλασσα, μήπως αντιληφθεί κάποιο να ταξιδεύει γιαλό γιαλό. Αλλά ο καιρός ήταν τέτοιος που κανένας δεν επιχειρούσε θαλασσινό ταξίδι στην περιοχή. Τύχη αγαθή διασταύρωσε τα βήματά του με τα βήματα ενός κυνηγού. Στο σπίτι του βρήκε καταφύγιο, όσο χρειαζόταν για να συνέλθει. Ανηφορίζοντας με τον ξεναγό του από την παραλία στο ύψωμα όπου βρίσκονταν οι καλύβες της φιλοξενίας, πρόλαβε να ακούσει μια πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορία.
3. Το νησί
Τα νησιά είναι κάποτε ένας ολόκληρος ο κόσμος. Αποκομμένα από τις άλλες στεριές, αναπαράγουν σε μικρογραφία όλες τις βασικές παραγωγικές και κοινωνικές σχέσεις. Όπως στους άλλους τόπους, όπου κατοικούσαν Έλληνες και Ρωμαίοι, στη Νότια Εύβοια μια βαθιά διαχωριστική γραμμή ξεχώριζε τους κατοίκους της πόλης από τους κατοίκους του χωριού. Η πόλη ήταν το κέντρο της διοίκησης και του πολιτισμού. Εκεί συγκεντρώνονταν οι φόροι, γινόταν η απονομή της δικαιοσύνης και λαμβάνονταν οι σημαντικές αποφάσεις. Μια αξιοπρεπής πόλη προστατευόταν από γερό τείχος και πύργους. Μέσα στο τείχος ήταν συγκεντρωμένα πολλά και μεγάλα σπίτια. Παραλιακή καθώς ήταν συνήθως, μια πόλη διέθετε λιμάνι για τα πλοία. Στην αγορά συγκεντρωνόταν το πλήθος για το καθημερινό εμπόριο και την ανταλλαγή πληροφοριών. Το θέατρο ήταν τόπος διασκέδασης, αλλά και συνεδρίασης. Συναθροισμένοι εκεί οι πολίτες άκουγαν τους ρήτορες και ψήφιζαν. Οι περισσότεροι πολίτες διέθεταν γη, άλλη κοντά και άλλη μακριά από την πόλη. Βασική τους μέριμνα ήταν η καλλιέργεια των κτημάτων και η εκτροφή ζώων. Αρκετοί ωστόσο ήταν τεχνίτες και έμποροι. Το χωριό ήταν πρωτίστως μια παραγωγική μονάδα. Τα σπίτια ήταν μικρά, το εμπόριο περιορισμένο. Από το χωριό αγόραζε πάντως η πόλη τα βασικά είδη διατροφής. Μέρος των κερδών επέστρεφε στην πόλη με τη μορφή ενοικίων και φόρων. Χωριό και πόλη διατηρούσαν την επαφή τους κυρίως με την κυκλοφορία του χρήματος. Αυτό που τα χώριζε ήταν πρωτίστως ο πολιτισμός.
4. Ο κυνηγός
Ο κυνηγός που φιλοξένησε τον Δίωνα ήταν και αυτός ένα είδος ναυαγού: ένας ναυαγός της στεριάς. Ο πατέρας του βοσκούσε τα βόδια ενός πλούσιου γαιοκτήμονα. Αλλά ο γαιοκτήμονας πέθανε και η περιουσία του δημεύτηκε. (Οι φήμες έλεγαν ότι τον ξέκανε ο αυτοκράτορας για να ιδιοποιηθεί την περιουσία του.) Δυο οικογένειες εργατών βρέθηκαν έτσι απλήρωτοι και άνεργοι. Αντί να συνωστιστούν στην αφιλόξενη πόλη ή να εγκατασταθούν άκληροι στο χωριό, επέλεξαν να παραμείνουν με τα παιδιά τους στα βουνά και τους λόγγους, εκεί όπου άλλοτε φρόντιζαν τα ξένα κοπάδια. Έκτισαν καλύβες, καλλιέργησαν ένα μικρό κομμάτι γης και εξέθρεψαν λίγα δικά τους ζωντανά. Με την επιλογή τους εκείνη βρέθηκαν έξω από τις οργανωμένες κοινότητες: ξωμάχοι και ερημίτες. Αλλά το χρήμα είναι μεγάλη κινητήρια δύναμη. Οι άνθρωποι της πόλης ανακάλυψαν την ύπαρξη των ερημιτών, αναζητώντας τους διαφεύγοντες φόρους. Δεν είχαν σκοπό να επιτρέψουν τη δωρεάν εκμετάλλευση δημόσιας γης. Για να υπερασπιστεί τη θέση του, ο κυνηγός αναγκάστηκε να εμφανιστεί στην πόλη ως υπόδικος. Η επίσκεψη ήταν απρόσμενη, βίαιη και διδακτική. Ο κυνηγός βρέθηκε στην πόλη ως απόλυτος ξένος. Δεν ήξερε τίποτα από τείχη, δημόσια κτήρια, ψηλά σπίτια ή ανθρώπινο συνωστισμό. Δεν είχε ιδέα τι σημαίνει δίκη ─ μολονότι μπορούσε να υποπτευθεί τι σημαίνει καταδίκη. Δικαζόμενος, βίωσε την παρουσία του στο θέατρο της πόλης ως θέαμα. Βρισκόταν στο κέντρο της ορχήστρας, όπως ο ηθοποιός. Οι δικαστές τριγύρω του ωρύονταν ως ανικανοποίητοι θεατές που διψούσαν περισσότερο για αίμα παρά για απονομή δικαιοσύνης. Για καλή του τύχη, ο κυνηγός βρήκε πειστικούς προστάτες ─ ανάμεσά τους έναν άνθρωπο τον οποίο είχε άλλοτε περιθάλψει με καλοσύνη και ανιδιοτέλεια. Έτσι διέφυγε τον άμεσο κίνδυνο, ξέφυγε από τον πολιτισμό και επέστρεψε στις καλύβες του. Από τα πολλά που είχε μάθει ένα συγκράτησε περισσότερο: προτιμούσε τη ζωή του ερημίτη. Ο πολιτισμός της πόλης δεν τον είχε κερδίσει.
5. Ο κόσμος
Όπως όλα σχεδόν τα κατοικημένα νησιά, ακόμα και η Νότια Εύβοια διέθετε γέφυρες με τον υπόλοιπο κόσμο. Μια φήμη για έναν τυραννικό αυτοκράτορα υπενθύμιζε ότι η υπήρχε πάντα μια υπέρτατη εξουσία ικανή να επέμβει. Η ανάμνηση ενός νεκρού γαιοκτήμονα, που, έτσι κι αλλιώς, σπανίως επισκεπτόταν τα κτήματα και τα κοπάδια του, βεβαίωνε ότι οι φόροι και τα ενοίκια προορίζονταν, σε ένα βαθμό, για τρίτους, που κατοικούσαν σε άλλους τόπους. Μία και μοναδική επίσκεψη στην πόλη αποκάλυπτε όλους τους μηχανισμούς επιβολής και εκμετάλλευσης. Τα καράβια που άραζαν στο λιμάνι ήταν επαρκής υπαινιγμός για τη διακίνηση και το εμπόριο. Γέφυρα ήταν επίσης τα ναυάγια που έφερναν στο νησί ανθρώπους και πραμάτειες. Το νησί ήταν μια μικρογραφία του κόσμου. Διέθετε πόλη και χωριό. Δούλους και ελεύθερους. Πολίτες και ξένους. Πλούσιους και φτωχούς. Αγρότες και τεχνίτες. Ανθρώπους της θάλασσας και ανθρώπους της στεριάς. Η ζωή έξω από την πόλη και έξω από το χωριό ήταν μια ζωή πέρα από τις κοινωνικές σχέσεις και πέρα από τον πολιτισμό. Ένα νησί μέσα στο νησί. Όποιος την επέλεγε, ληστής ή ξωμάχος, ήταν σαν επιλέγει ένα εθελοντικό ναυάγιο. Ο Δίων οδηγήθηκε εκεί όπως ένας ναυαγός που τον καθοδηγούσε ένας άλλος ναυαγός. Τις λίγες μέρες που φιλοξενήθηκε στην ερημιά, διαπίστωσε κάτι που του προξένησε βαθιά εντύπωση: ολόκληρη η ζωή μπορούσε να χωρέσει μέσα σε κάτι ελάχιστο, που ήταν συνάμα υπερβολικά μεγάλο. Ο απομονωμένος κόσμος των κυνηγών διέθετε όλα τα απαραίτητα: βουνά και κάμπους, τρεχούμενα νερά και εύφορα λιβάδια. Ήταν ένας παράδεισος με την ελληνική ή, μάλλον, την περσική έννοια, με αυτάρκεια αγαθών. Ο παράδεισος αυτός διέθετε μεγάλη ποικιλία ζώων: σκύλους, βόδια, αγελάδες και μοσχάρια, κατσίκες, χοίρους, άλογα και γαϊδούρια, ελάφια, ζαρκάδια και λαγούς, αγριογούρουνα, αρκούδες και λύκους. Από τροφές επίσης τίποτε δεν έλειπε, όσα έχει ανάγκη ο άνθρωπος για να ζήσει και να ευφρανθεί: εκτός από κυνήγι, αβγά, σιτάρι, κριθάρι, κεχρί, κουκιά, ρεβίθια, λαχανικά και φρούτα, σούρβα, μούσμουλα, μήλα και σταφύλια. Και φυσικά, κρασί. Το νησί μέσα στο νησί είχε θέση και για τον έρωτα.
6. Ο έρωτας
Οι δυο οικογένειες των κυνηγών ήταν καθισμένες κατάχαμα, μέσα σε μια από τις καλύβες. Ο Δίων είχε, ως φιλοξενούμενος, τιμητική θέση. Η συζήτηση ήρθε γύρω από το μέλλον της κόρης που είχε η μία οικογένεια. Την αγαπούσε από καιρό ο γιος της άλλης οικογένειας και είχε αποφασιστεί ότι θα την παντρευτεί. Έτσι απλά. Ο νέος ήταν καλός κυνηγός και μπορούσε να εξασφαλίσει τροφή. Για να γίνει ο γάμος υπολείπονταν δυο μονάχα πράγματα: Το ένα ήταν να βρεθεί η κατάλληλη μέρα, όταν το φεγγάρι δεν είναι στη χάση του και ο καιρός είναι καθαρός, λαμπρά αιθρία. Το άλλο να εξοικονομηθεί κατάλληλο ζώο. Όπως όλες οι σπουδαίες πράξεις, ο γάμος προέβλεπε θυσία στους θεούς. Στη συζήτηση μετείχαν οι πάντες, μικροί και μεγάλοι. Όλοι ήταν σύμφωνοι. Ο γάμος μπορούσε να γίνει το ταχύτερο. Άλλωστε, ο γαμπρός είχε εκθρέψει ένα γουρουνόπουλο, κρυφά από τους γονείς του. Περίμενε να το παχύνει για να το παρουσιάσει. Ήδη όμως αυτό κόντευε να σκάσει από το πάχος. Οι γυναίκες θα φρόντιζαν για το χοντραλεσμένο κριθάρι και το αλεύρι, τα συνοδευτικά της θυσίας. Αφού όλα ήταν όπως πρέπει, δεν υπήρχε λόγος χρονοτριβής. Είχε έρθει η ώρας να πάρουν τέλος τα βάσανα του ερωτευμένου αγοριού. (Για τα βάσανα του ερωτευμένου κοριτσιού δεν έγινε λόγος.) Μοναδικός καλεσμένος, ο Δίων.
7. Η αναχώρηση
Η αναχώρηση του Δίωνα ήταν βίαιη όσο και η άφιξη. Ο κόσμος που τον ανέμενε παρέμενε περίπλοκος, απαιτητικός, μοχθηρός και υποκριτικός. Ο Δίων συλλογίστηκε τους γάμους στις πόλεις με τις προξενήτρες, τις έρευνες για την περιουσία και το γένος των μελλόνυμφων, τις προίκες και τα έδνα, τις υποσχέσεις και τις απάτες, τα ομόλογα και τα συμφωνητικά, τις λοιδορίες και τις απέχθειες, ακόμα και την ώρα του γάμου. Η ερωτική ζωή στις πόλεις ήταν, στην πραγματικότητα, πολύ χειρότερη. Ο Δίων συλλογίστηκε την πορνεία. Κανένας σοφός την εποχή του δεν είχε βρει την ευκαιρία ή τη βούληση να ψέξει όπως αυτός, όχι μόνο τον πορνοβοσκό αλλά και τον πελάτη του. Με λόγια απλά και κοφτά, αυτός καυτηρίασε τους ανέραστους έρωτες, την αιχμαλωσία και το εμπόριο σωμάτων γυναικών και παιδιών, τα ρυπαρά οικήματα, την άσκοπη και άκαρπη συμπλοκή των σωμάτων που δεν οδηγεί στη γέννηση αλλά στη φθορά, την υποβολή σε αναίσχυντα έργα ανθρώπους που αισχύνονται, μόνο και μόνο για να ικανοποιηθούν οι λυσσασμένοι και οι ακόλαστοι. Ο Δίων αναπόλησε τη μικρή κοινότητα των κυνηγών. Τι καλά που θα ήταν αν ο πολιτισμός του μπορούσε να διδαχτεί κάτι από αυτήν. Από την απλότητα και την αγνότητα της ζωής στην απόμερη γωνιά ένας μισοξεχασμένου νησιού! Το αφήγημα με το οποίο κοινοποίησε τις εμπειρίες του στο ενδιαφερόμενο κοινό το ονόμασε Ευβοϊκός ή Κυνηγός. Θα μπορούσε να το ονομάσει επίσης, Ο ναυαγός ή το νησί της Αφροδίτης.
Σημείωση: Ο Ευβοϊκός ή Κυνηγός του Δίωνα, από όπου και όλες οι παραπάνω πληροφορίες, κυκλοφορεί σε δύο ωραίες νεοελληνικές μεταφράσεις: του Ν. Δ. Τριανταφυλλόπουλου, εκδόσεις Στιγμή, Αθήνα 1994 και των Γιάννη Αβραμίδη και Στέλλας Μητσάκα, εκδόσεις Θύραθεν, Θεσσαλονίκη 1998.
Filippos Oraiopoulos and Aristide Antonas have proposed a running discourse they hope will lead to ‘an emerging identity’ for Youra, a small island in the Aegean sea, north of Alonisos. Perhaps they feel this isolated place is not fixed enough in the public eye, or that it now supports purposes in conflict with each other, or that its role as a protected biotope has yet to be firmly entrenched. I suspect their words of caution, encouraging patience in the forming of a ‘pending identity’ that ‘sustains suspension’, stem from the concern that approaching the formation of an ‘identity’ for the island as a problem needing strong formal definition will not be constructive. I agree with this. Somewhat. They suggest that an identity for the place should emerge from a number of events and interventions over time, some of which will take, many of which will be rejected. What is critical to its evolution is the maintenance of attention through the creation of a forum of ideas - a ‘center’ to these creative ideas. To my mind any identity, even a provisional or temporary one, needs not just events and activities, but limits and edges. Life at every level is found at the edge where differences reveal themselves. If the edges are defined, the centers will take care of themselves. My proposal for this built-Event suggests an identity for this place that is critical for our time, an identity formed through the definition of certain limits to both place and activity. Defined by the inclusion of wisdom long exiled, a new identity for this island may contribute to our efforts in confronting the imminent collapse of our biosystem and the human economies that depend upon it. I will not be embarrassed to use words such as forbidden, sacred, sacrifice, fate, abstinence, unknowing, the poetic eye, and metaphoric truth.
This text is in the form of a travel journal to the island, interspersed with personal reflections, into which various myths and stories have entered on tiptoe.
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I had just returned to Athens from the green and rain of Berlin when I found messages from Aristide asking me to join a weekend boat trip from Volos to the island of Youra in the Northern Sporades. It sounded like a fine opportunity to spend time with minds that like good questions! So next day I was on the bus rolling north, floating by the new industries that had spread out all along the National Highway. On previous trips I had seen countless olive fields along this road. Now many of these have been flattened, squared, and fenced for machines and men to manufacture some infinitely small part of our modern world. Passing close to the blue and calm sea I could see new-built accommodation for tourism clustering down to the edge, and splashed across the hills above, villas, some straight out of an American soap opera, that were crying out their tasteless affluence. In Volos I walk along on the narrow streets towards my friend’s house. Many of the small houses with courtyards that give Volos its special identity are now overgrown and abandoned, and each block holds at least two construction sites preparing for new high-rise apartments. They will be on ‘pilotees’, all of them, offering to the urban pedestrian only the butt of a BMW. The owners of the abandoned houses are in waiting for that sacred demolition permit that will allow them to join the current building boom. I am on the quay next morning at seven, as the sun rises through the mist and frees itself from the mountain of Pelion. It is warming as it dissolves the memory of evening dew. And it is good to meet Aristide and Philippos once again, and to join the others, on a boat that lies so still on the mirrored morning sea. The name of this wooden craft that will carry us to the past and the future is “Odyssey.” I think, “Either fate is playing with us, or maybe the Gods want to tell us something?” “To what Ithaca are we bound? What have we to learn about design and identity, to learn about ourselves? And can we resist seduction along the way?” A fine windless day is ahead the captain says. Then the ropes are off cast and we move out into the harbor and head south across the mirror, towards the open passage at the south end of the Pagassitic Gulf. As the city of Volos falls behind I can see the remains of a mountain to the south of the city. There at Agria, a mountain has been blasted away over the years to serve the appetite of the cement factory. Opposite are the remains of the classical city of Dimitrias once dedicated to the goddess of planting and fertility. There the ruins have been allowed to recover themselves with pine trees now that archaeological excavations have come to a halt. Like so many classical cities in this region, Dimitrias was destroyed probably in one of the fierce raids from the north during the 5th century BCE. From that day the city disappeared, and an illustrious civilization was extinguished. But what about the Dodecatheo, their twelve gods?
“Listen to what he says….. “ Why did we smash their sculptures? Why did we throw them out from their temples? You know, they’ve never died, those gods. Ionia, they love you still, their souls remember you. Still. Like in the dawn of an August morning your mood is captured, given strength from their life. And sometimes, low over the hills, an ethereal and youthful form, vague and undefined, may swiftly pass you by.”
The ride is idyllic; the twin Hyundai engines slip us through the water with quiet Asiatic power. Many students, having partied late, doze at this early hour. Others light up a succession of small paper-covered offerings as part of their personal sacrifice to the god of lung cancer. It is a time conductive to reverie. Where is this Youra? How is it that we have permission to land there if it is forbidden to do so? Did the inhabitants of city of Dimitrias know of Youra? What was the island it called back then, and how long did it take to get there?
“Listen to What Happened…..” We must never forgive Plato for disparaging Homer’s world of luminous amoral fatality. We must continue to regard theology as a decadent form of reflection, one that already at its origin was headed downhill towards the modern wasteland of denatured “facts”, algorithms, and the banalities of “public opinion.”
We round the point with the village of Trikeri high on our port side. It is easy to see the new roads that have been slashed across the landscape to reach new recreation property developments. At the crest of the hill and usurping the view from the cluster of old island houses stands a new concrete skeleton waiting to be clad as a large villa. I begin to get a bit uneasy, not from the sea but from sensing what has happened on this marvelous landscape in the fifteen years since I made the passage more frequently. All along the south of the peninsula named Tisseo, to Platania and beyond, there is much new development: isolated, expensive, unsustainable, from where the glories of this sea and the landscape can be consumed during a few weeks of summer. I wonder what is the poetic content in all the human effort now modifying this landscape. The rationale of the older landscape, –the low stone fences enclosing goats and sheep, the pathways, here and there a few cultivated terraces –they spoke of survival and with a timeless elegance. And now? As we pass the last ‘elbow’ of land before we head out towards islands of Skiathos and Skopelos, we look up to witness the complete destruction of a gigantic mountain landscape that is well underway. From four or five hundred meters up thousands of tons of rubble from an extensive marble quarry are being poured down the mountainside and into the innocence of the blue sea below. Will aggressive destruction of nature like this end at some point? All of us know that it is not much longer before the major support systems on which survival on this planet depends will pass beyond the point of repair. Atmospheric poisons, climate change, ocean current redirections, desertification I don’t need to tell myself more. Demeter, goddess of fertility, together with the rest of the eleven Gods must be furious at us. I watch out of the corner of my eye for them for here I am, on this beautifully crafted boat, one that is gulping up long-stored hydrocarbons as it carries me in a semi-reverie past Skiathos, then close by the southern edges of Skopelos. At a bay where once we swam naked and made sand salads with an exceptional three year old, now I see there is a large cluster of tourist bungalows, units for passive summertime consumption. They march up the hill ignoring the ruins of a 6th century BCE defensive wall; a wall that I know is raised from gigantic fitted stones. Years ago I climbed up beside it in wonder, as ten thousand cicadas ground away at my ears. What can the myths tell us about what Demeter did/does about ignorance, greed, and destruction? What penalty is paid?
“Listen to What Happens……” Near to this place, only removed in time, Erechcithonas, king of the Pelasgi in Thesally is so rich and powerful that he wants to add a great banqueting hall to his palace in which to entertain and impress his friends. His carpenters tell him that there are no long timbers available in his kingdom to construct such huge roof. “Only in the ‘Ieron Alson’, the forest sacred to the Goddess Demeter might such trees be found.” they tell him. One day he enters into that grove leading twenty slaves each carrying a sharpened axe, for he is bent on harvesting all the tall poplar logs his new project will demand. But the Goddess Dimitra herself appears, and transformed into an old lady stands in his way to remind the king that the forest is a sacred precinct where nothing should be touched by humans. Angry and impatient he sweeps her aside and threatens to kill her if she is not quiet. Enraged, the goddess draws herself up into her majestic form. With her feet deep into the earth, her head blocking out the sky, she screams down at him, “Build your dining room, dog, for you will need to eat there! You will need to eat there forever!” The axes fall, the deed is done, the trees are felled, stripped and assembled into a magnificent roof over a glittering banquet hall where now the first feast is prepared. Demeter sees all, then sends down the demon of hunger to enfold itself around and within the body of Erechcithonas. Enthroned, the king sits with his retinue and begins to eat. Then he calls for his twenty cooks and twelve wine slaves to bring him more. This they do. But he calls them again, for his appetite appears insatiable. Soon, all the animals he owns are slaughtered, prepared and eaten; the mules, even the cats. His fields are stripped of their harvest, even those that stand unripe. His father Triopas, son of Posidon, makes excuses at court for the king, claiming an unexpected but necessary absence. It is not many days before the starving man must sell his own daughter to raise funds to buy food, yet he remains famished at the tables laden with such plenty. Finally there is nothing left to bring towards him to eat. Nothing. Then he begins to pull away at the wasted and feverish flesh of his own body, consuming himself,… handful by handful.
From the deck I look out at the unchecked ‘development’ and wonder what role the forbidden now plays in our lives, for I am getting the feeling that maybe we should not be making this trip, that this Youra should remain prohibited to us. Why is it we that have a special permit to land there? Is being an elite ever defensible? Are we too going there to “consume” the place? Maybe this odyssey is an illicit affair. Since that daring theft by Prometheus, humans have been doing pretty much what they want, and when they want to do it. Now with help of technology’s short-term efficiency we’ve been drawing stored wealth from the ground so fast that any sense of limit is blurred in the fog of progress. Progress is freedom, right? Progress is unbounded, right? Yet why do we need to see limits as chains? Our daily survival, social discourse, our customs ¬–all are shaped by what we’ve chosen to refuse. Each of us is differentiated by the boundaries that are either defined for us or, if we are lucky, by those we have defined for ourselves. Identity is etched not by what we do, but what we do not do. Our responsibility here together is to not accept externally placed limits, be they religious, social, or cultural, but to recognize internal ones as we move through the thicket of seductive alternatives towards a ‘self’ that makes some sense among those we love. Abstinence, the choice of what to say ‘no’ to, seems central. Abstinence requires some experience with consequence. It requires courage. And with it comes an opening into mystery, and an awakening of the poetic imagination. Maybe we should not land on this island, but remain wiser by abstaining from setting foot on it? The bowsprit noses out into a brisk wind that is slowly building up along the eastern side of Alonisos. I see roads cutting down across the natural slopes to reach new development, and more olive trees have been cleared for white villas – little abstinence is visible there.
Youra and the small pellagos around it have been declared part of Greece’s only marine park, and home it is to the last of the remaining seals to be found in the Eastern Mediterranean. I ask about these sea animals and hear of the programs that have so far been not very effective in protecting them and in enhancing their fertility. I ask how many are left. Only sixty-five! With increasing water pollution from chemicals, the sea thronged with pleasure boaters and the almost depleted fish stocks, the total demise of these mammals is undoubtedly imminent. What monument will be raised to their absence? What raised to our neglect of them? But wait, a few people are trying, and that’s good news isn’t it? There is a park after all. Also, they say the cave of the fabled Cyclops is on this island. “Oh, oh”. I think.
“Listen to What Happened…… ” They say that the cave high up on the western face of the island of Youra, a cave now defiled, was once the lair of the Cyclops Polyphemeus. Here Odysseus and his crew are said to have found themselves prisoners, being devoured two by two by the monster. Crafty Odysseus offers wine to the monster and blinds him when he falls into the swoon of sleep. This gives Odysseus the opportunity to instruct his shipmates that by covering themselves with the skins of the devoured sheep that lay around the floor of the cavern they could escape from the cave and from the roaring of the blinded beast. Of course, as Polyphemeus was one of Poseidon’s sons, the rage of that god against Odysseus was multiplied which further prolonged the wandering of that old warrior. But ‘they’ are wrong, for the cave of Polyphemeus is very far from Youra. It’s near Sicily. The cave on Youra was the home of another older Cyclops, -one of three Cyclopes, all children, like the Goddess Demeter, of parents Kronos and Gaea, These Cyclopes gave to Hades his helmet of invisibility, and became the forgers of Zeus’s dreaded thunderbolts. Either it was Arges, Steropes, or Broontes that lived in that Youra cave. One of them was killed, and killed not by Odysseus but by the God Apollo in his anger over the death of his son Asclepius by the hand of Zeus. Asclepius had been annoying Hades with the knowledge he’d been given of how to use the blood of Medea in bringing the dead back to life. So, acting in defense of the order the world that is life and death, Zeus kills him with a thunderbolt forged by the Cyclopes. Apollo is seized with a violent rage, and, taking up his arrows kills the Cyclops. But it is not told which one.
Two of thunderbolt-making Cyclopes must still be among us!
As we begin to approach the southern cliffs of Youra the captain reduces the efforts of engines and we draw near the rising cliffs with caution. They are steep, perhaps reaching 200 meters before leveling off out of sight far above us. We see a small and enticing path zigzagging its way back and forth up a slope and disappearing over the crest. It touches the water without a wharf or landing. Here the water is very deep for the charts show underwater contour lines that are drawn close together. It is forbidding this ancient castle-like cliff of sharp limestone dusted with low thorny green bushes and milk-holding cacti that are now turning red in the mid-May heat. The engines are slipped into neutral, and as we glide forward ever so slowly the cliffs rise up high enough to shut out the wind. The captain is worried, how to land us? “Won’t we change our mind?” he hints. I’m on his side. “Think what we can imagine if we don’t land!” I say. But we’ve come too far, and abstinence doesn’t seem to be on the program. I don’t say anything about the anger of the Cyclopes Turning the boat, the captain orders one of the heavy anchors to be let go, and more than two hundred meters of chain are rattled out over the cleat until he is confident it’s reached bottom Then the stern lines are thrown and made fast, and one by one our team walks the swaying plank and is helped ashore by two of the crew members. What seductions and delusions await us, for Demeter can’t be happy? Can we keep our minds clear, need we to take blindfolds with us? I know there are no sacred cows on this island, but perhaps the goats allowed to roam free here belong to the Sun, replacements for the cows that were slaughtered by Odysseus’s starving crew? We are drawn quickly up the path, all forty of us. Some, mostly women, reach down to pick oregano that is just days away from flowering, and clutch at the pink wild flowers that smile at us from between the rocks. Under that oven of a sun we soon reach the level area and walk easily towards the cluster of walls and buildings that are the residence of the guardian of the island. His dwelling is built into an old monastery and we see that the small church is still intact. The complex is surrounded by a gated wire fence that keeps the goats from eating the riot of wildflowers and green within. It is clear that these voracious mammals are predators that have destroyed the bio-diversity of this landscape. Inside the compound beside the small church there’s an attached sleeping room, a storeroom, several outbuildings including an oven, and a number of other smaller structures sinking in a state of advance decay. The guardian and his wife have made this place beautiful with simple yet elegant moves. Gathering water off roof in the winter rain there is a cistern large enough to serve both of them and their mule, and a flashing team of photo-voltaic cells provides him enough power to pick up the news on a small TV. He’s made small constructions, alterations, and attachments to the courtyard that include a pergola to support the grape vine that is now throwing deep and welcome shadow onto his courtyard. It is a finely detailed place, a testament to immediacy, intelligence, and limited means. We ask him about the monastery, when it was inhabited, what happened to it. He leads a few of us into the small church.
“Listened To What Happened……….” It is said, that years ago, there were forty resident monks living at this monastery located on Youra. On the holy day that celebrates .. Saint(?)… all of them but one had crowded into the small domed church under the gaze of the Pantocrator to begin the ancient chant for the evening’s ‘unsleeping’ liturgy. Suddenly out of the clear evening sky and without any warning a ferocious thunderbolt struck the building. The electrical energy passing at that moment through the dome was sufficient to incinerate the whole congregation. The one monk that lived to tell the tale had, at the precise moment of the strike, stepped outside to tend an animal, or so the story goes. We are shown the one long fissure transversing the dome as evidence of the power of a force from above. We might speculate on why those thirty-nine monks deserved such a hot collective fate. No doubt deep in a dust-covered volume that lies under glass at one of the ancient monasteries on Mt. Athos we might find some historic speculations on that matter. It is not unreasonable to suppose that this event, cataclysmic and symbolic as it was, did lead to the rather prompt abandonment of the monastery as a sacred precinct of Greek Orthodoxy. My own inclination is to believe that the shocking deed was the work of one or both of the surviving Cyclopes, done with the bidding of Zeus who still remains very angry at the replacement of the Doodecatheo by the poor black monotheism of Christianity. Youra is a dangerous place. We’ve been warned.
Over the next hour we wander around in the quiet heat of this spectacular place, then out to a cliff edge from where we can see across to the cave of the Cyclops. Tailings from a recent archaeological investigations tumble from the cave and down the hill, and a small tree crouches windblown at its mouth. The goats sometimes come to visit there. Later we gather in the shade of the courtyard and begin a discussion. Someone tells of the surprise at finding such a beautiful place, not at all like what her research had led her to believe. Another says that here is the essence of Greek unspoiled nature. Motivated perhaps by genetic genius to make vernacular architecture, several stalwart youths make a tentative offer to the guardian to return soon with clay roof tiles and replace the asbestos sheets, thereby to improve the quality of the water collecting ability, and to make the place more ‘authentic’. I’m impressed, but I fear we are lost. Charmed we are, like so many before us with the spring beauty of Greece ¬¬–its light, its extravagance –the ‘terrifying phenomenon’, as Zisis Kotionis once had little trouble in convincing me. It was so easy to see ourselves here in this garden of Eden, leaving the complexities of our lives all hung out to dry elsewhere. Here, paradise; a new start. As most of us were dedicated to the making and study of architecture, our impulses were to improve, repair, extend. Wise Phillipos had written together with wise Aristide that we should not betray ‘the suspension of our ideas’, not choose an identity for this island through design. Perhaps they knew the danger that lay in the power of its seduction? Perhaps they were proposing impotence? Perhaps they wanted if see if abstinence might play a role? It was so easy to think how the clarity of the logical mind could transform this place to into “a Center for Ecological Study and Sustainable Recreation.
“Listen to What Could Happen”……. With extensive governmental support now assured, the various groups hoping to protect Youra island as a Research Park have been able to implement their ideas. Although the Mediterranean seals soon died out, a series of refuges for other endangered species has been created on the island, together with a small clinic for research, with enclosed areas where enhanced feeding patterns can be tested. Anchored in the sea off the south end of the island the four permanent buoys have easily been accommodating the pronounced growth of ecological tourism, with cruises, canoes, and sailboats arriving daily. A funicular made of high technology carborundum steel sheathed in inert plastic has been installed to bring people up to the meadow, where experiments with hydroponic agriculture that support the small population can be visited. Recently, a number of hostels and small hotels have been built at sheltered locations on the island. All these constructions make minimal impact on the landscape as their material is biodegradable, and their waste, intricately recycled, is then removed from the island. Power for the small but growing community of dedicated people is generated by wind turbines and photo voltaics. The identity and image of the island is growing as its environmentally aggressive policies are being widely recognized.”
This isn’t a passive identity, but instead an active and aggressive one. The ‘battle’ is joined. But is the mindset not the same as with Promethean progress? Where is abstinence, where reflection, where some humility in the face of Demeter’s demands. Is active resistance the only alternative we have to passive ignorance? I walk away from the group for a moment, find a shaded wall and sink to the warm ground to be surrounded by a chorus of poppies. A cat comes over to join me for a moment, stretches her neck up for a brief neck rub, then saunters off. Seduced by beauty, I can’t help thinking that at any moment ‘an ethereal form, vague and undefined, might swiftly pass me by.” And right now! Then there is the chance that the time might be ripe for Zeus to let loose another of his big ones, a lightening bolt right onto the heads of these beautiful young people who so unknowingly are involved in this illicit affair. What could be done here on Youra to make amends? To be clear but humble, to accept uncertainty yet look for allies?
Is there not a time and place to allow for lateral thinking, for dreaming, for welcoming back the stories that can help us shape our lives in a more ethical way? Is it time for the legacy of Prometheus to give way to that of his brother? Maybe Epimetheus was not ‘blundering and slow-witted’, but instead, as his name suggests, was the one who looked back and learned from the result of action, the one who refrained from folly that angered the Gods. His death, unlike that of his brother, is nowhere reported in any bloody and blazing glory. Maybe he lived in harmony with himself to a thoughtful old age? How would one approach fostering a place for reflection? The mental place for reflection would need to be free to the imagination: without a single set of dogma. In that sense we need only allow the wealth of stories that have been part of this country’s history to have free domain. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are equal in what they can teach us, for it’s only the numbers of the dates that are different. Most reflective practices towards wisdom, as well as many religions promote a meditative state where time is set free. But we need to give this mental space a recognizable identity. Words about a feel-good guru-idealism are not enough –they need to be placed. What, in this country, is revered and held sacred by the majority of the people? Well, two things: mothers, and the Orthodox Church. The first is of no use in answering our question, for Greeks will never be able to get beyond their private mothers towards a collective one. As to the second, few will disagree that the recent record of the Church in caring for the soul has been far from exemplary. As the poppies wave at each other, I wonder at first if this island of Youra might be protected precisely because it is under the jurisdiction of the Church. If neglect were to continue to be the ‘modus opperendi’ for Church property, then this might prove to be an effective strategy. But on my last visits to Mt Athos, seeing the new roads, the increased religious tourism, as well as timber harvesting in full development l am led to suspect that Orthodox neglect might well be obsolete.
You don’t have to be Constantine Cavafy to feel the spirit of the past living in the present over this land. For centuries now the Greeks have taken in the story of their Hellenic heritage, there is no question about it. This presence, this gift to the western world is beyond political discussion or temporal favoritism. The country is now emerging from the monoculture of the last seventy years, back into the light of cultural diversity, its ancient destiny. Surely it’s now time to allow for the ancient imagination to come to out into the light as well, to help us weave metaphors around the painful choices we must make together –to help us understand the humility of doubt, the courage of inaction, the wisdom of restraint, and the beauty of abstention. Maybe right here on the island of Youra is where we should make a first step to call on those old allies of the ancient Greeks and to abstain collectively from the destruction of the environment that our illogical and poetically thin culture seem so addicted to. So, as the poppies wink, I scribble down some laws for Youra: Nine Necessary Steps To Claim the Island of Youra as a Precinct Sacred to the Goddess Demeter.
1. Remove the Island of Youra and the three small islands of Prasso from the jurisdiction and control of Mt. Athos, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the National State of Greece.
2. Create an International Trust in the European Parliament, or join the World Endangered Sites to give the Islands permanent identity as a sacred site dedicated to the Dodekatheo. This precinct will continue to be surrounded by, and operate within the rules of the surrounding Marine Park.
3. Remove all goats from Youra Island and relocate them to other islands within the marine Park.
4. Abandon all human residence on Youra; no guards, no visitors, just walk away. Forever.
5. Remove any berthing assistance and facilities for watercraft.
6. Forbid human access to the island of Youra through imposing the risk of severe penalty, perhaps even including ostracism.
7. Initiate sophisticated GPS global monitoring of the Islands.
8. On the most western island of Prasso, promote an enclosure to the honor of Demeter by allowing visitors to bring to the island by carrying in their hands, one stone no heavier than five kilograms, and to place it in a wall.
9. Allow no temple honoring Dimitra to be built on Prasso before the year 2115.
I see that I’m the last person left in the enclosure, for with the day ending the others have already begun walking the switchback descent. Catching up, I look down on the boat as it sways suspended above the deep blue, yet ablaze with the last of the slanting sunlight. I wonder if Demeter would be pleased to be recognized and honored on this island? Is it much too late for Zeus, or are those two remaining Cyclopes still working away for him, making ready one last lightening bolt…?
“Now, Listen to What Happened…………!”
***
Ron Walkey, Architect, Professor, UBC School of Architecture, Vancouver, Canada
This essay is dedicated to the spirit of Bud Wood. Sources include Robert Callasso’s The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, ‘The Ionians’ from C. Cavafy’s collected work, Hamlyn’s World Mythology and the Athenon Edition of Greek Mythology. I’ve received kind and patient help with translation from Evi Staikou, and support and encouragement from my friend and colleague John Gaitanakis.
An EVENT is normally proposed to be a phenomenon open to participatory strategies and non controlled evolution. The idea of a built event is introduced to undermine this fake openness that follows the history of post situationist art. The built event marks a strategy of understanding a programmed common move to a particular place.
Φίλιππος Ωραιόπουλος Αναπλ.Καθηγητής Τμήματος Αρχιτεκτόνων Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλίας Προς την Naturaltd Υπόψη του κυρίου Ευσταθίου
Κύριε Ευσταθίου
Ύστερα από την τηλεφωνική μας επικοινωνία, θα ήθελα , ως υπεύθυνος της Διημερίδας που αποφάσισε η Γενική Συνέλευση του Τμήματος Αρχιτεκτόνων , να αναθέσω στο Γραφείο σας την ναύλωση του M/S ODYSSEY με το ποσό των 2500Ε συμπεριλαμβανομένου και του ΦΠΑ, όπως και την κάλυψη γεύματος (περιμένω μια αναλυτική απάντηση του περιεχομένου) του με το ποσό των 35Ε για κάθε άτομο συμπεριλαμβανομένου και του ΦΠΑ. Τα παραστατικά στοιχεία του τιμολογίου για την ναύλωση του Μ/S είναι:Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας, Τμήμα Αρχιτεκτόνων, Πεδίον του Αρεως, ΑΦΜ 090055634, Α ΔΟΥ Βόλου. Τα παραστατικά στοιχεία για το τιμολόγιο του Γεύματος είναι:Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλίας, Επιτροπή Ερευνών, Αργοναυτών και Φιλελλήνων, ΑΦΜ 090071277, Α ΔΟΥ Βόλου. Για οποιαδήποτε διευκρίνιση είμαι στη διάθεσή σας.
Quando ho ricevuto l’invito a partecipare con qualche riflessione al progetto “Island: build event”, ho pensato in un primo momento ad una garbata provocazione. Nel senso che, avendo avuto modo di conoscere a Venezia, le persone - artisti, curatori e docenti dell’università di Volos - che avevano organizzato il padiglione della Grecia in occasione dell’ultima Biennale di Architettura, sapevo del loro interesse verso le problematiche inerenti il rapporto fra i luoghi e l’interazione con le persone che li abitano. Già a Venezia avevamo avuto occasione di confrontarci sui reciproci progetti che venivamo facendo, motivo per cui li avevo invitati a fare un giro in barca per le isole minori della laguna di Venezia, interessate ad un progetto che venivo allora sviluppando con artisti e architetti del gruppo romano “Osservatorio Nomade” i quali già avevano lavorato in Grecia. Le isole veneziane minori avevano svolto in passato funzioni che molto difficilmente potevano ancora essere mantenute al giorno d’oggi. Rappresentavano dunque una sfida per chi si occupa di costruire relazioni non invasive fra luoghi, persone e funzioni. E allo stesso tempo si doveva considerare che, almeno per quel che riguarda la situazione veneziana, vi sono ora dei vincoli legati alla tutela di un ambiente naturale delicatissimo, nonché alla conservazione delle testimonianze del passato, ancora ben percepibili nelle isole. Al tempo della Serenissima la figura geografica stessa, l’isola, aveva ‘naturalmente’ trovato una propria vocazione in particolari funzioni, separate dalla società civile. Intendo: a) quella conventuale, ancor oggi attiva a San Francesco del Deserto, l’ “Isola del Deserto”, il cui motto all’ingresso del convento è “Beata solitudo, sola beatitudo”; b) quella militare, legata alla sorveglianza degli accessi alla laguna dal mare (Forte S.Andrea); c) quella sanitaria, attraverso i lazzaretti che dovevano tutelare la città dalle devastanti epidemie della peste. Le isole dunque nella loro condizione geografica riflettevano una funzionalità della separazione, trovando così il loro senso nel complesso insieme di funzioni di una antica città marittima. Ma ora non è più tempo di nemici che si presentino dal mare (l’esercito italiano ha abbandonato in modo definitivo le isole negli anni ’70), né di epidemie da controllare in luoghi isolati, e solo raramente di vocazioni conventuali. Dunque proprio al giorno d’oggi, paradossalmente, la condizione sospesa delle isole veneziane, fra funzioni esaurite, ed eventuali funzioni da reinventare, sottolinea bene la problematicità del luogo ‘deserto’ in una società densa come la nostra. Dunque tornando all’invito per partecipare ad un workshop sull’isola di Youra, nelle Sporadi settentrionali, ho pensato che proprio l’idea di isola, prima ancora della sua specifica collocazione geografica (L’Adriatico o l’Egeo), rappresentasse un problema per la cultura contemporanea, ed in particolare per coloro che si preoccupavano di immaginarne connessioni non invasive (cioè non il loro riutilizzo come porti velici, eliporti, alberghi ect) con la società odierna. Se dovessi riassumere le problematiche che emergono, potrei sintetizzarle in due concetti: quello di ‘isola’, e quello di ‘connessione’; concetti da cui sono scaturite alcune osservazioni che qui propongo. Osservazioni ‘isolate’, quasi che - come in passato la natura geografica delle isole veneziane si rifletteva nella loro dimensione funzionale -, l’immagine delle isole si riflettesse in un testo fatto di riflessioni brevi, un po’ frammentarie e dal tono anch’esso ‘discontinuo’ a seconda se l’umore con cui sbarcavo sull’ ‘isola’ era più filosofico, o letterario, o in qualche modo sociologico. Non avevo intenzione di presentare un testo compiuto (un testo ‘continentale’), e forse nemmeno avevo una qualche ‘intenzione’, dato che il concetto e l’immagine di isola, in realtà hanno sollecitato una vastissima produzione in ogni tempo, e che è perciò assai presuntuoso pretendere di dire qualcosa ancora, che non sia, di necessità, ripercorrere un ‘luogo comune’. (Ma se fosse proprio questa la traccia, la connessione possibile, cioè l’isola come ‘luogo comune’?)
II
L’attività meditativa - una sorta di basso continuo, che non cessa, un delicato e incessante macinio, un’acufenia che non risiede nell’orecchio, ma che è simile a quel mormorio che si avverte quando si appoggia l’orecchio alla cavità di una conchiglia – spinta dall’interazione di un fattore esterno, da un’occasione offertasi, inizia a girare intorno. Il periplo del pensare intorno ad un pensiero determinato, definisce un orlo sul quale si infrange l’attività incessante del pensare. Pensare ‘intorno a’ sottrae il pensare alla sua condizione fluida. Pensare e il pensiero formulato ‘intorno a’, non sono la stessa cosa. Pensare è, per così dire, il mare; intorno ad un pensiero si infrange la sua fluidità ed si evidenzia una forma: l’’isola’ del pensiero, circondata dall’azione incessante del pensare. Perché pensare, secondo Heidegger è pensare ‘la cosa’. La cosa da pensare è ciò intorno a cui non solo il pensare si concretizza, e la sua marina fluidità si evidenzia sulla solidità di una sponda, ma è anche ciò intorno cui si riuniscono gli umani per deliberare. La cosa da pensare diventa, grazie ad una vertigine etimologica (denken, Ding), il luogo pubblico (thing, in alto tedesco) del raccogliersi degli uomini. Isolandosi, il pensiero si fa luogo di raccolta, pensiero della ‘cosa’ intorno a cui discutere, deliberare, decidere: res publica, di contro a quella cosa di nessuno, inapproppriabile che è la condizione marina del pensare. La fluidità indistinta e marina del pensare è cosa di nessuno, res nullius. (Che diritti valgono per il mare? Solo sull’ ‘isola’ del pensiero possono valere dei diritti, solo intorno alla cosa pensata si può deliberare). Qualcosa però della originaria fluidità marina del pensare, si mantiene anche per il pensiero ‘circoscritto’, ‘insulare’. Non vi è un pensiero, così come non vi è una sola ‘isola’; qualcosa della condizione plurale del pensare rimane anche nelle determinate singolarità dei pensieri. La pluralità indistinta (e priva di diritti proprietari del pensare), si riversa nella condizione plurale dei pensieri, nella loro distinzione ( le ‘isole’ nel mare del pensare), non meno che nelle singole opinioni, nei diversi e specifici punti di vista intorno alle cose da pensare. Pensare ‘intorno a’, addensa un pensiero che si moltiplica, che si pluralizza per coloro che sono presenti. Ogni pensiero che addensa la fluidità del pensare, nel suo costituirsi, evidenziarsi, ‘isolarsi’, è anche condizione affinché una con-partecipazione, Mit-teilung, sia possibile. Mit-teilung, res publica. La condizione ‘isolata’ del pensiero è il luogo della con-partecipazione e dunque riapertura ad una condizione plurale. Ma anche così restituito ad una con-partecipazione, il pensiero non è puramente e semplicemente il pensare. La differenza non è data dalla ‘pluralità’, ma dalla distinzione. Un pensiero ‘isolato’ è un pensiero distinto, il pensare senza sponde è invece un pensare ‘indistinto’, marino, vastissimo. La pluralità del pensare è priva di determinazioni, fluida, senza sponde. E’ una pluralità priva di soggetti; non si tratta della pluralità del due o dei molti, ma della pluralità dell’innumere, dell’incommensurabile. Diversa è la condizione plurale del pensiero ‘isolato’, intorno alla cui sponda rumoreggia la vastità marina. Il pensiero ‘isolato’, essendo pensiero della ‘cosa’ intorno cui ci si raccoglie e delibera, è pubblico. Nel senso che nel pensiero isolato, nella sua distinzione dal mare dell’attività incessante del pensare, è già iscritta l’altrui con-partecipazione. Solo sull’isola valgono i diritti, la proprietà, il deliberare, l’opinare: la condizione ‘plurale’ della res publica (il due e i molti). Solo l’ ‘isola’ del pensiero permette la comunità degli umani. Ma se intorno non vi si raccoglie umanità, l’ ‘isola’ del pensiero rappresenta la più aspra delle solitudini. Se non vi è nessuno intorno alla ‘cosa’ del pensiero, anche la res publica - che non è mai comunque res nullius, mare del pensare privo di distinzioni e inappropriabile – è solo un luogo deserto. Di isola in isola, di pensiero in pensiero: il mare del pensare è striato di rotte verso un’isola ancora, traguardo di Odisseo. Il suo tragitto, è tragitto verso l’isola della ‘cosa’ comune, isola del pensiero di un luogo che ci appartenga, dove valgano il diritto, la proprietà, il deliberare, l’opinare. Le isole che precedono quella ultima isola, lungo il tragitto nell’incommensurabilità del pensare marino, sono isole che non fondano comunità: isole/pensiero/solitudine: Calipso che dalla riva guarda verso il vastissimo mare.
III Nello scambio epistolare fra Thomas Mann e Karoly Kereny , quest’ultimo nella lettera datata 1 agosto 1946 parla di “un’arcipelagica armonia di voci insulari”, e ne parla come di una potenzialità umanistica non realizzata e alla cui mancata realizzazione si devono le “divoranti solitudini di altri grandi tedeschi: Hoelderlin e Nietzsche”. E’ un ampio paesaggio quello che si apre nelle osservazioni del grande studioso ungherese della mitologia. Ma forse merita restare ancora per un momento sull’orlo di questo paesaggio, prestare attenzione alla prima riga di questa lettera, all’anno 1946, e al luogo da cui è scritta: Tegna. Kereny nella lettera del 22 febbraio dello stesso anno comunica a Mann, di essersi spostato a Tegna: “situata all’imbocco delle Centovalli nei pressi di Locarno”. Kereny è in Svizzera già da un paio di anni, Tegna, è un piccolissimo villaggio ticinese, “intorno allo studio un popolo minuto di sei persone”. Altre due figlie sono in Ungheria, e di una di esse, Grazia, ha appena ricevuto la notizia che era salva, sopravissuta al lager, e che aveva ormai raggiunto Budapest: “Ecco, è incredibile, un vero miracolo, ma Grazia è già a casa” annuncia Kereny a Mann “…in una Budapest, gravemente colpita dai disagi dell’inverno e quasi della fame”. Nella medesima lettera del 1946 Kereny ricorda che la data di stesura (8 settembre 1944) della sua prefazione alla prima parte del loro scambio epistolare, - pubblicata nel 1945 in occasione del 70.emo compleanno dello scrittore con il titolo “Romanedichtung und Mythologie”-, recava “…la data del 19° compleanno di Grazia”. A quei tempi Grazia era prigioniera nel campo di concentramento di Auschwitz”. La figlia, continua Kereny, esplicitando la sua gioia per un fatto che ha dell’incredibile, “malata, ma con proprie energie” era arrivata a Budapest, sola, essendosi congedata dalle sue compagne ebree che furono soccorse “dalla comunità ebraica di Presburgo”, proseguendo poi per un tratto ancora con “sei zingari”. Gli zingari: “Chi non si sente spezzare il cuore al pensiero che gli zingari dovevano essere e in gran parte lo furono sterminati, mentre tante volte si parla della ‘musicalità’ dei tedeschi?” La solitudine della figlia in quel frangente del ritorno a casa, ricorda all’umanista la sua stessa solitudine. “Esiste infatti una comunità di ebrei e tedeschi, di svizzeri e messicani. C’è invece di umanisti o zingari?” Vi è dunque una condizione se possibile ancor più dura di quella degli ebrei: “io vi scorgo qualcosa di tragicamente simbolico: la sorte di coloro che nemmeno sono ebrei”.
Non avere alcuna appartenenza, non essere nemmeno ebrei per quanto questa comunità sia stata vessata oltre ogni immaginabile; essere fuori dal proprio paese, vivendo il cosmopolitismo di uno studioso che sente di non corrispondere pienamente ad un suo compito verso la propria patria, l’Ungheria. Per questo il pensiero di Kereny riguarda la comunità di coloro che corrispondono ad un altro ordine di appartenenza. E’ un pensiero motivato da quanto era appena successo in Europa: l’inspiegabilità di quel che si è generato dal ‘musicale’ popolo tedesco è il filo teso, il tragitto fra la incommensurabilità del pensare umano, che costituisce l’importante testimonianza dell’ epistolario. Le “divoranti solitudini di grandi tedeschi” diventano così i segni premonitori che preparano alla catastrofe. Kereny, vede nell’atteggiamento di Goethe, nella sua indifferenza e incomprensione verso la res publica doctorum virorum, quell’atteggiamento “fra il demonico e l’urbano” che contraddistingue “un umanesimo di corte”, quale ne è un esempio “la felice posizione di Goethe a Weimar”. La solitudine, l’isolamento dell’umanista, la sensazione che non si è nemmeno ebrei, sono dovuti ad una impossibile relazione, se non al prezzo del sacrificium intellectus, con il potere. L’intellettuale che prenda parte “per umanità” a favore “dei perseguitati e degli oppressi” rimane solo, e l’osservazione è acutissima, “quando i disgraziati di prima vorrebbero mutare la loro salvezza in potere”. Dunque la solidarietà per la solidarietà, l’umanesimo in sé come atteggiamento dello studioso che palesa il suo attaccamento agli uomini come condizione stessa dell’essere umanisti, si scontrano con il mutare di segno degli sventurati, i quali, scampata la sventura, riversano la loro acquisita salvezza “in potere”. Dunque l’isolamento dell’umanista (provocato da tutti coloro che governano, senza vi sia distinzione fra “capitalisti e comunisti”) è dovuto, secondo Kereny ad un’impossibile relazione con il potere. Quando questa relazione si rende invece possibile, ed è il caso della felice posizione di Goethe a Weimar, l’intellettuale non può provare, di fatto, alcuna “umanistica solidarietà”. Questa mancanza di solidarietà contraddistingue l’atteggiamento intellettuale che è, allo stesso tempo, demonico e urbano (intendendo l’insieme di buone maniere, di modi adeguati allo stare in società, l’ ‘apparenza’, la facciata di umanismo). Questa mancanza di solidarietà, esemplificata secondo Kereny dalla “riservatezza di Goethe”, è ciò che sarà fatale “per lo spirito germanico, anzi per tutta l’umanità”.
Il punto toccato da Kereny, certo non estraneo a molti intellettuali europei, è la relazione fra la repubblica degli umanisti e il potere. Non questo o quel potere, ma il potere in quanto tale, quasi vi fosse una differenza ontologica fra umanesimo, solidarietà (condizione questa che contraddistingue l’ umanista), e il potere in qualsivoglia sua forma. La catastrofe tedesca, è catastrofe che tocca il ruolo dell’intellettuale, cioè se questi possa ancora dirsi ‘umanista’. Le divoranti solitudini di grandi spiriti (Nietzsche, Hoelderlin) sono le solitudini di chi non ha trovato le condizioni (alle spalle vi è, secondo Kereny, l’ambiguità di Goethe) per una diversa soluzione dell’”influsso” che l’intellettuale può avere. Un influsso che, evidentemente, è cosa diversa dall’ impotenza: nemmeno per Kereny può essere l’impotenza la risposta dell’intellettuale al suo non aver a che fare con un soggetto “detentore del potere”. Fra il potere e l’impotenza si apre per il dotto, per l’umanista che è tale in quanto umanamente solidale, una utopistica soluzione, che non nega la singolarità del pensiero individuale, vedendone e misurandone invece la grandezza intorno al pensiero della ‘cosa’ in comune: la condizione partecipativa alla res publica. La quale non assume mai le caratteristiche esclusive del potere amministrato, ma quelle della res publica doctorum virorum: l’arcipelagica armonia di voci insulari, che costituisce la nuova condizione di appartenenza per coloro che “…non sono nemmeno ebrei”. Nel 1959 Kereny porta con sé l’epistolario, il cui insieme si era stabilito “in modo irrevocabile fin dal 1955”, anno della scomparsa dello scrittore, ad Andros. Nell’isola greca avrebbe, al di là di ogni aspettativa, trovato conferma delle sue elaborazioni sulla figura di Ermes. Nell’isola vi venne trovata nel diciannovesimo secolo un’importante scultura del dio, e nell’isola Kereny osservava come ancora sopravvissero culti “ermetici”. Quel che qui preme osservare è come nelle “Considerazioni preliminari” alla pubblicazione della seconda parte dell’epistolario, Kereny ricordi con profonda partecipazione cosa per lui abbia rappresentato, dopo la scomparsa dello scrittore il trovare “rifugio e salvezza nel copiare le lettere…anche per la possibilità di continuare il colloquio”. Colloquio che rappresentava “…per me un’isola”. Dunque fra le voci di Kereny e Mann da luoghi distanti, (la Svizzera: Tegna, Ascona, l’esilio americano dello scrittore in California), l’isola è immagine del colloquio. Forse non è privo di significato - per una geografia europea della res publica doctorum virorum-, che Kereny abbia sentito il bisogno di portare con sé l’epistolario ad Andros. L’immagine letteraria dell’isola - rappresentazione del colloquio ‘arcipelagico’ fra intellettuali- ora è davvero un’isola concreta, “una vera isola remota” che se per un verso è il luogo specifico di una verifica delle sue ipotesi di studioso dei culti ermetici, per altro verso, Andros è anche, “un punto di partenza verso una meditazione evocatrice di quel rapporto che le lettere documentano”. Un punto di partenza, un’evocazione del colloquio fra le voci insulari: “sotto un cielo greco”.
IV Il punto di partenza, molto più prosaicamente, per me è stato il breve viaggio in taxi da casa, all’aeroporto “Marco Polo”. Il taxista, che vedevo per la prima volta, risiede nella cittadina in provincia di Venezia dove anch’io abito da qualche anno. Sa molte cose, particolari degli edifici storici, quali erano le loro funzioni, ora venute meno, chi li occupava. Lo ascolto, è mattina presto, la giornata di inizio estate è limpida. Lo ascolto meravigliandomi un pò delle cose che sa, che io non so, perché non sono, e non mi sento, del luogo. Essere del luogo, così come chiaramente risulta dal modo di raccontare del taxista, non implica tanto una durata temporale (qualche anno, dieci, venti …) quanto un condizione non più solo biografica, ma d’esistenza: l’ essere nati lì e avervi, da sempre, risieduto. La nascita e la continuità: questo caratterizza l’essere effettivamente uno degli abitanti della cittadina in cui anch’io ora vivo. Appartenenza che si fa ancora più concreta se anche i propri genitori e prima i nonni, e ancor prima i bisnonni, e poi i nostri stessi figli sono nati e cresciuti in quel luogo. La continuità si distende nell’arco di più generazioni. Ricordo di aver sfogliato a casa di una conoscente che abitava vicino a Siegen, nella regione della Ruhr, un grosso tomo dalla copertina nera, dove erano riportate le genealogie delle famiglie tedesche. Credevo fosse un vecchio libro degli anni del nazismo per identificare chi poteva considerarsi a pieno titolo ariano. Non era così: nelle pagine dedicate al paese dove lei viveva, la genealogia includeva i suoi genitori e nell’ultima riga sotto il cognome paterno, il cognome del capofamiglia, vi era il nome di lei, nata all’inizio degli anni ’60. Non ho più avuto modo di rivedere un simile libro pur essendo stato spesso in Germania; mia moglie è tedesca, ma i suoi genitori si sono insediati in Baviera solo dopo essere fuggiti dalla allora Germania Est, tedeschi certo - mio suocero viene da un paesino fra la regione di Berlino e la Pomerania, mia suocera da Schwerin, più a nord, sul mare. Essendo fuggiti prima della costruzione del muro, avevano perduto non solo le loro case di famiglia, distribuite poi ad altri, ma anche le loro radici, il contatto con i luoghi natii. In quel paese della Baviera dove si erano insediati, fra Monaco e Augsburg, l’antica Augusta romana, erano comunque dei nuovi venuti, anche se si sono costruiti la casa, e i figli sono andati lì a scuola. Non vi è un libro che li includa. E anche la loro intonazione li tradisce, nonostante il lungo soggiorno bavarese, mia suocera parlava un tedesco privo degli arrotondamenti tipici del sud della Germania, che rendono a volte disperante per chi si è dato da fare con lo studio della lingua, riconoscervi quella precisione che la grammatica insegna. Mia suocera parlava ancora, dopo un ventennio in Oberbayern, un tedesco del Nord, dalle finali ben distinte, ben poco ‘bavarese’.
V La lingua con cui si parla dice prima di qualsivoglia discorso a quale luogo si appartiene, il taxista parlava inequivocabilmente un dialetto tipico dell’entroterra veneziano, senza le doppie consonanti, una ruvida cantilena che distingue la parlata dialettale della campagna veneta da quella della città lagunare. Si può poetare in dialetto? Domanda retorica: ovviamente sì. Ma il poetare in dialetto significa sottolineare la propria appartenenza ad un luogo riconoscibile sia dal punto di vista geografico che amministrativo? Oppure anche la lingua più localistica, una volta poetata, condivide ai giorni nostri, un destino insulare? Biagio Marin (1891-1985) è il poeta dell’isola di Grado, nato quando ancora quella sottile striscia litoranea fra il Friuli e il Veneto era terra di lingua (ufficiale) tedesca. Un dominio asburgico rimasto tale fino alla prima guerra mondiale, dal nome molto romantico: Kustenland. Sotto l’occupazione nazista, dopo la caduta del fascismo, ricomparve sulle carte geografiche quella dicitura. Che non esprimeva più alcun romanticismo, ma l’asprezza tardiva, e fortunatamente breve, di una nuova occupazione di lingua (ufficiale) tedesca. Biagio Marin conosceva il tedesco avendo frequentato il liceo austriaco a Gorizia e poi avendo compiuto i suoi studi a Vienna. Ma non servì sotto la bandiera dell’aquila a due teste, nel primo conflitto mondiale. Disertò e si fece soldato sotto la monarchia italiana. L’appartenenza al luogo non si identificava con le forme di rappresentazione e di organizzazione civile e militare di quella che era considerata un’occupazione (amministrativa) straniera e la lingua pur studiata e amata, lingua dei poeti che molto lo influenzarono (Heine, Hoelderlin) non era la sua. Ma sua non era nemmeno la lingua dell’esercito sotto cui liberamente aveva deciso di combattere, e non era nemmeno sua la lingua di un’occupazione ancora più antica, quella dogale veneziana: la sua lingua era solo quella del luogo natio, dell’isola di Grado, sull’Adriatico, non lontano da Aquileia: un dialetto veneto-friulano di qualche centinaio di parole come aveva osservato Pier Paolo Pasolini, anch’egli di origini friulane, che considerava le poesie di Marin, fra le più alte della poesia dialettale italiana del Novecento e per questo le aveva incluse in una sua importante antologia. Poche centinaia di parole, questo il lessico di Marin, distillazione di un parlato da borgo di pescatori, con un paesaggio da borgo di pescatori, fatto di lagune, mare e cielo vastissimo, quel “mare che finisce” come lo aveva definito Gabriele D’Annunzio, chiudendosi in un ampio golfo fra Venezia e Trieste, e all’interno di quell’arco marino, l’isola di Grado cantata in migliaia di poesie dal suo poeta. Biagio Marin non si era di fatto più mosso da Grado, venuto meno nel 1985, vecchissimo, quasi cieco, ma tenacemente legato a quel suo rito dello scrivere, poesie simili fra loro come gli alberi di una foresta, così che non gli era possibile farne lui una raccolta delle migliori. A cura di Claudio Magris e con una prefazione sempre di Pier Paolo Pasolini, uscì il volume dal titolo in dialetto, molto nicciano, “La vita xe fiama” (La vita è fiamma), per una grande casa editrice nazionale (Einaudi, Torino 1970). Ma anche per chi non si è mai mosso dal luogo natio, per chi ne ha incarnato la lingua nelle sue più delicate sfumature, non vi è continuità, non vi è quella appartenenza pacata, quotidiana, e senza versi, del taxista che mi conduce verso l’aeroporto. Marin, anche se era un poeta noto nel mondo delle lettere italiane, era uomo isolato, e l’isola era la sua medesima condizione, egli come un’isola, non aveva più legami di appartenenza. Per poetare in una lingua, anche la lingua più intima, quella materna dell’isola di Grado, la lingua delle generazioni precedenti e dei vicini di casa, “Bisogna tagià le radise” ed è operazione che “fa mal, mundi mal a tagiale” . Ma solo così la lingua del luogo si trasforma in una lingua ‘insulare’ fatta di cristalli e purezze: “Dal dolor me xe nati ‘sti cristali” .
VI Da qualche parte vi sono delle isole beate, le glueckselige Inseln di cui parla Zarathustra. La pagina di Nietzsche è di una dolcezza estrema, quasi dolorosa. “E’ autunno tutt’intorno, e cielo chiaro e pomeriggio” . E’ il paesaggio in cui maturano i frutti tardivi dell’estate, i fichi “buoni e dolci” che cadono dagli alberi, e la pelle rossa si screpola, lasciando intravedere la polpa matura. Come il vento del nord che annuncia l’autunno e provoca la caduta dei fichi, così analogamente agirà Zarathustra lasciando cadere, quasi come fichi maturi i suoi insegnamenti sugli amici che ascoltano. Un altro vento, di nordest, in Hoelderlin annunciava la dipartita dei naviganti, e un altro albero di fichi, “ancora me ne ricordo” (Noch denket das mir wohl…), cresceva in un cortile, dove “vanno le donne nei giorni di festa” (Im Hofe aber waechest ein Feigenbaum/Am Feiertagen gehn/Die braunen Frauen daselbst…”) . In Rilke la stagione autunnale chiude la “grande estate” che come suo estremo lascito, ordina “agli ultimi frutti di colmarsi” (Befiehl den letzten Fruechten voll zu sein”) . Anche sui campi di Rilke già arsi dall’estate soffia ora il vento. Lo stesso vento che fa cadere i fichi e gli insegnamenti del saggio nelle isole beate, che gonfia le vele ai naviganti, perché è “nel mare che inizia la ricchezza” (Hoelderlin). Icone letterarie della pienezza, della ricolma maturità, della sovrabbondanza. E del distacco; è forse in Nietzsche il passaggio concettuale più esplicito: “Guardate la pienezza attorno a noi! Bello è guardare verso mari lontani, dalla sovrabbondanza. (Ueberflusse) . Dalle isole beate si guarda verso mari lontani, verso quel mettere insieme “ricchezza della terra e guerra alata” che distingue il viaggio, verso lidi lontanissimi, dei naviganti di Hoelderlin. Questa condizione, cioè il volgere lo sguardo verso l’infinità, al di là dell’orlo finito di una terra, una volta si sarebbe detto “Dio”, e Zarathustra ha però insegnato a dire: “Uebermensch”. Quel che stupisce è questa relazione fra la sovrabbondanza (Ueberfluss) e la nuova dimensione dell’umano annunciata da Zarathustra: Uebermensch. E il loro connettersi in un’immagine delle isole. Che ci si diparta (sempre) dalle isole, ‘a causa’ della loro ricolma e perfetta condizione? Oppure al contrario, pensando a quella nostra nave, che si è staccata dalla riva di Volos, è dalla pienezza ‘continentale’ che si volge di nuovo lo sguardo verso le isole, e le isole dove non vi è nulla, se non il vento, il mare, qualche animale raro. E il nostro tendere nuovamente, dalla densità continentale verso la rarefazione ‘insulare’ è manifestazione ‘sovraumana’? In quanto figli della tecnica siamo noi che, al di là di qualsivoglia nostra ‘umanistica’ intenzione non possiamo che incarnare, direi come un destino, la condizione della ‘sovraumanità’? Ho scritto qualche nota durante la traversata da Volos all’isola di Youra.
VII Maggio 2005 “Escursione attraverso le Sporadi, la barca permette il riunirsi, e dunque primo concreto scambio di ipotesi sul da farsi, o meglio sul da pensare. Alcuni studenti della facoltà di architettura si siedono intorno. Ho parlato di ‘forzatura’ che mi pare sia iscritta nel riflettere su di un progetto che riguarda un’isola deserta. Forse non vi è alcun pensiero da esprimere, se non l’accettazione di quel che Youra è effettivamente: un’isola soggetta a misure protezionistiche, misure restrittive essendo presenti nel suo areale due specie molto rare (la foca monaca, ed esemplari di una capra, il cri-cri). Youra fa parte dunque di un parco naturale marino. Il che risolve la questione intorno a quel che essa è, cioè quale sia la sua identità amministrativa, non meno che la sua funzione nel mondo contemporaneo. Fra il nostro essere intorno a questo tavolo e l’identità amministrativa dell’isola vi è un ‘vuoto’ da riempire. Le condizioni di partenza costituiscono dei limiti, solo oltrepassando i quali possiamo, forse, riempire quel ‘vuoto’. Così si cerca, come questa nave fra le isole e la costa, un sentiero equidistante fra le condizioni date. Un’isola deserta, una funzione amministrativa contemporanea. Quel che mi pare fruttifero è l’idea di forzatura di questi limiti.
Che spazio si apre fra l’ottusità di roccia e la legislazione vigente?
L’isola non è ‘deserta’. In realtà è un microcosmo di linguaggi visivi. Come se quella complessità che De Certeau vede nel dire comune, potesse essere riscontrata anche nel fare comune, che è sempre un fare inerente al ‘prendere luogo’. (Osservo una giovane che sposta pietre; intorno a lei solo cespugli, sassi e rocce che affiorano dal terreno; riordina le pietre, le risistema. Occupa così un po’ di tempo e un po’ di spazio).
Prendere luogo determina la discontinuità rispetto all’intorno. Prendere luogo come un ‘nominare’ la propria presenza.
La rete di recinzione che circonda qualche piccolo edificio; la rete di recinzione (archetipo di tutte le cornici), la funzione ornamentale e apotropaica delle teste di capra posizionate agli ingressi. All’interno del recinto: la piccola chiesa, la casa del custode, l’orto (il giardino coltivato), l’uva, le piante di fico, qualche fiore sulle piccole aiuole, il pennone con la bandiera greca. Funzioni intersecate strettamente da aspetti simbolici. Un lavoro possibile sulle strutture primarie (funzionali/simboliche) del prendere luogo? ( E i pannelli solari che compaiono su qualche tetto?)”
Ho seguito il gruppo nella sua esplorazione sull’isola, esplorazione limitata comunque alle aree raggiungibili attraverso piccoli sentieri usati solitamente dai custodi che si alternano periodicamente, senza comunque permanere in modo stabile sull’isola. Poco prima di ritornare alla barca ancorata vicino alla sponda rocciosa, mi sono allontanato dal gruppo, per alcuni minuti. Mi sono seduto su un masso dinnanzi al mare; non sapendo, l’ho saputo più tardi, che quella altura azzurrina che scorgevo appena all’orizzonte, era Monte Athos. Ho scritto qualche nota su foglietti, scontrini di cassa, che accumulo, per ogni evenienza, nel portamonete. Riporto anche queste ultime note scarabocchiate allora.
“Separazione? Isola deserta? Solo un pacato silenzio, che poi tale non è perché sento il vento – lieve, a brevi raffiche discontinue – sento il frangersi delle onde, ma senza alcuna violenza. Si tratta piuttosto di un mormorio vastissimo. E l’odore delle piante selvatiche. Non è vero che la natura non mi dice niente. Oppure, è vero: non mi dice niente. Non so bene come descrivere questa vastissima esistenza. Il sole scalda le rocce, le piante, me stesso. Non si trattiene nulla, o almeno non come qualcosa da portare via”.
“ Una pienezza che stordisce, che ubriaca. Inseguirla con le parole significa ubriacarsi ancora di più. E perdere questa condizione dello stare…Vi sono altri stati d’esistenza oltre la parola. Sì, ‘qui e ora’. Ma è poco il dire, quel che posso dire, rispetto al vastissimo che ho dinnanzi e intorno”.
The Island_ builtEvent 1 project uses the notion of the wreckage as an analogy for a destroyed description. This island is viewed as an impossible destination. The group did finally get to the island twice but the result from the gathered material was prefigured: in a theatrical constitution of a calculated event the remains withdraw the possibility of any concrete approach to the prohibited island even after having rented 3 boats, travelled more than 7 hours and finally reached it.
diary
1 MARCH 2005 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + project commencement ISLAND _ BUILT EVENT: A text describing the project was sent via e-mail to recipients who might be interested in it. Recipients of the e-mail were included in the project. The project involved a series of approaches on Youra, a wild, deserted island which is part of the Northern Sporades islands; it is an island of shipwrecks, where access to visitors is prohibited. The island is protected by guards of the Forest Office. The sea surrounding the island is protected by the coast guard. The text describing the project was also posted on notice boards at the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly’s School of Engineering. The ‘landscape workshop’, an 8th semester course, was incorporated in the project, as was the conceptual design course: a built event workshop was organized, open to anyone who wished to participate in it with presentations and talks on projects in progress. Initial analysis of the project and presentation to students in the Department of Architecture.
The text describing the project which was posted and distributed is the following: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… UNIVERSITY OF THESSALY / SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING / DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE + + + + + + + LANDSCAPE WORKSHOP / ARISTIDE ANTONAS - CONCEPTUAL DESIGN WORKSHOP / FILIPPOS ORAIOPOULOS / PEDION AREOS 38334 VOLOS ISLAND – built EVENT
A SERIES OF DESCRIPTIVE CONSTRUCTIONS, INITIAL APPROACH, AN IDENTITY PENDING : The project revolves around the island of Youra. The island lies in the Aegean sea, six hours from Volos, and is part of Magnesia Prefecture’s Sporades islands. Youra is deserted, as are most of the islands in the region. Some of them (Trikeri, Alonnisos) were places of exile for political prisoners, while others belonged to Mount Athos monasteries (Kyra Panagia, Pappous) or were used as pastures (Piperi). The small number of buildings on Youra (traces of a small monastery, a preserved church, ruins from the first installation of the first guards, today’s installation of the guards) points to the island’s deserted state. Until being ceded to the Greek State, Youra was a hunting ground for Greece’s kings. The island also has mythological associations, since – legend has it – the Cyclops’ cave is placed –according to a legend- there. Shipwrecks are a common occurrence at Youra; many sunken ships and their loads are gradually being located in the deep waters of the greater region. A ship carrying 200 immigrants ran aground on the deserted island on 26 December 2001. Youra is located in the middle of the Alonnisos marine park; it is a protected biotope and may not be visited without special permission from the Sporades Forest Office. The island is guarded by two to three guards who have rotating ten-day shifts. The ISLAND – built Event project constructs the island’s pending identity. The interest lies in the difficulty of forming a local identity, seen as a dynamic, creative act. Specific events have led to the island being identified as a certain form: thus, it has become an island of shipwrecks, of politics, of ecology, of desertedness or of isolation, depending on one’s perspective. Each individual act performed on the island has formed or reformed it as a different form. The built event that is being organized, involving the presentation of projects and talks on the island, will replace the island’s lack of identity (lack of generality) with something. The island’s pending identity is thus a platform or an open forum. The place is interpreted as a collection of produced narrations describing it and of constructions that it awaits. It is defined by patience. This patience (which welcomes and organizes the pending identity) characterizes the project. The project is presented as an action stemming from this patience. The procedure involved in bringing the project to fruition entails the following practical steps: A. Artists, philosophers, anthropologists, scientists and architects as well as the students from the University of Thessaly’s TAM School of Architecture: (final year students and graduates) and other Schools are invited to participate in the project. B. From the start of the spring semester students will work on the project of the University of Thessaly’s TAM School of Architecture. With the students’ involvement in the project’s production process, it is the educational process that is introduced into its production process, and not the other way round. C. Discussions and debates will be held at the TAM Department of Architecture between special guests and the students, on issues relating to the island of Youra and which also concern other islands in Magnesia Prefecture (Trikeri, Alonnisos, Kyra Panagia, Pappous, etc.). One month after the project’s commencement – on 5 April – the students and any of the guests who are interested will visit the island of Trikeri, and on 16 and 17 April there will be a first visit to Youra, heading from Alonnisos and via the Sporades islands. The insistence on the place itself cannot be understood without conceptualization. An itinerary and a meeting on the island form a research field on intentions and inventions of the island. Intentions and inventions are presented through discourses and constructions. In the field of the uncertain island, the place itself and any identity of the place stay suspended. In the same field the built event is the notion that provides a substitute for identity without betraying suspension. The decision, the coincidence and the incident organize each time temporary structures of the built event. The two days of discussions have been organized as follows: Having agreed to participate in the project from the start and having received the available material (conception of the project – key concepts, photographs, geographical, historical and anthropological material, written accounts, etc.), the participants will visit the place on 14 May (Saturday) during a joint trip. There, they will share their initial thoughts on the subject and exchange views at the place itself (Youra), weather permitting, or on the closest inhabited island (Alonnisos). In the meantime, once the project has commenced, the participants will be able to send their thoughts or projects (material that they have developed with a specific construction in mind for the island or letters expressing their agreement, objections or alternative ideas pertaining to the project’s organisation), thus creating interventions throughout the project’s duration by developing a network that promotes the ongoing exchange of information and critiques. They can bring or send the final draft of their (philosophical, anthropological, scientific, poetic, theatrical and other) speech and their constructions (whether in the form of art, film, photography, music or other) by June, at which time – if necessary – one last visit to the island will be arranged, marking the ‘end’ of the project. D. During the project’s production, based at the TAM Department of Architecture in Volos, artists, philosophers, anthropologists, architects and scientists will, alone or in groups, present talks or constructions referring or corresponding to a visit to the island of Youra or other similar places in the Magnesia region (Trikeri, Alonnisos – places of exile; Pteleos beach – place of shipwrecked immigrants, etc.). The same participants can also present a new talk or construction specifically on the particular project during these two days. E. Lastly, different agencies (Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly, Alonnisos Municipality, ecological agencies, Forest Office, Volos immigrant support group, immigration agency, etc.) will be invited together with the previous guests to develop the project into a permanently open forum on this particular island. The project is already in progress and its duration will be determined by the action taken by people regarding Youra and according to the contracts being drawn up. If we conceptualize the project’s structure (built event) as the plot of a live, realistic theatrical play, then the roles of the participants will be identified with their actual participation. The project will officially come to an end at a specific date and time to be announced. The results of the ISLAND – built Event project (discourses and constructions) will be placed in containers (mobile exhibition spaces) for viewing, while sheets submitted by the participants will be compiled into a large book to which new material will be able to be added (the book will be bound with removable screws). Thus, although presented as a temporally specific ‘theatrical’ event, the project will remain permanently open. The first stage in the process will be presented in a separate edition. The staging of such an architectural project (built event) aims at composing the content and unfolding the process dialectically through ongoing transformations in the internal time of the project’s constructions.
ARISTIDE ANTONAS & FILIPPOS ORAIOPOULOS
PS: All who wish to take part in the two days of discussions for the ISLAND – Built Event project (a project of talks and constructions) must register by 30 April so that the necessary arrangements can be made (tickets, accommodation, etc.): Filippos Oraiopoulos (e-mail:…; fax: (+30) 24210 74272, 2310 266387; mobile: (+30) 69…) Aristide Antonas (e-mail:…; fax: (+30) 24210 74272, 2310 266387; mobile: (+30) 69…)
At the moment, the program is as follows : Friday, 13 May, afternoon meeting at the Architecture Department in Volos Saturday, 14 May, 07:00 depart for Alonnisos from Volos » , 10:00 arrive at Alonnisos and depart for Youra » , 12:30 – 18:00 visit the island, presentations and discussions » , 21:00 return to Alonnisos, overnight stay Sunday, 15 May Depart for Volos in the morning or afternoon (at each participant’s discretion).
Tuesday 8 MARCH 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Architect Manolis Berahas, head of the support group for the immigrants who were shipwrecked on 26 December 2001 on the island of Youra, presented his experiences and thoughts on the condition of immigrants in Greece today to the students: immigrant routes (east - west), Greece as a transitional point, legislative framework, living conditions. Mehdi Salehi, student in the Department of Architecture, described his personal experiences as an immigrant: the lack of an identity card constitutes the best strategy in order to obtain a residence permit. The map of the island was presented on a 1:50000 scale map. A discussion followed. [ Scanned image of the newspaper, photograph of the presentation and the map. ]
Tuesday 15 MARCH 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + First visit (Aristide Antonas, Filippos Oraiopoulos) to the island of Youra following repeated postponements over a period of two months due to bad weather conditions. The issue of a visiting permit by the Skopelos Forest Office and Alonnisos Port Authority was necessary before the trip. The trip to Youra lasted three hours with the flying dolphin and six hours with the Evangelistria fishing vessel belonging to Vassilis Kalogiannis. During the visit, the visitors were escorted by Nikos Anagnostou, guard from the Alonnisos Forest Office. Photo shoots, video recordings and discussions with the guard and boatman on their experiences on the island, and especially on the 26 December 2001 shipwreck, for which they provided their own personal testimony. 2½ hour stay on the island and return on the same day. Night on Alonnisos and return to Volos at dawn on the next day.
[ photographs, Mr. Vassilis’ diary, the text of Mr. Vassilis’ speech, dialogues between Vassilis and guard ].
Tuesday 22 MARCH 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Architect Sophia Vyzoviti (PhD), an associate of the BUILT EVENT workshop, presented the program (views and techniques) on the protection of marine parks in Greece, and especially in the Sporades islands, to which Youra belongs. Sustainable fishing was at the centre of all programs. Presentation of feasibility and technical description of artificial reefs.
[ A text and data from the Service’s CD must be included. ]
First attempt in the built event workshop to describe the island by using the photographs and by reading the map. New narrations on the island gathered from different sources. Thoughts on new constructions on the island.
Tuesday 29 MARCH 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Archaeologist Dimitris Kourkoumelis presented a survey of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean from antiquity till recently, and especially of shipwrecks in the Northern Sporades island complex. He described the conditions of the shipwrecks by focusing on the weather conditions, geography and the vessels’ construction. He discussed ideas on illicit trade in underwater antiquities, net fishing at ancient shipwreck sites and on fishing resorts. The “Alonissos shipwreck” not far away from Youra is one of the most important submarine finds. [ photograph from the talk’s setting and visual material from Dimitris Kourkoumelis’ presentation ] Discussions on the built event workshop. Presentation of new narrations and construction projects. [ project sketches ]
Tuesday 5 APRIL 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Tasos Sakellaropoulos, historian and expert researcher of places of exile for political prisoners, accompanied the built event workshop that took place outside the classes of the Department of Architecture on their trip to Trikeri island in the Pagasitic Gulf, a place of exile for women during the most recent civil war in Greece. Participants in the workshop were transported to the Trikeri mountain village by a bus belonging to the University of Thessaly (trip lasted approximately 2 hours); from there they took a taxi (approximately 15 minutes) and a boat (approximately 10 minutes). Immediately after their arrival at the island’s beach, Tasos Sakellaropoulos explained the system governing the exile of political prisoners in Greece (arrests, organization of camps, torture, everyday way of life, prisoners’ culture, ideology, transfers, selection of places of exile) from the time of the Metaxas dictatorship (1936) to the more recent military dictatorship of the colonels (1967), and mainly during the time of the civil war. A discussion on the specific site on the island followed. A visit, on foot, to the area around the island’s monastery, where exiled women were held, and to the area surrounding it. There is almost no concrete trace of the area where the tents were put up. Residents’ narrations and a guest book from the women’s visits, who return each June to the place of their suffering. Two books on the places of exile (with ample photographic material), which Tasos Sakellaropoulos brought with him, provide the only picture of the place of exile. Coexistence of the holy monastery and place of exile, different forms of desertion and isolation. Meal on the island; return trip with discussions on the bus and arrival in Volos at night. [ text by Tasos Sakellaropoulos and photographic material ]
Tuesday 12 APRIL 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Biologist Panos Dendrinos, who is in charge of organizing the northern Sporades marine park, presented the concept and organization of the marine park, and particularly the actions and institutions that are working to protect the Mediterranean monk seal (monachus monachus). He described their way of life, living conditions and topological requirements for the reproduction of mammals in the island complex’ sea caves, which form part of the marine park. Regional classification, assessment and ordering of the seals’ habitats (from their place of birth to the place of survival). A discussion followed mainly on the special method employed in creating artificial areas for the birth and survival of seals. [ photographic material from the discussion and the material used by the speaker himself ]
Saturday 16 APRIL 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + First visit of the built event workshop to the island of Youra. Departure from Volos at 8 a.m. and arrival on Alonnisos at 11 a.m. March / protest by the residents against the reduction of ship lines. Departure from Alonnisos at around 11:15 together with two guards from the Forest Office, who were to spend more days on the island. Before visiting the island, a visiting permit with a list of all the names of the visitors to the island (22 persons) was issued by the Skopelos Forest Office and Alonnisos Port Authority. Arrival on the island of Youra at 2 in the afternoon. Anchored on the north side due to the south winds. Visit and tour of the residential space of the guards with the guards as guides. The built facilities on a leeward part of the island enjoy a view of the Sporades archipelago, between the two anchoring points (NE, SW) and are five minutes away from “Cyclops’” prehistoric cave, which has been locked by archaeologists. There are two built “complexes”. The first includes a deserted house from the first prison facility together with the ruins of one stone and one iron reservoir, as well as a shelter for the King’s hunting dogs. The second complex has wire fencing at some parts, but the greater part is fenced with a stone enclosure used in the past, possibly part of the monastery. In the enclosed area, one finds the monastery’s church, which has been restored, the guards’ residences and accommodation for ten hunters. This is the result of reuse following significant changes and extensions on the ruins of the pre-existing monastery. A visit to Cyclops’ cave, supervised by the guard who keeps the keys. Traces of prehistoric habitation; it has already been excavated by the Greek Archaeological Service. It has a 22 metre difference in height and an opening of about 10 meters. The goats are indiscernible. Problems arise in terms of guarding them to ensure the authenticity of their “identity”. The protection of the island is related to a pure race of rare goats and the secureness of their integrity. Departure at 5 in the afternoon. The return trip included the circumnavigation of the island. The sea was rough due to the south winds. The northern part of the island is steep with a series of caves close to or at a distance from the sea. Discreet presence of the coast guard speedboat guarding the marine park. [ Georges Bataille on animals, Theory of Religion, fragment to include ] Return via a small convoy at 9 p.m., slightly worn out by the cold and surge of the sea. Sunday 17 APRIL 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Return trip to Volos cancelled due to the stormy winds (over 8 on the Beaufort scale). On the occasion, the possibility of the next visit and the meeting of all participants in the island is discussed. The vessel “Odyssey” is in the Alonissos port. Visit to the main village at noon (the place where the first inhabitants of the island settled). Lunch and dancing performed by the residents. The visitors from the built event workshop participated. At night, a coast guard official phoned to inform A. Antonas and F. Oraiopoulos that two of the participants in the workshop had dived into the dark, rough sea and advised greater caution. On the next day, Monday 18 April, at 06:15, before sunrise, the navigation restriction was lifted, therefore allowing the travelers to return to Volos. [ photographic material, designs, discussions ]
19 APRIL 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Discussions at the built event workshop at the Department of Architecture on new thoughts and proposals following the visit to Youra. [ photographs, sketches, discussions ]
Friday, 13 MAY 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Late afternoon, Volos, introductory meeting held at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Thessaly with those participating in the meeting/two-day conference/trip to Youra.
Saturday, 14 MAY 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Departure for Youra at 7 a.m. on the M/S Odyssey. The participants were 12 guests from Greece and abroad and 34 more architects, artists, philosophers and scientists who expressed an interest in the project. The Pagasitic Gulf has calm waters, but outside the gulf the north-easterly winds cause swells. After 2 hours at sea, during which breakfast had been taken and the passengers got to know each other, sometimes discussing topics related to the ISLAND_BUILT EVENT project, a video was shown inside the ship, presenting the informal account of Vassilis Kalogiannis, a fisherman and hunter from Alonnisos who regularly runs the route from Alonnisos to Youra and back again in his small boat in order to fish and to transport the forest guards who monitor the island. He gives an account of when the shipwrecked immigrants were found on 26 December 2001. He was the first to find them and also helped them. Filippos Oraiopoulos and Aristide Antonas then took the floor and described the context within which the project was to take place, directing the passengers’ interest to two issues: (a) the type of project: Built_EVENT (b) the scope of the project: ISLAND Their talks are recorded. Antonas and Oraiopoulos carried with them some texts describing what they would speak about on board. Here is what these printed papers were writing: [ Filippos Oraiopoulos’ paper ] : “In the post-network age, one perceives a certain resistance and lack in the semantic and material function of the place. On the one hand, the physical place as a venue of events (talks and constructions) continues to fight against being effaced by the intangible website. On the other hand, the website makes local events universal, even though it is often characterized by an inability to convert local events (talks and constructions) into events of all-embracing significance. The choice of a deserted place, an island, as the extreme version of obscurity, prohibition and oblivion, contains in itself the aspiration that it will lead to the experimental treatment of this resistance and lack. Such a treatment can take place by leaving the place’s identity hanging and by seeking the generalisation of this pending state based on the purposeful conception of random ‘poetic events’. Therefore, on the verge of a momentary memory and oblivion for the mythological, historical and recent events on the island of Youra (Cyclops’ cave, destruction of monastery, ecological protection and hunting of wild goat, shipwrecked immigrants in December 2001), a forum for ‘poetic’ creation has been formed by means of the BUILT EVENT project, initial approach: an identity pending. This is the forum through which the BUILT EVENT project has taken place. It is a live construction of events with an executive character. It has a beginning and an end, and is spanned by a live, non-descriptive procedure that does nevertheless have a mimetic nature, in the Aristotelian sense, i.e. a poetic mimesis of the types of event and not of the images representing them. The procedure began at the moment when the e-mail containing the text on the ISLAND_BUILT EVENT project’s creation was sent, at which time the same text was also put up at the Department of Architecture of the University of Thessaly. The executive procedure has various concurrent levels –there could be more or less – of successive live events. These events may be succeeded by others on each level but they are structurally linked within, forming the plot of the ISLAND_BUILT EVENT project. The first level of events is held at Thessaly University’s Architecture Department every Tuesday, where experts were invited to present topics related to events that the island’s mnemonic space already contains (shipwrecked immigrants, shipwrecks in general, marine park, places of political exile). The second level entails the presentation, each Tuesday, of talks and constructions by the students taking part in the project, in this way incorporating the educational process into it. The third level of events took place every fifteen days or so (on Wednesday afternoons) and contains theoretical pursuits: art, verbal expression, technologies, communications, philosophical discussion on the concept of the island, architecture, cinema, travel). The fourth level comprises trips taken to the island of Trikeri (where women were exiled during the civil war) and the island of Youra: First trip to Youra (A. Antonas, F. Oraiopoulos), by ship sailing the regular route and a chartered boat First trip to Trikeri (T. Sakelaropoulos, A. Antonas, F. Oraiopoulos, architecture students at Thessaly University), by coach and a chartered boat Second trip to Youra (A. Antonas, F. Oraiopoulos, architecture students at Thessaly University), by ship sailing the regular route and two boats. Third trip attended by guests (Greeks and foreigners, with multiple approaches - philosophy, science, architecture, art), students from different Schools (Patras, Athens, Volos) by chartered ship ODYSSEY. The third trip to Youra consisted of talks, discussions, exchange of opinions and constructions. One last trip may be made to present constructions and actions as an offer to the island. The creation of events may continue randomly and unpredictably up until another last trip, which will maybe mark the end of the project. Each event consists of a group of smaller events of a structural, unstable, incomplete and executive nature, as a type of forum, or possible conditions whose purpose is to set into motion purposeful inventions of new talks and constructions following direct / live contact with the place itself, where possible. The structure of the above events seems to be analogous (similarities and differences) to the structure of theatrical events. The enactment of the text and roles is absent in the built event since each person presents his or her personal action and view. If all these events are to be created with certain people being present in order to invent talks and constructions on the island’s pending identity – which aims at attempting a form of ontology for the particular place – one will have to include all the talks and constructions of all those who did not experience the place directly, as well as the talks and constructions not made by all those who were invited and could not respond and by anyone who was absent in the construction of the pending identity of Youra. However, the latter can never happen and so the island’s identity will be eternally pending. The Youra ISLAND_BUILT EVENT project has nevertheless helped to change the island’s pending identity. But in what direction and at what hidden depth? One possible answer could be the description – as far as this is possible – of its plot, as the minimal common trace that unites the internal structures of the events that built this type of project with talks and constructions. In such a type of project, the creation of talks and constructions and their organization in the form of an exhibition and book cannot but be the ashes that remain after the actual procedures creating the events have been performed”. Then Aristide Antonas spoke. His speech was recorded by Lukas Bartatilas, fragment No 66 in the Island Built Event’s film archive. His printed paper contained fragmental thoughts he did during the evolution of the project. His talk highlighted only some of them. [ Aristide Antonas’ paper ]: “The return from digital to conventional sites is not to be understood here as a simple comeback. Something has changed in conventional locality after the familiarization with electronic networks. This return has its ways to introduce distance as a structure of politics. The return to the specific site of deserted island in the northern Aegean sea, under new terms for descriptions and constructions, is related to what could be understood as a post digital conception of space in the Island_BuiltEvent project. The lost proximity of the site is, in the case of Youra, only paradigmatic. - - - - A theater play is performed here. We are chosen actors that play a role that every one conceives as of his own. We record abundantly whatever happens. We don’t know if the play is the archive of these recordings or the trip we are doing now. Recording is a trip. + + + + in the post-network era one can detect a problem of proximity to any locus. A new problem of “place”, traced today, needs a post-network definition. - - - - The phenomenon of detachment from conventional space –which transcends the narrow limits of architecture– has consequences for space “itself” in the conventional meaning of the word. The question one might ask here is, “What would it mean if we were to return to ‘space itself’ under conditions where the concept of ‘space itself’ has been dealt a severe blow?”. What would be the consequences of some post-network proximity to any specific place? + + + + the process whereby something noteworthy is built by the gaze, i.e. about the inventions of the gaze, produced out of a jumble of dead materials. - - - - the act of listening to some silence is already a strong act. + + + + a process which retrieves meanings out of the deserted island once that island is chosen, as soon as someone is called to pay special attention to it. What was hitherto presented as forgotten and unworthy of attention is retrieved and re-examined through a call for the visitor’s gaze. The mechanism of the project forcibly draws something from oblivion to the daylight; it includes the act of revealing and is inevitably dependent upon the person who sees. The island we try to observe is rebuilt by the gaze which subverts the difference between the forgotten and the admirable and introduces the unimportant into the realm of importance. - - - - to project a listening to a specific silent place. + + + + The process of any island description is conceived as a construction, signed by the person who sees. Island_BuiltEvent is a collection of such signatures that describe by constructing. - - - - The constructed description that resurrects the relic is an event on the body of the island which takes place on a specific time. A Built Event marks the insignificant island as important. + + + + The built event: 3months theater play around a specific island. - - - - Each text and each photograph from the BuiltEvent procedure can be conceived as the dead remain and the trace of a never formed theatrical identity. + + + + Every construction on the island forms a specific description of the island. Any description of the island is already a construction. - - - - Constructing a field for descriptions. + + + + The description of the island fixes for a moment the meaning of a gaze: a meaning which describes also the eye that sees. - - - - Difficult descriptions! + + + + The island will remain programmatically unreachable, dark. Between darkness and the dazzle from excessive light, the island ends up invisible, the gaze that looks at it remains blind. However, one can discern on the body of the island the signatures and dates which attest to the mechanism that sheds light on something dark at the specific moment in time. The mechanism which identifies the island binds the living person to the significance of the dead site. - - - - Deserted place, prohibited visit. + + + + Moreover, the deserted island is recognised as important while remaining useless. Its retrieval marks a sudden change in its character: the useless becomes admirable. - - - - the specific subject on which we centre does not lend itself to any specific, obvious reading. The special, local element was chosen so as not to facilitate focusing no matter how close one gets to it. The advance towards the deserted island of Youra, the persistence on its specific presence, is turned into the predetermined experience of some infeasible arrival. + + + + Focusing generates a deliberate diffusion of meaning. - - - - We get close to the island of Youra, but its enigma keeps us off. Devoid of any obvious interpretation, such sites lend themselves to different parallel readings. We cannot inhabit them, and yet –now more than in the past– we are condemned to inhabiting only some similar ones. + + + + Any mechanism for approaching the selected sites takes into account the impossibility of arriving at them. - - - - The special local element is sought in situ. The island is turned into a meeting point. The mechanism for approaching the island generates in-situ encounters, itineraries around it, testimonies about it from the people who meet there.+ + + + The island is organized in the journal of the meetings, as a narrative whose heroes are those who meet. The local and special element is generated by the testimonies of the people at these meetings. - - - - the hard, conventional post-network site is presented as a function of meetings, as a function of its lightweight, fleeting, live elements. + + + + A simple logbook is organized at the ‘core’ of the site. The island is formed through an organized group visit and finalized through the meetings, deeds and words which were attached to them. In this approach the documents of the meetings replace the island ‘itself. The meetings build the island, at the same time abolishing any local homogeneity and unity of it. - - - - “the ability of the gaze to reveal something hidden”: a description of every construction. + + + + The island formalizes the process of a revelation, and this process is determined by the signature of the beholder. - - - - The signature corresponds to some attachment which engraves the experience of seeing the island on its body. The gaze discerns something as a new island and at the same time attaches a pre-existing thing on it. Through this mechanism the gaze can see sites which are hard to describe. The attachment reminds one of a creative structure. The island appears as a receptor awaiting modifications from different attachments. + + + + The island becomes a mechanism of attachments and a field of assortments. - - - - Definition: a signed attachment. + + + + a visit of the site or a thought about it from afar constitute complex intellectual operations. - - - - the travel to the descriptions and to the constructions of the island constitutes an architectural journey. + + + + The travel to the island of Yura: an art of building islands.- - - - the architecture of conceiving which can be understood as an art. + + + + The paradigmatic representation of the island, through its meeting point is itself an open structure. - - - - A visitor’s gaze distorts the vague shapes and renders them familiar. + + + + The island patiently bears the constructional, formulating power of each gaze. But which island is that? This collection of attachments turns visitors into witnesses to the existence of a common local sub-base which appears nowhere. The visitors to the island are witnesses to an absence. And this open absence can be attested to but not recorded: it is what is missing from any record. - - - - Different records build incompletely various local paradigms. The lack behind this insufficiency lies behind any paradigmatic approach to the site. + + + + The depth of the site is – in this case – made of absence. - - - - As an example, the island is described and constructed through inherently faulty definitions. As a paradigm, the island has become a meeting, a function of testimonies, a conceptual mechanism, a series of paradigmatic structures, an architecture of juxtaposed elements, a catalogue or a diary. + + + + Different meeting points have been set in the same place. Different paradigms at the same island, different landscapes for each observant visitor: each built description is waiting for another, speaks of the other, inside a deserted area with no limits and no real foundation: Youra, northern Aegean sea”. The long journey in the Sporades archipelago continues, during which time the passengers held discussions in small groups. At around 1 p.m., the ship makes a stop at Alonnisos for supplies and in order for the guard Nikos Anagnostou – who is to accompany the participants on the trip – to embark. Nikos Anagnostou was to help point out the place where the ship had run aground, give the participants a tour of the island and take charge, as it was his duty to do, of the visit to the prohibited area. At around 3 o’clock the ship approached Youra after having sailed past many uninhabited islets in the Northern Sporades at a short distance from their coasts. During this part of the journey dolphins from the marine park approached the ship. Here the water was choppier and the captain informed everyone that in all likelihood he would not be able to approach the island, making disembarkation impossible. The island has no pier and the only option was for the ship to approach it on its south-western, rocky side (the winds were north-easterly), which is relatively sheltered. However, even though the waves are small here, it is still very dangerous because of the eddies formed by strong winds that swoop down from the island’s mountain and which can force a ship onto the rocks. The sea is very deep here and is not suitable for anchoring. After some difficult maneuvers, the captain succeeded in approaching the island and mooring. The passengers disembarked on the island and followed the winding path up the steep slope. The artist Zafos Xagoraris unpacked the equipment he had brought to make a sound installation. At the entrance of a large cave, he placed 6 loud speakers and a transformer system, which magnified the sound made by the ship, the sea and the wind. In the yard of the makeshift but familiar prison facilities, two pergolas made from cheap materials, a monastery-style marble well, a single stone column as well as a large table and a bench with chairs created the area allocated for views to be presented, ideas to be expressed and for each visitor to take part in the project and discussion. The architect Alexis Dallas was the first to express his views and aspirations for the island and focused on the subject: HORS TEXTE (to be posted later in its edited form). Sophia Vizoviti, Menelaos Kokkinos, Zafos Xagoraris, Alcyone Boucharaki, Evi Papageorgiou, Ron Walkey, Eva Manidaki, Spyros Papadopoulos, Aristide Antonas, Yannis Papayannakis, Filippos Oraiopoulos, Yannis Arvanitis and other visitors described the projects under way and expressed their opinions on the ISLAND_BUILT EVENT project. Lucas Bartatilas recorded the speeches made in the guard’s house garden on video. Yannis Arvanitis tuned into the radio frequencies received on the island and recorded them using his own small receiver. Time passed and the risk of a difficult return journey made it necessary to return to the ship at 7 p.m. Going down the path leading to the island’s small facilities, along the ground there was a series of tags with the participants’ names written on them, which Yannis Papayannakis had placed at the point where each participant had stopped. After having a meal and weather permitting, the captain was required to sail around the island as stipulated in the charter agreement. The ship did manage to sail along the north-western side of the island, but could not continue as it would have to go out into the open sea of the Aegean, where the sea was too rough for sailing. Before the ship began its return journey, at around 8 p.m., from the cape of Tambouras one could see the impressive Mount Athos. The return journey to Alonnisos was difficult due to rough seas, but the atmosphere of a night-time journey in the Sporades archipelago prevailed, with one-on-one and group discussions. Food, night-time walks in Patitiri and an overnight stay at a hotel. On the next day’s itinerary was a visit to the main village of Alonnisos and surveying the archipelago from there. The return to Volos was scheduled at midday with the catamaran sailing the regular route. A few travelers returned early in the morning. [ catamaran leaflet to insert here or a picture from the hotel in Alonnisos island ]
Wednesday, 25 MAY 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + At 7.30 p.m., Gerasimos Vokos, professor of philosophy at the Department of Political Sciences of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, discussed the topic ‘ISLAND’. For professor Gerasimos Vokos, in the tradition of Western thought, the concept of the island has gathered a huge wealth of meanings and penetrating singularities, particularly when it is presented in a semantic pair: island-sea, i.e. as a place-journey, junction-relationship. This is due to the fact that it functioned as a genetic mechanism of a boundless wealth of transferences to metaphysics and language. In the first instance it was able to schematize and generate, with precision, penetrating thoughts on the type of truth (Hume, Kant,…). In the second instance, it generated a series of literary texts (Vern, Byron,…) and essays (Moore, Carl Schmitt,…) , capable of expressing pragmatistic, political, utopian, futuristic, anthropological and social aspects.
Wednesday, 1 JUNE 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + At 7.30 p.m., Yiannis Chatzigogas, assistant professor at the Department of Architecture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, presented the topic: architecture as cinema and the cinema as architecture, using the relationship between architecture and the cinema at the level of narration and composition as an example. He presented two projects of the journal Archis in which he took part. The first project was an architectural performance held in the enormous modern ruins of the cultural centre of East Berlin, with architects Koolhaas, Jenkins and others. The symbolic protest, the speeches and the polysemy of the banners strove to add a modern political dimension to the event and to drag the issues of May ’68 out of oblivion and into the issues of the city. The second project aspired to provide a modern conceptualization of architectural theft, as the absence of the real. It took place in two places: Berlin’s Pergamum Museum (where the ancient temple is exhibited) and the actual site in Pergamum where the ancient temple was built, where its representation exists.
Wednesday, 22 JUNE 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + An open invitation was issued for an outdoor party held at a house in the little village in Pelion named Servanantes, for the ISLAND_BUILT EVENT project. Over 50 people (academics, students, guests) attended the party. Moments: the coincidence of the Pagasitic Gulf and the olive groves of Pelion being lit by the full moon, the attention paid to the acoustics of the music played and the screening of videos, photographs and images from the projects of the ISLAND_BUILT EVENT project (Youra) on a stone wall.
Tuesday, 28 JUNE 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Last collection of projects and notes kept by the travellers.
Monday, 4 JULY 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Elena Kapobasopoulou and Tassos Govatsos were awarded at the U.I.A.’s student competition for their projects on the ISLAND_built EVENT project (Youra). The presentation and awards took place at the U.I.A. Conference in Istanbul.
Thursday, 7 JULY 2005: + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Last reception of texts and first bounding of the material in a recheargable book.
