COLLECTING STORIES, TELLING HISTORIES | Exhibition dedicated to the people's stories
Curated by Katerina Konstantinou, Natasa Biza
Curated by Katerina Konstantinou, Natasa Biza
“The past slips from our grasp. It leaves us only scattered things. The bond that united them eludes us. Our imagination fills in the void.”
Igor Stravinski, 1942
In Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons
Igor Stravinski, 1942
In Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons
The exhibition Collecting Stories, Telling Histories examines the ways in which the local community of Paros has been documenting its past and narrating its stories. Briefs of local history, archives, collections of objects and photographs, museums, biographies of eminent citizens and their residencies; these are elements of the past that constitute the history of a place and affect how a community relates to its past. How fragmented is our knowledge of the past? Which are the stories we never tell? Do we all have a say in how history is written?
History is traditionally tangled with evident data and tangible objects (photographs, archival documents, monuments, paintings, engravings, various objects, etc.). Everything that we can’t see or touch finds its way into history via archives of oral stories. The 2nd Paros Festival exhibition Collecting Stories, Telling Histories is built on two pillars: materiality and orality. In this way, the exhibition tries to track the past through narrations of people that lived it, memories that are transferred from one generation to another, via stories, legends and myths, but also through archival documents and objects that were preserved by the community for the foundation of its museum.
Five artists critically comment on the work of history, while they are themselves involved in its writing through stories, narrations, photographs and objects. Rania Bellou visually transforms the personal diary of P. Stais. His personal desires, dreams and loves are intertwined with much larger historical processes, as the collective memory of the Asia Minor catastrophe and the feeling of post-war Athens. Within only two hours of video recording Panagiotis Kalkavouras mixes his short video-essays capturing everyday instances of the real world of the island. A series of photographic portraits made by the renowned photographer Platon in Paros during the decade of 1990 was incidentally found in the storage of his childhood friend Efthimis Kidoneos in Parikia. All individuals Platon captured become the subjects of the stories narrated within the exhibition. Kyriaki Goni turns the interest towards the future. Aegeandatahaeven.com is a self-managed network of data, which reminds us that the past is always constructed in the present and has an important impact in the future. Maria Tzanakou revisits ordinary speech - the core theme of this exhibition- to extract words that condense collective memories of the past.
History is traditionally tangled with evident data and tangible objects (photographs, archival documents, monuments, paintings, engravings, various objects, etc.). Everything that we can’t see or touch finds its way into history via archives of oral stories. The 2nd Paros Festival exhibition Collecting Stories, Telling Histories is built on two pillars: materiality and orality. In this way, the exhibition tries to track the past through narrations of people that lived it, memories that are transferred from one generation to another, via stories, legends and myths, but also through archival documents and objects that were preserved by the community for the foundation of its museum.
Five artists critically comment on the work of history, while they are themselves involved in its writing through stories, narrations, photographs and objects. Rania Bellou visually transforms the personal diary of P. Stais. His personal desires, dreams and loves are intertwined with much larger historical processes, as the collective memory of the Asia Minor catastrophe and the feeling of post-war Athens. Within only two hours of video recording Panagiotis Kalkavouras mixes his short video-essays capturing everyday instances of the real world of the island. A series of photographic portraits made by the renowned photographer Platon in Paros during the decade of 1990 was incidentally found in the storage of his childhood friend Efthimis Kidoneos in Parikia. All individuals Platon captured become the subjects of the stories narrated within the exhibition. Kyriaki Goni turns the interest towards the future. Aegeandatahaeven.com is a self-managed network of data, which reminds us that the past is always constructed in the present and has an important impact in the future. Maria Tzanakou revisits ordinary speech - the core theme of this exhibition- to extract words that condense collective memories of the past.
I. Memory boxes | Municipal Art Space “Dimitrakopoulos"
These boxes are veritable personal collections. Miscellaneous objects? Not at all! These objects narrate the life of their owners, the life of their collectors, or maybe just a period of their lives. Each object of these medleys is kept in order to remind someone of something -but primarily they serve to preserve memories for their collector. This part of the exhibition Collecting Stories, Telling Histories is based on the documentation of the objects of the “Folklore Collection” of the Municipality of Paros, which was formed in the past in order to create a museum for Paros.
The “Folklore collection” keeps all the things that the local community chooses to remember, in order to commemorate its past and to plan its future. It functions as a collective “memory box” in which everyone contributes whatever they consider important in order to recall one or many stories.
These boxes are veritable personal collections. Miscellaneous objects? Not at all! These objects narrate the life of their owners, the life of their collectors, or maybe just a period of their lives. Each object of these medleys is kept in order to remind someone of something -but primarily they serve to preserve memories for their collector. This part of the exhibition Collecting Stories, Telling Histories is based on the documentation of the objects of the “Folklore Collection” of the Municipality of Paros, which was formed in the past in order to create a museum for Paros.
The “Folklore collection” keeps all the things that the local community chooses to remember, in order to commemorate its past and to plan its future. It functions as a collective “memory box” in which everyone contributes whatever they consider important in order to recall one or many stories.
II. The luxury of history | Apothiki Gallery
How is history made? Is it made of big events and important people or smaller narratives and anecdotes? Does all past fit into history?
The second part of the exhibition Collecting Stories, Telling Histories, critically comments on the concept of history through a series of different approaches to the past of Paros
How is history made? Is it made of big events and important people or smaller narratives and anecdotes? Does all past fit into history?
The second part of the exhibition Collecting Stories, Telling Histories, critically comments on the concept of history through a series of different approaches to the past of Paros
III. “Φ” | Holland Tunnel Gallery
The third part of this year's Paros Festival exhibition unravels Fevronia’s life from Paros to Egypt and back to Paros. Through her life story, we read 20th-century history. Beginning with the narrative of her son, Michalis Kyriazanos, born on June 24 1918, and continuing with conversations with her descendants, and in looking at photographs and objects that she passed on to her loved ones, this exhibition aims to reconstruct her personal and family history. Large-scale events, like the Balkan wars and the Asia Minor catastrophe, are woven into Fevronia’s life story. This micro-history becomes a tile in the great mosaic of twentieth-century history.
The third part of this year's Paros Festival exhibition unravels Fevronia’s life from Paros to Egypt and back to Paros. Through her life story, we read 20th-century history. Beginning with the narrative of her son, Michalis Kyriazanos, born on June 24 1918, and continuing with conversations with her descendants, and in looking at photographs and objects that she passed on to her loved ones, this exhibition aims to reconstruct her personal and family history. Large-scale events, like the Balkan wars and the Asia Minor catastrophe, are woven into Fevronia’s life story. This micro-history becomes a tile in the great mosaic of twentieth-century history.
