Art Book Presentation
Home as Fabric
By Eleni Tzirtzilaki
Performance | Discussion | Exhibition, Saturday, April 9 2022, 18.00, Victoria Square Project
Victoria Square Project invites you on Saturday, April 9 2022, at 18:00, to the presentation of “Home as Fabric” Art Book, by Eleni Tzirtzilaki.
The “Home as Fabric” cultivates a discussion around the conditions of gender-based violence, vulnerability, alienation, displacement and war through the eyes of women of different backgrounds and generations. Through the presentation of the art book at VSP, Eleni Tzirtzilaki seeks to share what she heard, discussed, shared and experienced from the beginning of the project in 2015 until today, which are collected in the homonymous art-book. On this occasion, the videos “A woman: Kate”, “Walking Action – Performance Sifnos 2012” and the collective “Map-fabric” will also be presented.
The presentation of the project will last until April 16, 2022. It will begin with a performance by Eleni Tzirtzilaki and Danai Manolesou and a discussion, during which the architect and visual artist will discuss with Sevastiana Konstaki, architect-visual artist and designer of the publication, and Sevie Tsampolla, art historian and curator, about the journey she went through since 2015 and a series of matters arising from this experience. Niovi Zarampouka- Chatzimanou, VSP Director, will coordinate the discussion. The participants of the project will attend the discussion.
“Home as Fabric | The project”
Home nowadays appears to be fluid, open, fragile, changing, moving, just like fabric.
The project Home as Fabric by Eleni Tzirtzilaki began in 2015 towards the different interpretations of home nowadays. During the first phase of the project a group of people was formed. The group consisted mainly of women, from different origins, ages and professions living under different conditions met in various places around Athens, such as an artist studio, a wooden house at the yard of Athens School of Fine Arts, a BBQ, a hospital, the Association of Architects’ office, an former store on Diplari street, at various urban elements.
The meetings became circles of experience, feelings, flow and movement exchange, during which the participants shared their personal thoughts and stories about home as an experience, a memory, as a space where they lived, they left behind, dreamed and they now continue dreaming.
Do you consider your current living space home? If you abandon your home, what do you miss? Do you hold any souvenirs from home? Have you been violated there? If yes by who? How did you react? What is home for you? How do you imagine your future home?
The participants wrote down their answers in notes and discussed subjects such as life of women in exile, eviction, co-living, movement, relocation and abandonment of home. They read poems of Katerina Angelaki-Rouk, Silvia Plath, Emily Dickinson, An Sexton, Anna Akhmatova and they discussed online the altered living conditions caused by the pandemic and house confinement.
Each woman gave a piece of their favourite fabric, which was then sewed together to a “fabric-map” in June 2019 on Sifnos island by Danae Manolesou, Ernestina Karistineou-Efthimiatou, Sofia Karouba, Sevi Tsampalla, Anna Tsouloufi-Lagiou, Dora Mpampali and Eleni Tzirtzilaki. Then the women organised a walking event with the “Fabric-map” around the island.
“Home as Fabric” ‘s journey comes to a conclusion in Athens, 13 Elpidos street, Victoria Square Project.
Credits
Artworks: Eleni Tzirtzilaki
Performance: Eleni Tzirtzilaki, Danai Manolesou
Discussion: Sevastiana Konstaki, Eleni Tzirtzilaki, Sevi Tsampalla
Discussion coordination: Niovi Zarampouka-Chatzimanou
Videos: “A woman: Kate” by Eleni Tzirtzilaki, “Walking Action – Performance Sifnos 2019” by Myrto Karra.
“Map-fabric”, collective work.
Exhibition production: Dorothea Kritikou
Exhibition curation: Eleni Tzirtzilaki, Dorothea Kritikou
Administrative assistant: Iro Ziozia
Community development: Marina Naki, Dafni Crema
Communication: Ioanna Ntali
Meetings participants:
Anta Anastasea, Javier Perez Aranda, Eleni Vafiadou, Eva Giannakopoulou, Maro Zacharogianni,
Antigone Kelli, Angela Dalichatsios, Alexandra Thomopoulou, Sofia Karoumpa, Ismini Kariotaki, Ernetsina Karitsinaiou-Efthimiatou, Ilias Katis, Mary Kelli, Maria Kenanidou, Maria Kounavi, Laura Lovatel, Alexandra Lemoni, Evemar Lopez, Danai Manolesou, Athina Manika, Lauretta Macauley, Chiara Mosciati, Ioanna Neofitou, Vasiliki Nomidou, Katerina Nikou, Vicky Panagiotopoulou, Natalia Poumelioti, Efi Michalarou, Persi Zioga, Maria Mantzari, Despoina Panagiotopoulou, Vasiliki Nomidou, Katerina Skliri, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, Orestis Tzirtzilakis, Sevi Tsampala, Anna Tsouloufi-Lagiou, Maria Tsitroudi, Vanta Chalivopoulou, Chariklia Chari, Charis Chlorou, Giota, Yonas, and more.
About Eleni Tzirtzilaki
Eleni Tzirtzilaki is an architect-community artist. She organizes actions through a composite art that includes walking, poetry, painting, writing and performance.
She studied architecture in Florence. Her PhD thesis, at the School of Architecture of the Athens National Technical University, is entitled “Displaced Urban Nomads in the Metropolises. Contemporary issues on moving around, the city and the space” (Nisos 2008). She participated in the group “Urban Void” (Astiko Keno, Futura 2006). Her work is showcased in the book Nomadic Architecture. Walking through Fragile Landscapes (Futura 2018).
EVENT DETAILS
Victoria Square Project
13 Elpidos str., 10434 Athens
Performance & discussion: Saturday, 9 April 2022, 18:00
