In 1172 the third column of Venice arrived in San Marco Square from the East. The column is thought to be 16 meters in height and 70 tones in weight. During its passage to the present day, the column was inexplicably misplaced; drowned within the depths of the Adriatic Sea, the monument’s factuality has been drifting from accurate history since.
Initially following the school of archaeologists and researchers, whose aims are to localise this sunken Byzantine artefact, Nicola Baratto (b.1989) and Yiannis Mouravas (b.1986) continued this research on a residency they undertook at Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Post-Bizantini di Venezia, and then eventually arriving in Athens through a pilgrimage from the Oracle of Delphi. By wandering, digging and recollecting memories they have developed the practice of archaeodreaming.
Sometimes Archaeology Dreams of Itself employs archaeodreaming to discuss the legend of the third lost column of San Marco and its fellow monuments of Mediterranean antiquity. It also proposes experiential strategies to face the time we live in: as an agency to disentangle from immaterial capitalism and imposing national narratives. This aims to create a metaphysical space to spark collective imagination. When archaeology is a manifestation of ‘complex time’- it is as much about the present as it is about the past and future, it observes the residual marks left behind by forgotten histories, and it allows us to understand our anthropological behaviour in accordance with its topography.
Delving into the depths of history, an archaeological constellation of memories is unearthed, a platform for dreaming is ignited, and a stage for imagination through sleep is framed. These fragmented fantasies are used to fuel and imagine future relics and foster myth making.
Sometimes Archeology Dreams of Itself
Nicola Baratto and Yiannis Mouravas
12 April - 05 May 2018
Hot Wheels Projects
Patission 41, Athens 104 33
info@hotwheelsprojects.com
Gallery open Wed-Sat 4-8PM
Hot Wheels Projects would like to thank the following for their contributions to the projects:
Bend and Viktor Gogas
Éditions Dolce Εκδόσεις and Theofanis Dalezios
Hot Heels Publications
Bruno Donadel
Tom Kemp
Anna Laederach
Alberto Valz Gris
Benni Bosetto
Alessandro Crispta
Egidio Cutillo
Federica Menin
Laura Lovatel
Thalia Raftopoulou
Grigoris-Aris-Rigas Stasinopoulos
Maria Tzanakou
Walter Götsch
G&G Nordio
Chantal Nassef
Aaron MacLaughlin
Minke Havelaar
Roberto Padoan
Franca Zannoni
Litsa Christodoulaki
Giorgos Ploumidis
Istituto Ellenico di Studi Bizantini e Post-Bizantini di Venezia
The Dirty Artists of the Dirty Art Department
Fanny Muggiani Piccioli
Francesco G. Gagliardi
Stefano K. Tesla
Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi