Cris Gianakos
Kerameikos
Kerameikos Minimalist Mysteries
The archeological relic named Kerameikos, “potter’s quarter”, is the ancient cemetery of Athens, where Pericles delivered his most famous funeral oration in 431 BC during the Peloponnesian War. The ancient cemetery was the sacred ground where luminaries were buried from 1200 BC on.
On my many trips to Athens I would go to this site when I needed some space from the busy metropolis for some rest and contemplation. What was it about this special place that drew me there time after time? Being a minimalist sculptor, the basic 3-dimensional forms lying on the grounds of the Kerameikos immediately caught my eye. I did not view these stone boxes that generated so much mysterious energy as archeological artifacts as much as abstract minimalist forms, yet again there was a human element associated with them. I was enthralled with the arbitrary positions that had evolved over the centuries. They all stood out as individual objects working together to create one great site-specific work. I asked myself, was there a process by which I could record this as my eye saw it and my psyche absorbed it? With my square-formatted Hasselblad camera, I photographed what I observed in two different visits. The following twenty-one black and white silver gelatin prints are the final result.
Cris Gianakos
8 September 2011
Artist's Books