Giannis Giannoutsos
Architect ∙ Visual Artist

"THE POETRY OF CHIOS FROM THE EYES OF ARTISTS"

Details

"THE POETRY OF CHIOS FROM THE EYES OF ARTISTS"

Ottoman Baths, Castle of Chios, 2014

 

"A PLACE’S MEMORIES"

Group exhibition

 

The work entitled “A Place’s Memories” takes as its referent the island of Chios and the memories the latterevokes. The synthesis is based on the layout of Anavatos, a fortified medieval settlement where the basic compositional unit, the cube, is perpetually repeated in space giving shape to the settlement. The work’s composition consists of four cubes, which recodify the “cubist”impression emanated by Anavatos.

The geometric motifs of the Xysta (interchanging and overlapping layers of white and black mortar on the external walls “scraped” with forks) are partly related to OP ART which actually informed the creation of the work. The original patterns, forms and motifs, are reproduced so as to allude to the application of this traditional technique which can be found on the facades of houses in the village of Pyrgi before 1850.

The technique applied is directly related to the method of creating Xysta, namely geometric motifs engraved and scraped on fresh mortar. The four cubes converse with the motifs which appear as a kind of “skin”.