good spaces left

3rd December 2022 – 1st March 2023
daily 17:00 – 23:00

Measuring the erasure of public space in transition

good spaces left is a solo exhibition by Anu Vahtra (Estonia), marking the beginning of our annual program Real Time History, curated by Maria Lalou and Skafte Aymo-Boot.

Fences are woven into the urban fabric of Athens. They are here to keep out, to neutralize, to cover up, to redirect, to restrict, to limit, to confine, to mark a boundary. When a fence goes up in public space – this space is no longer public.

Anu Vahtra has been invited to unfold the theme of Real Time History with her insight rooted in a practice of critically examining and documenting processes in urban landscapes. Vahtra’s work is centered around her precise observations of spatial circumstances, with a focus on the ephemeral and the transient, the unstable yet intentional: traces of past activities, processes of transformation, urban leftover spaces. She has been documenting aspects of demolition sites in Amsterdam and Brussels and empty storefronts in post-gentrification downtown Manhattan. In good spaces left at cross section archive, Anu Vahtra focuses on the fenced off Exarchia square, the confrontational presence of the fence and the dynamics that surround it. The exhibition consists of a series of excerpts from the process of documenting this barrier, the unwanted change it covers up and the attempts to capture the fading fragments of a good space, confined. Anu Vahtra has been in Athens and around its geographical borderlines over the course of three working periods during 2021-2022, researching and digesting its particularities. This exhibition is the result of her research on the theme Real Time History within the current urban and personal framework, recording irreversible spatial events, moments, and configurations of the Athenian cityscape.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Anne Carson’s novel Autobiography of Red, chapter XVII Walls.

REAL TIME HISTORY

There is a common understanding that the city of Athens during the last 20 years has been subject to particularly transformative forces in the form of a series of critical events that have left permanent marks on the city: the 2004 Olympics, the 2010 financial crisis, the current post-crisis gentrification. However, Athens is always in a state of constant change, like any other metropolis.

This condition, which could be called a process of constant becoming, is driven by the life that is being led in the buildings and streets of the city, streets which are the same but also always different. What defines a certain image of the city is the memory of that specific moment in time, connected to either personal memories or momentous events kept in the communal memory of the city. These moments are connected by periods of everydayness composed of a sequence of seemingly insignificant events, forming micro-histories that are evidence of the actual change taking place. Together they continuously define the physical environment of the city we live in, and influence the way we do so.

This transition from moment A to moment B is hardly perceptible because it is experienced from the middle of a perpetual flux, and a certain sensitivity is needed to observe and record it. This praxis itself consists of a series of indicated variables, the object at the centre of the event, the witnesses of the event taking place and the remains as the imprint in the city’s memory, that will become part of the city’s own mental archive of information.

The witnesses of the event can be either signified as instigators of truth or as ignorant viewers. Under any of the two identities, their capturing of a sequence is what delivers a collection of registrations framing other times, an alteration, a deconstruction, a formation, or even a possible moment of stillness. Those witnessed durations are what is phrasing in other words the term Real Time History; the analytical dissection of the time sequence from A to B can obscurely deliver significant historical artefacts, that are dismissed or not covered by current news in headlines.

This process of never-ending, indiscernible change and its recording are the starting points for the 2022-2023 program of cross section archive.

‘good spaces left' by Anu Vahtra.

Curated by Maria Lalou & Skafte Aymo-Boot.

video loop on monitor, 2 video loops projected on tracing paper mounted on window, video loop projected on wall, LED lights, postcard 148 x 105 mm.

Special thanks to: Lieven Lahaye, Indrek Sirkel, Tania Theodorou, Georgia Stamou & Afroditi Mitsopoulou.

Exhibition duration: 2nd December 2022 - 1st March 2023.

The exhibition is on view daily 17.00 - 23.00 from the public space of the crossing between Mavromichali and Isavron streets.

The research for Real Time History is supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports.

good spaces left is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports.

  • good spaces left

    3rd December 2022 – 1st March 2023
    daily 17:00 – 23:00

    Measuring the erasure of public space in transition

    good spaces left is a solo exhibition by Anu Vahtra (Estonia), marking the beginning of our annual program Real Time History, curated by Maria Lalou and Skafte Aymo-Boot.

    Fences are woven into the urban fabric of Athens. They are here to keep out, to neutralize, to cover up, to redirect, to restrict, to limit, to confine, to mark a boundary. When a fence goes up in public space – this space is no longer public.

    Anu Vahtra has been invited to unfold the theme of Real Time History with her insight rooted in a practice of critically examining and documenting processes in urban landscapes. Vahtra’s work is centered around her precise observations of spatial circumstances, with a focus on the ephemeral and the transient, the unstable yet intentional: traces of past activities, processes of transformation, urban leftover spaces. She has been documenting aspects of demolition sites in Amsterdam and Brussels and empty storefronts in post-gentrification downtown Manhattan. In good spaces left at cross section archive, Anu Vahtra focuses on the fenced off Exarchia square, the confrontational presence of the fence and the dynamics that surround it. The exhibition consists of a series of excerpts from the process of documenting this barrier, the unwanted change it covers up and the attempts to capture the fading fragments of a good space, confined. Anu Vahtra has been in Athens and around its geographical borderlines over the course of three working periods during 2021-2022, researching and digesting its particularities. This exhibition is the result of her research on the theme Real Time History within the current urban and personal framework, recording irreversible spatial events, moments, and configurations of the Athenian cityscape.

    The title of the exhibition is borrowed from Anne Carson’s novel Autobiography of Red, chapter XVII Walls.

    REAL TIME HISTORY

    There is a common understanding that the city of Athens during the last 20 years has been subject to particularly transformative forces in the form of a series of critical events that have left permanent marks on the city: the 2004 Olympics, the 2010 financial crisis, the current post-crisis gentrification. However, Athens is always in a state of constant change, like any other metropolis.

    This condition, which could be called a process of constant becoming, is driven by the life that is being led in the buildings and streets of the city, streets which are the same but also always different. What defines a certain image of the city is the memory of that specific moment in time, connected to either personal memories or momentous events kept in the communal memory of the city. These moments are connected by periods of everydayness composed of a sequence of seemingly insignificant events, forming micro-histories that are evidence of the actual change taking place. Together they continuously define the physical environment of the city we live in, and influence the way we do so.

    This transition from moment A to moment B is hardly perceptible because it is experienced from the middle of a perpetual flux, and a certain sensitivity is needed to observe and record it. This praxis itself consists of a series of indicated variables, the object at the centre of the event, the witnesses of the event taking place and the remains as the imprint in the city’s memory, that will become part of the city’s own mental archive of information.

    The witnesses of the event can be either signified as instigators of truth or as ignorant viewers. Under any of the two identities, their capturing of a sequence is what delivers a collection of registrations framing other times, an alteration, a deconstruction, a formation, or even a possible moment of stillness. Those witnessed durations are what is phrasing in other words the term Real Time History; the analytical dissection of the time sequence from A to B can obscurely deliver significant historical artefacts, that are dismissed or not covered by current news in headlines.

    This process of never-ending, indiscernible change and its recording are the starting points for the 2022-2023 program of cross section archive.

    ‘good spaces left' by Anu Vahtra.

    Curated by Maria Lalou & Skafte Aymo-Boot.

    video loop on monitor, 2 video loops projected on tracing paper mounted on window, video loop projected on wall, LED lights, postcard 148 x 105 mm.

    Special thanks to: Lieven Lahaye, Indrek Sirkel, Tania Theodorou, Georgia Stamou & Afroditi Mitsopoulou.

    Exhibition duration: 2nd December 2022 - 1st March 2023.

    The exhibition is on view daily 17.00 - 23.00 from the public space of the crossing between Mavromichali and Isavron streets.

    The research for Real Time History is supported by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports.

    good spaces left is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports.