ABS catalogue cover
Company a london based graphic design studio, has been commissioned to design the graphic material for the Greek Pavilion at the 11th International Architecture Biennale, Venice. This year's biennale, Out There: Architecture Beyond Buildings, will take place in Venice from September 14 to November 23. The winning Greek project, Athens by Sound (ABS), explores the city's sounds cape through interactive audio-visual installations.
invitation
ABS posters
ABS press release
Architecture is not only that which is built. Architecture is made up of different aspects, both material and immaterial. The atmosphere, the sounds, the smells, the possibility of interaction between human bodies: these all constitute characteristics of space, characteristics that are assuming an increasing importance within architectural research worldwide. Within this field of thought about “Architecture Beyond Building”, we focus on one particular non-material spatial phenomenon that lies “beyond the built”: sound.
We have created, thus, an interactive sonic map of Athens, which presents, in an unexpected way, fragments of the atmosphere of the city.
What would a non-visual map look like? What would it feel like if you wandered within a forest of headphones, playing sounds from different places in Athens? How would it feel if you found yourself in a ‘map’ that only appeared when you walked in it? What would it be like if the map only appeared when you invited one more person to be with you?
The Greek pavilion addresses these questions through an atmospheric interactive ‘game’, presenting fragments of sounds and visual sequences of Athens. The visitor re-creates the space around him through his own presence and movement. The map appears only where he walks, and/or when he invites one more person to sit next to him. The bodies of the visitors react with one another and with the space itself, creating a dynamic, changing field. This walk in the pavilion takes you “out there”, through invisible Athens.
The pavilion brings forth the aspects of architecture that are “beyond the material”: the “beyond the built”, the almost unreachable, elusive aspects of space, such as sound, non-visual senses, atmosphere. It challenges, thus, the limits of architecture, the limits of what can be mapped and re-located and what cannot…
Out there. Architecture beyond building. Director: Aaron Betsky
GREEK PARTICIPATION
Organised by:
Hellenic Ministry of Culture General Directorate of Modern Culture
Directorate of Visual Arts Department for the Promotion of Contemporary Art
Curators:
Anastasia Karandinou Christina Achtypi
Stylianos Giamarelos
CATALOGUE
Editors / Coordinators Anastasia Karandinou, Christina Achtypi, Stylianos Giamarelos
Art Direction
Company
Photographs INTOTHEPILL – Internet video platform
Translations
Rachel Howard, Fotis Kotsalides, Nikos Masourides
Proof Reading Rachel Howard, Fotis Kotsalides
Production
futura publications
EXHIBITION
Design / Concept
Anastasia Karandinou, Christina Achtypi, Stylianos Giamarelos
Interactive environment
2monochannels
Audiovisual and interactive systems design / acoustic design / supervision
Iraklis Lampropoulos
Giorgos Lampropoulos
Software programming
Vassilis Boukis
Electronic subsystem design
Michail Kritsotakis
Electrical Design
Giorgos Satolias
Interactive environment implementation / specialised technical support
Vangelis Lympouridis
Dimitris Miyakis
Sound Recording
Vangelis Lympouridis
Dimitris Miyakis
Light design
L+DG lighting architects
Thomas Gravanis
Christina Frangeti
Sound design
Dimitris Miyakis
Vangelis Lympouridis
Videos INTOTHEPILL
Internet Video Platform
Yiannis Grigoriadis
Lina Theodorou
Yiannis Isidorou
Construction
Michail Gavrilos
Digital printing – floor graphics
Polichromo
Marketing Communication
Chryssa Vrouzi
Communication Associate
Katerina Stamidi
About the Curators
Anastasia Karandinou
Born in Athens in 1981. Architect Engineer, N.T.U.A., MSc in Advanced Architectural Design, University of Edinburgh, and PhD candidate at the same university, funded by the AHRC. She works as an architect and also as a Design Tutor at the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD in-progress, entitled as ‘Immaterial; the beyond-the-built’, deals with the ‘immaterial’ – the sensuous, the electronic, the hybrid, the non-representable. She has got distinctions and awards in several architectural competitions, such as the 3rd prize at the International UIA competition ‘Light of tomorrow’, 2006, of 550 participations. She’s got publications in international architectural journals, and she has presented her work in eight Architectural Conferences, amongst which, at the ‘Critical Digital’, in Harvard, USA, the ‘Tectonics’, in TUE, Holland, and the ASCAAD 2007 in Alexandria. She has taken part in several workshops and exhibitions (e.g. 4th Biennale of Barcelona) and she has been invited as a speaker at the workshop of the School of Architecture in Chur, Switzerland.
Christina Achtypi
Born in Patra in 1980. She studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens (N.T.U.A 2005). Currently, she is a post-graduate student at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL (M.Arch Architectural Design, 2007-2008). She has lived and worked in Athens from 2005 to 2007, whereas since 2007 she has been living and working in Athens and London (RIBA member). She is dealing with private projects and has taken part in several national and international architectural competitions (amongst which, two 1st international prizes, one commendation). Her works and projects have been presented in group exhibitions and have been published in architectural reviews, both in Greece and abroad. She has taken part in several international workshops (2nd prize IN.DE.SEM 2003 “Fast Forward, a driving perception” TU_DELFT). She has been invited to present her projects in the 4rth European Biennale of Landscape Architecture in Barcelona (2006) and in the 1st Biennale of Architecture in Rotterdam (2003).
Stylianos Giamarelos
Born in Athens (1982). He studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens (2007). Currently, he is a post-graduate student and assistant tutor at the School of Architecture, NTUA (MA “Design-Space-Culture). He has cooperated with architectural offices in Athens dealing with private projects. He has presented his work in international architectural conferences, among which the 23rd UIA World Congress “Transmitting Architecture” (Torino, 2008). His architectural works and comics have been presented in group exhibitions, both in Greece and abroad. He has been awarded with the 1st Prize of the 26th National Literature Competition (2007, category: essay) and a Distinction in the 7th National Comics Competition (2007, category: Young Artists).
Foreword
Our country is regularly present in the Venice Biennale, one of the most significant international events in architecture. This year, the exhibition addresses the contemporary theme of “Architecture beyond building”.
The Greek participation has chosen to focus on the sound of the city, so as to bring forth the non-visual qualities of space. The aim is to transform the Greek Pavilion into an interactive experience that results in a sonic mapping of Athens – the ultimate metropolis of Greece. Through this interactive installation, the curators address the multi-dimensional nature of our relationship with the city and its people in our everyday experience, which involves the sum of our senses. The city of Athens ‘speaks’ for itself by unconcealing a multitude of its sonic - or other - aspects that we have possibly never noticed or even perceived.
I am very pleased to salute the Greek participation in this most significant event. This year, Greece has chosen to be represented by a team of extremely young architects-curators, who belong to a generation that is actively participating and working in a field of investigations that aim to rise up to the challenges presented by contemporary advancements.
Michalis Liapis
Minister of Culture
Athens by sound is the national participation of Greece in the 11th Biennale of Architecture in Venice, with general theme: "Out there. Architecture beyond building" held September 13 to November 23, 2008
