May 18, 2018
On this second day I had the opportunity to see some things in Athens, so I decided to go to the Byzantine Museum to try and understand somthing of the history of this region and, having some time left, to visit the cradle of democracy on the Philopappos hill which itself is called the Mouseion, the hill of the muses. After this I went back to the ASFA to take part in our project for Platforms Project.
A replica of the Byzantine mosaïc of emperor Justinian from Ravenna. This emperor tried to restore power of the Roman empire from Constantinople where he ruled Byzantium. He built the Hagia Sophia which was later turned into a mosque after the Ottomans conquered Constantinople.
Cotton liturgical vestment with the image of a female saint flanked by forty other female saints. – 18th – 19th century
Part of a silk vestment embroidered with silk and metallic threads
Part of a wall-painiting depicting deesis (upper zone) with hierarchs performing the liturgy together and melismos (lower zone). From the conch of the north aisle of the twin church of Hagios Giorgios and Nikolaus in Lathrina, Naxos – Late 13th century
Icon of St. George “Kefalopharos” (head-bearer) – 16th century. It made me think of the description from the Divina Commedia of Bertran de Born, the mediëval troubadour from France.
Greek architecture “under construction” along the way
The “bêma” (orators spot) on the Pnyx where democracy started in 508 BC. Around it the people would sit in a circle on rocks and later wooden benches to listen to orators like Pericles, Demosthenes and Themistocles.
This is left of the ancient stoa behind the pnyx
The wall of an ancient Byzantine church on the hill, St. Demetrios Lampardiaris – 12th century
The Mouseion, hill of the muses.
On top of that hill the monument of Philopappos, a Roman born in Syria
From here the view on the Akropolis is stunning
Back at the Platforms Project a new collage is growing
We had two girls from a Turkish gallery participating on the project
Which they did with enthousiasm
Across the aisle there was a constant playing of communist marching songs which drove everybody mad. Ellen tried to get a passport there from the republic of Banania, but she got stuck in Bureaucracy: it was a perfect piece of absurd theatre from the collective Future Scenario’s from Greece with Dutch artist Maaike Stutterheim participating
Our new collage ended up in the pool…
And after a very late night dinner I enjoyed the beautiful view on Pireus for some time
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