queer beauty of the city

hey everyone!
for this post i had this idea to write about the contoversial subject of beauty in a city.
personally i like finding it in those parts that seem to be decaying...
i believe there is this mysterious aura in old buildings, abandoned things,
the way people walk around the streets, how there's always some green poking out of a surface...

meet metaksourgeio (μεταξουργείο),
it's an area in the center of athens. it used to be a more highly estimated place...
today there are people that avoid it, people that still love to live there no matter it's
proximity to omonoia square (with whatever consequences that brings) and people,
like me, who find it a really interesting space to walk through...

what i love the most,
is finding works of street art (like this vasmoulakis one), politically interesting stencils,

and yet, antique and more traditional - like works, like this one

i got to get to know this place a lot more thanks to an urban regeneration project vanessa and i took.
we walked around the whole area and mapped our assigned part completely.
we got to meet people that lived and/or worked there, see the traffic,
categorise the buildings, note their age, uses, heights.

not to mention all the doors and windows i got to add to my collection of photos.

here are some of our project's posters, mostly our main idea and mapping of the area...

well,
that's about all i wanted to say...i think!
hope you enjoyed!
are there any parts of cities you love?

xoxo!

amidst a turmoil of events...

so,
i've been living in a maze lately. my thesis was due on thursday,
but it got postponed till november because of various strikes. not knowing this,
we'd already started making models and our program really sucked...
however it wasn't such bad news, we needed some extra time and i'll start looking
for a phd program.
we had stuff everywhere, models on chairs and tables, laser cutter appointments that never
took place...and you get the picture.
so this is basically why my posts have narrowed down this much.
i'm sure you all know what it's like to be working on thesis and panicing over deadlines
so i thought i might share some pics of vicky and mine, crazy week!

tons of food (mostly junk, it's much more comforting), huge cups of coffee and laptops...

papers, cardboard, gelatin sheets, little people we hand-cut, glue...
and tons of recycling to take out.

a visit on campus studios, in hope of finding out news about the strike...

not to mention the "spa" treatment...soaking hands in atlacol for three days in a row!

thank goodness for mrs mary's magic, chocolate filled cookies

and paper tape!
luckily, this week ended by celebrating a friend's birthday,
in his garden. good friends, a starry sky and some wine can fix almost anything!

here's to a whole new week! let's make it a good one!

how was your past week and weekend? did you do anything interesting?

xoxo

old books inspiration

hello!
vicky and i are now entering our final weeks of work and are up to our
noses in work! hopefully we'll manage.
however...my nostalgia for my childhood years...when work was spelling "c-a-n-d-y".
one of my favorite books was "peter rabbit"

basically,
bunnies were and are my favorite animal...
(i still have a stuffed one in my bedroom for that matter!)

so earrings, pair number 1...

old beads, wire, and shrinky dinks (a plastic sheet you draw on and bake)

earrings, pair 2!

i made these out of wire and fabric my mum cut off a nightie.

what were your favorite books when you were children? do you ever go back to them?
were you ever inspired by them?

xoxo!

september daydreaming...

september makes me want to escape.
i'm sure you're all familiar with that state...where your mind refuses to accept
that summer is over.
well,
for me it leads to this restless feeling of a deep need to escape, reality mostly.
somewhere i love, somwhere with nature and old things...
here's where i want to be

ormos marathokampou, 2010

i want to wake up at around 7 am and sit at the "pizza cave" in ormos (μαραθόκαμπος, σάμος) where the sweetest old man (that wears a bow-tie) will make me amazing greek coffee and serve it with a moustokoulouro...
while i listen to all the grandpah's argue over politics and history and just stare at the tiny boats floating.

makrynitsa, 2009

walk through all the tiny roads amongst the oldest stone and wood houses in makrynitsa (μακρυνίτσα), that seem to be suffocating from all the green that's growing through every surface. feel the coolest breeze and listen to the air flying through the leaves...
not to mention buying the most amazing herbs and tea from mount olympus.

voidokoilia, 2011

i wish i could go to divari (διβάρι) again. bathe in fantastic clear waters of voidokoilia (βοϊδοκοιλιά),
walk up the hill to the old ruins of the castle and to nestor's cave.
there's something about places that played great roles in history...like their story is written in the view.

samos, 2010

right outside vathi (βαθύ) in samos there's a river...
i want to follow that river again, that leads to a tiny little carved church in the middle of nowhere
and then dive between the two rocks to get to the waterfalls where it feels like you swim among
fairies...

aegina, 2011

sit in the middle of the square of markello's tower in aegina and just watch the people go by
and how all the old buildings change as time passes. right before sunset and after dusk
the light creats beautiful colors.

karlovasi, 2010

i dream i could walk down the main street of karlovasi (καρλόβασι) again.

this street is amazingly melancholic as you pass by all the old neoclassical buildings and banks, most left to ruin. it is unique to walk through a place that seems almost dying and know that it used to be quite alive and vibrant.

xoxo!

arte povera then and always.

hey there...
i'm in the mood for some art today so here's some food for thought.
arte povera is an art movevement intorduced in italy around the 60's, 
a period when artists questioned and opposed the supposed values of then institutes and industry...art as it was known as a personal expression of something personal.
considered as useless things and trash were materials to make their art out of
a phenomenon that created a whole new aesthetic in art and architecture.
michelangelo pistoletto designed on mirrors 
creating a magical dynamic between the image pictured and every little change in the space surrounding it that was inevitably mirrored...

yannis kounelis (γιάννης κουνέλης)

greek-italian artist. his materials: everyday objects...bottles, stained glass, funeral clothes, cotton, sacks...universal things.
his works provoke thought and feelings in a most unique and what i find a bit dark way.

"my goal is to present, not to represent"

recently i stumbled upon works of peter bottazzi and denise bonapace

in woman's enigma magazine, that seem to be constructing their works with a somewhat  more "green" attitude.

it makes me want to remodel some objects in my house!

after this last picture i really wanted to turn an old chair i had repainted into a pot...

but i'm still using it as a shelf so it's going to have to wait...oh well

anyway,

this is a subject i'm definitely going to look more into...and i'll let you know what i'll come up with!

xoxo!