16 June, 2023
18th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia 2023: EPIKΥKLOS built the Greek pavilion with the theme "Water Bodies"
EPIKΥKLOS supported the construction of the Greek pavilion at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia 2023.
Water Bodies feature dams and reservoirs that transform the country. In an already heavily cultivated, but generally arid land, since the 1930s, an extensive and collective water retention program has provided irrigation, water supply and power. A significant number of man-made lakes make up an extensive reverse archipelago spread across the mountainous terrain. They turn land into country, both in the sense of territory as well as in the etymological origin of the word from the verb choró, that is, a place that contains the lives, actions, memories and expectations of its inhabitants.
Water Bodies and all related structures such as dams and earthworks are considered public architecture, in the Roman or Vitruvian sense. They are literally public works of collective emancipation, as agents of sustainability and, symbolically, as a result of collective toil and desire for progress.
The main exhibits are suspended glass surfaces with bottom drawings of important bodies of water all around the country. They hover at various heights, depending on their actual altitude. A podium made of recycled cardboard is presented as a soil laboratory, the country as a construction site. It contains scale models of large dams, with the reworked land as a permanent reconstruction of the country. Drawings of the country’s man-made lakes and a collection of historical and contemporary photographs are displayed on the walls of the pavilion. The viewer’s movements activate soundscapes recorded in situ.
National Commissioner
Efthimios Bakoyannis , Secretary General of Spatial Planning and Urban Environment
Curators
Kostis Panigyris , Andreas Nikolovgenis
Curator team members
Kostas Apostolidis, Spyros Karakostas , Evita Marioglou , Matoula Kroustalli (architects), Mary Pantazi, Evi Tarantili , Marianthi Chimariou (architecture students)
Collaborators
Ilias Kosintas (photo), Dimitris Karageorgos (music), Filippos Theocharidis (sound interaction design ), Marinos Kolokotsas / Nowhere Studio (visual identity), Vassilis Kalisperakis , Fotini Adrimi / lost minutes studio (architectural representation), Vangelis Brachos ( 3D terrain models), Alexandros Papadopoulos / papercuts (paper models), Theodora Papadopoulou, Mina Mantzari / luun (architectural lighting), Dimitra Evkolidou (website), Irini Sapka (exhibition support)
Advisors
Prodromos Papadopoulos / DOMa (publishers), Nicoletta Tsitsanoudi – Mallidi , Professor at the University of Ioannina (communication), Dimitris Kourkoumelis , lawyer (legal advisor), Panagiotis Panagiotopoulos, civil engineer (statics), Antonis Zacharopoulos, Nikos Soulis (detail design)
Construction: EPIKYKLOS, Metal structures: qoop, Crystals: spatiotis glass & masscolor, Models: papercuts, Print-outs: apolyto, future format
Cultural Mediators: ΜMarilena Koufoyianni , Katerina Paisiou , Irini Dimitrievic
Texts
John Aesopos, Phoebe Giannisi , Zisis Kotionis , Katerina Kotzia – Korina Filoxenidou , George A. Panetsos , Lois Papadopoulos, Leonidas Papalampropoulos -Georgia Syriopoulou, Boulouki
