39.6690 Degrees North 20.8577 Degrees East
Creative Audio Description (/ - x)
Elissavet Vlachou, 39.6690 Degrees North 20.8577 Degrees East, 2024, ceramic, clay, 31 × 17 × 4 cm
Creative Audio Description
Elisavet Vlachou’s work “39.6690 Degrees North, 20.8577 Degrees East” draws its inspiration from a stone relief that adorns the main gate of the Castle of Ioannina. On a sheet of clay, the artist recreates the lion depicted in the original relief. The animal moves towards the left. Its head, positioned at the upper left side, is detached from its body. From the animal’s neck extends a strap, and beneath its front legs lies a round ball. A long tail passes between the hind legs and extends upward, ending in a rounded tuft. In the upper right corner, a decorative band with triangular motifs frames the composition.
The lion is rendered with simple lines and forms. According to the artist, it conveys a sense of archaic ritual and imaginative tradition, where the primitive meets the surreal.
When first presented in November 2024, the work remained unfired. Its tactile interaction with the audience gradually transformed it, a process of alteration alluding to the natural erosion suffered by the castle’s original relief over time. Today, the ceramic piece is presented fired and glazed, having captured all those traces as permanent traces of its encounter with the public.
The depiction of a lion playing with a ball, once visible to the wanderers of Ottoman era Ioannina’s Castle Town, radiates a playful experimentation with identity and time. The work bridges the ephemeral and the timeless, narrating the journey of matter and memory through decay.
Exhibition section: Textures and memories of the city
…like a living canvas filled with traces of earlier times
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