archetypa*eng

INTRODUCTION

2010-05-14T10:33:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 19 2010

the periodic exhibitions of the Byzantine & Christian Museum (BCM) host the opening of the exhibition and the presentation of the book by the architect
Giorgos Triantafyllou

archetypes*
FROM AND HUTS AND AND SHEEPFOLDS
TO CONTEMPORARY ART AND ARCHITECTURE

the exhibition will be opened

until the 5th of September 20210

Both the exhibition and the book are dedicated to the memory of the late Director of BCM Dimitris Constantios

Giorgos Triantafyllou, a long-time and consistent practitioner of architecture, is a man who loves art and is well acquainted with all its forms. He has worked with visual artists, people in theater and cinema, and other artists as co-creator in architectural and art projects. In this exhibition he uses photography, which for years provides a release from the relentless pressure of his work, to make a protest.
Giorgos Triantafyllou exasperated by the deluge of aggressive and indifferent buildings, imposed on us by a so-called contemporary architecture, which transmute man to inanimate object, considers this exhibition to be a protest and proposes, through these small buildings, another architecture, one with a human dimension, one which might have to answer to neither legalities and bureaucracies nor moneyed interests. His ultimate aim is to suggest ways to accomplish the enhancement of the natural and the built environments which both suffer so much in Greece.
The exhibition comprises 180 photographs illustrating huts and sheepfolds found scattered throughout the Greek landscape. These structures, examples of an unexplored, neglected, but also true architecture, function as archetypes referring one back to prehistoric times. Related as they are, at the same time, with works of contemporary art and architecture, they record an underground route of sensitive artists seeking the truth in their work.The exhibition is accompanied by 12 video projections suggesting ways in which the values of these archetypes, coupled with advances in modern technology, can contribute towards the aesthetic enhancement of the natural and the built environments. At the same time they highlight a strongly growing trend that has emerged in recent years around the world, opposing the huge scale housing complexes. A trend, perhaps a resistance, expressed by sensitive design and the increasing production of contemporary, small, poetic shelters, which seem to meet the needs of young people. Of those who can not, and probably want not, dream their lives housed in anonymous complexes or luxury villas, but wish to live in places of human scale, proximity to nature, built with ecological materials, incorporating all the advances of modern technology and utilizing green energy.
The exhibition is organized with the help of Hellenic Institute of Architecture and the support of the Technical Chamber of Greece. Curator of the exhibition is the architect, professor of Architecture in NTUA, and writer Dimitris Philippides, who introduces the exhibition in his attached note. Costis Antoniadis, professor of Photography, curates the photographic material. The exhibition runs until June 30, 2010. The book, under the same title K. Adam Publishing), will be presented alongside the exhibition opening. It is prefaced by the artist Costas Tsoclis who participates in its presentation along with Manolis Korres and Dimitris Philippides professors of Architecture in NTUA.

The Curator of the exhibition architect, professor of Architecture, and writer Dimitris Philippides, says in his note:

"This exhibition and its accompanying book are the fruit of a long-standing passion of Giorgos Triantafyllou for the unexplored, neglected, but also true architecture of the huts and sheepfolds found scattered throughout the Greek landscape

In Triantafyllou's eyes, the works of this anonymous architecture function as archetypes which refer back to the mists of prehistory, while at the same time interconnect with works of contemporary international art and architecture.

The exhibition not only aims to highlight a neglected wealth of the Greek landscape--the toil of people who live entirely in nature--but also wants to break new ground in contemporary art and architecture, by combining the values of these archetypes with the achievements of modern technology. Thus its ultimate aim is to suggest ways to accomplish the enhancement of the natural and the built environments which both suffer so much in Greece. It is in this general direction that many young artists from around the world are moving today, seeking another way to design, respectful of the human scale, close to and in accordance with nature, using ecological materials with sensitivity and utilizing the advances of modern technology

Giorgos Triantafyllou was entirely engrossed by this enchanting vision, exploring and combing the full breath of the Greek territories. For he discovered right from the start, to his great surprise, that what he saw through his lens was already logged in his memory as a familiar visual pursuit of contemporary art, as if someone had deliberately, and with incredible accuracy, provided for these impressive similarities. And contrariwise, looking at contemporary art in publications and exhibitions, memories of those wonderful anonymous works, sprinkled about the countryside, which he photographed on his past wanderings, sprung readily to Triantafyllou's mind."

A large number of guests attended: people from Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Hellenic Institute of Architecture (HIA)---which supported the exhibition---artists, journalists, architects and friends of Giorgos Triantafyllou, gathered in the museum's courtyard on Monday 19 April and listened to the talks given.

Anastasia Lazaridou, Deputy Director of the Museum, was the first to greet the gathering. She was followed by Alexandros Tombazis, architect, representing HIA; Dimitris Philippides, curator of the exhibition and editor of the book, architect, professor of Architecture and writer; Manolis Korres, architect and professor of Architecture at NTUA; Dimitris Fatouros, architect and professor of Architecture; and Costas Tsoclis, visual artist. The presentation concluded with a speech by the architect Giorgos Triantafyllou, who asked all to observe a minute's silence in memory of the late BCM Director, Dimitris Constantios. After that the guests, passing through the permanent exhibition on the Byzantine Museum, visited the rooms of the periodic exhibition "archetypes".

Excerpts from the talks:
VIDEOS 01-05

Anastasia Lazaridou

"... Far from a romantic tour, the inspired photographs of Giorgos Triantafyllou acquire the power of a documentary material which, associated as it is with works of modern art and architecture, results in truly fruitful ways of suggesting the aesthetic upgrading of the natural and built environments. I wish this exhibition, with its artistic integrity and supportive strength, to become a springboard for fruitful thought and discussion. Let me conclude this short message with the words of Dimitris Constantios: "In any event, what concerns us is to keep the public's interest alive, to stimulate its curiosity with contemporary, topical issues and to do our duty as an active museum of today".

Alexander Tombazis

"... Giorgos Triantafyllou is sensitive, methodical, and persistent in what he does, disregarding cost, for so it is when you love what you do. The material he has recorded is an unending source of enjoyment and learning. There is an immediacy of purpose and function. There is a beautiful effect of materials, colours, which has much in common with art and especially with arte povera ..."

Dimitris Philippidis

"... Triantafyllou does not merely remind the passion of those thirsty for truth people of old. He resembles them, for from the outset he regards it, as they did, as a tool to unlock the doors of the future. It is this promise Triantafyllou has served for many years with much sacrifice. For this reason his exhibition today is not yet another presentation of fine images from a lost world, set up with some romantic mood or nostalgic spirit, but a trumpet of hope for what is coming, what has already made its appearance, what promises to restore the lost meaning not only of contemporary architecture but of our very lives. That is where all his sacrifices, all his struggles, find justification. Flirting with utopia, Triantafyllou speaks to us prophetically of another beauty ..."

Costas Tsoclis

"In architecture, Giorgos Triantafyllou is a good student and a good teacher. But he also is an artist who expresses himself through photography. He is an acute observer of both the unintentional and the deliberate. An artist who composes, not by transposing or varying the elements that interest him, as the visual arts do, but by isolating them as photography does... "

"... I find the book beautiful and useful and its photographs revealing. And I find the parallels between the necessary and the deliberate, in both architecture and the visual arts, very apt. I consider it, moreover, tremendously courageous and touching when one seeks the truth of tomorrow, not in today but in yesterday. Especially when he knows, and Giorgos knows well, that one must at times ignore or burn the existing bridges and swim across ... "

Giorgos Triantafyllou

"... There appears to be a new trend, perhaps a resistance, or a return to nature, to the provinces, perhaps to our villages, possibly forced by the future dictates of the International Monetary Fund. Let us trust in the poetry of the ordinary.

There were mistakes, but we must mobilize, see the essence of things through the prism of poetry, art, the human dimension and the feasible. Let us emerge thoughtfully. Let us utilize the wisdom of these archetypes with the achievements of modern technology. We can. In the most trivial things one can discover values which should not be despised.

Do not seek, in this exhibition, practical solutions and recipes. But another way of thinking, another simple and humane look to the future, The aim of this phase is to meditate, to dream in a new direction ... "

video

Prologue

2010-05-13T01:29:00.000-07:00

Ah! We experienced very beautiful moments with George since we discovered each for his own reasons and with his own tools of inquiry, the beauty and wisdom of this nameless architecture.

I, impelled by the ravenous and misleading for my friends pursuit of new sources of inspiration, and George, I think, under the spell of a revelation, a godsend help, which granted him documented support for some of his views on architecture. Thankfully he saw these erratic structures as a photographer. He also saw them as autonomous images, capable of defending their existence on their own. Thus he benefited doubly. At least I gather this much by reading what he writes and by looking at the pictures he chose.

Although these structures seemed to me only some kind of incidental Land Art –realized years before the coining of the term– as modest but imaginative works of art, executed with the cheapest of materials and out of use objects, so I felt exulted by viewing them, George made out of them a book, a lesson and a viewpoint. He tried to speak through them, to demonstrate, to formulate them into systems, and with these as a tool to support a statement or a challenge...

I hope that, in his future projects, utilizes what he saw, what he recorded, what he understood, what he thought, what he said; and that his work is consistent with the beliefs he puts forward in this book-album. This, of course, does not put him under any obligation. No-one is entitled to charge him one day with possible inconsistencies. Life moves on and, thankfully, sweeps us and our ideas along.

But I think this book will ultimately remain as an unquestionable object of art, even if its message may be challenged.

It offers to those who would hold it in their hands, first a visual and tactile pleasure and then a lesson or at least some information.

And so, I say, it should be.

For once you offer a picture as testimony for your views, the word, often unnecessary or wrong, while apparently wants to promote the image, in essence contends with it and often, out of stubbornness or inability, degrades it, turning it from an independent and self-reliant event to a material or a tool.

What a pity we can not trust the intelligence of our fellow human beings but to have to explain to them the obvious each and every time!

Costas Tsoclis

08.09.2009

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From neolithic period until today

2010-05-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

Researchers and Photographers highlight

Is it not meteorological time that dictates, among others, even the seasonal journeys of the migratory birds? During this event a shelter-building of unbelievable scale takes place. A constant, monumental intervention in nature, with materials detached from her to erect shelters as refuge from her forces.

Οne finds in some people an inborn ability to build instinctively dwellings of a pure structural geometry –an atavistic knowledge. This geometry guarantees their structural integrity and their sound integration into nature, the ultimate teacher.

Left: Basketry, photo Takis Tloupas, Αrchive of Tloupa Vania.
Right: Thessaly, Larissa, D. Theoharis, "Neolithic Civilization", MIET

Excavation findings in settlements give us a clear picture of the shelters comprising them.The similarities with modern huts are evident, especially in the articulation of the timber frame and its twigs and thatch cover weaved into the timber posts.

North Euboea , Papades, Kria Vrisi, sheepfold interior, 03-05-2005.

Down left: "Experimental reconstruction of a neolithic hut in Thrace, 'Melina project" 19th EPCA. Down right: Reconstruction of a prehistoric lakeside settlement, Dispilio, Kastoria.

Ιn recent years, a series of younger researchers highlight, each from his own vantage point, aspects of the ongoing shelter-building. Huts and sheepfolds become objects of research and documentation. Aris Konstantinidis had christened "theochtista" (god-built) these "samples of decline and deprivation" many years ago. He was perhaps the first Greek architect who deliberately documented, highlighted and utilized in his work the quintessence of these humble structures.

Left: Cyprus to Asinou, Aris Konstantinidis, "Theoktista". Right: Agrinio, Aris Konstantinidis, "Theoktista".

Takis Tloupas, the gifted Thessalian photographer, "lover of truth in its philosophical essence" was a colleague of Theocharis Dimitriou and an enthusiast of prehistoric archaeology.

Left: “Tsardaki-Dragasia” ,Τhessaly, Ambelonas Larissas, 1960, photo Takis Tloupas, Αrchive of Tloupa Vania. Right: Tsardaki-Dragasia,Τhessaly, photo Takis Tloupas, Αrchive of Tloupa Vania.

I could not finally avoid the connection with the reconstruction drawing, by Manolis Korres, of the Middle Neolithic Sesklo Acropolis which, while located in Thessaly, epitomizes the unified technique of an important period. The "mandres" of Lemnos recorded by Sifounakis, plainly resemble the prehistoric huts of Sesklo.

Left: Thessaly Middle Neolithic Sesklo Acropolis, reconstruction drawing by M. Korres. Right: Limnos "Mandra" on Archi Zemata beach, photo Nikos Sifounakis. With the conviction that huts and sheepfolds are characterized by archetypal values, direct and indirect relationships with contemporary art and architecture are pointed out. Works by prominent artists, as well as works of contemporary architecture, are juxtaposed alongside these anonymous shelters, highlighting them as archetypes. It is through these revealing correlations that the underground path of sensitive [authors] who ultimately seek the truth in their work is recorded.

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Correlations with Contemporary Art

2010-05-04T02:54:00.000-07:00

With the conviction that huts and sheepfolds are characterized by archetypal values, direct and indirect relationships with contemporary art and architecture are pointed out. Works by prominent artists, as well as works of contemporary architecture, are juxtaposed alongside these anonymous shelters, highlighting them as archetypes. It is through these revealing correlations that the underground path of sensitive [authors] who ultimately seek the truth in their work is recorded.
Finally I would like to list examples of the unconscious and flowing associations with artists' works I experienced in my wanderings. I will confine myself merely to their presentation and interrelations, avoiding any other comments. More important than any theoretical approach –which I leave to the experts– is in my opinion to leave the reader feel spontaneously what I myself felt and is aptly described by Pikionis in his "Preface to Folk Art":

"Only the understanding of the laws of art and of her forms will lead you to the understanding of the spontaneous folk art of your land, and then your attachment –for sentimental reasons– to your folk art will lead you to Art".

Left: North Euboea, Damia, 03-05-2005. Right: Costas Tsoclis, "Nose Bag", 1991.

North Euboea, Kirinthos, 06-06-2005.

Αntoni Tapies "Metal sheeting"1972.

Left: Central Macedonia Lake Megali Volvi, Detail, 05-11-2005. Right: Jannis Kounellis "Senza Titolo", 2004, photo Aurelio Amendola

North Euboea, Dafni, 05-05-2005.

Detail, "Untitled", Sotiris Sorogas.

North Euboea, Papades, Tsougana area, detail, 18-08-2005.

Michalis Katzourakis "Nature morte/ Vodolas", 1995, photo Dimitris Tamviskos

Left: North Euboea, Dafnousa, 09-04-2007. Right: Akrithakis "Feather key", 1978.

Left: Tyrnavos, Tsardaki-Dragasia, 1959, photo Takis Tloupas. Right: Nikos Alexiou, March 1994.

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Correlations with Contemporary Architecture

2010-05-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

I soon realized through these quick sketches that despite their simplicity these buildings, the open sheds, the yards, participated in a strange interlacing of space,[which ends up serving a number of subtle daily and seasonal activities contained in the concept of a singular "dwelling".
And as one comes closer, one can truly discover this unique and often paradoxical "weaving" of materials. A type of weaving meant to protect the tender newborn, the mother, the suckling, the sleep, and even the fear, with natural materials. A weaving, ultimately, involved in materials, feelings and needs.
Construction solutions and details which leave one speechless with their simplicity and ingenuity geared to necessity.
This forms a forgotten aspect of anonymous architecture which still coexists with Modern Greek structures. If one accepted the older concept that anonymous buildings reflect the values and worldview of the society creating them, then an issue is raised: what exactly is happening today, where are these values buried, and why do they seem to be utilized only in huts and sheepfolds?

Up:Thessaloniki, Lake Megali Volvi, 05-11-2007. Down: New Acropolis Museum, Athens, architects Bernard Tsumi, M.Fotiadis, , 15-03-2009.

Up:Igoumenitsa, 01-05-2007.
Down: House on a Cliff, "Oral architecture", 2004, architect Aristidis Antonas.

Left: Tinos, Kampos, 24-08-2005.
Right: Salvari House Aegina, 1983, architect Kyriakos Krokos.

Left: Grevena, Kipourgio, Detail, 06-11-2007. Right: House in Ν. Filothei, Athens, 2006, architect Elena Stavropoulou, photo K. Thomopoulos.

Left: Reconstrucion of a prehistoric lakeside settlement at Dispilio, Kastoria, photo E.Rizopoulos. Right: ean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, Noumea, New Caledonia, 1992-1998, architect Renzo Piano Building workshop,photo Hans Schlupp.

Up: North Euboea, Kourkouloi, 29-04-2005.
Down: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, 1997, architect Frank O. Gehry, photo David Heald.

Left: Thermopylae, 16-11-2007. Right: Artist's lofts, Pugh & Scarpa architects, Bergamot, Santa Monica, USA, 1999, photo Marvin Rand.

Lesbos island, Agia Paraskevi, 20-05-2007.

Small house Roof texture S, Kobe, Japan, Schuhei Endo Architectural Institute

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Epilogue

2010-05-02T01:09:00.000-07:00

Doubtlessly, the architecture of these archetypes suggests new kinds of research. It leads us, in a different way, toward contemporary and human, ecological and bioclimatic approaches.
In Greece in particular new paths have been opened discreetly toward a new architecture. One which has to bypass any picturesqueness and which will carefully and with sensitivity prepare the introduction of new technology and the sources of green energy, since, “technology, as much as it can be elegant will enhance the environment and will calm our souls and our instincts” (Kostas Tsoklis).
In our country the introduction of new technologies has habitually violated the natural and the built environment. All shorts of antennas, solar heaters, air-conditioning units and shades have wounded it irremediably. It is obvious that the new technology should be applied carefully and sparingly. It should lead to the reduction of energy consumption rather to the cover-up for incontrollable waste.
Let us then visualize a new architecture by exploiting the accomplishments of technology:

Photovoltaic cells
Air turbines
Vertical gardens
Planted terraces
Shading devices
Synthetic Laminated wood
Ecological insulation systems
Bioclimatic design
Lighting with Leds

While we strife for the reduction of CO2. Let us build with natural materials and with the architectural handling of the archetypes which, behind their simplicity, hide a unique dexterity and wisdom.
Besides, a really thriving dynamic has of late made its appearance globally, in marked contrast to the out scaled housing complexes. A tendency, rather a resistance, which expresses, by the use of sensitive design and the increasing production of small, poetical shelters which are introduced in order to satisfy the needs of young people.
Those people who cannot and rather wish not to dream their life inside faceless and often aggressive complexes or luxurious villas and want to inhabit spaces of moderate scale, close to nature, with ecological materials and all the accomplishments of modern technology and green energy.

This tendency under any circumstances seems extremely timely. Incidentally, there has been an exhibition at the MOMA (New York) in October 2008 titled “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling”, where various architectural proposals for small-scale structures utilizing new technologies.
It was not by accident that the Guggenheim Museum in New York staged a retrospective exhibition called “Frank Lloyd Wright: From within Outward” in August 2009 supplemented with an auxiliary exhibition called “Learning by Doing”, organized by the Taliesin architectural school. This second exhibition concerned a retrospective show of small-scale shelters designed, built and inhabited by students at Taliesin West in Arizona and Taliesin in Wisconsin during their studies. The ecological sensitivity of this school, founded by Wright in 1932, increasingly gains world-wide acclaim.
It was no accident that lately numerous proposals for small shelters are circulated by internet geared to young people but not exclusively. Such good news comes mainly from The USA, Japan, the Scandinavian countries, even from the Balkans. Sweden moreover is working on legislature which encourages the cession of land by the state, in woods or natural settings, for the construction of such small units by citizens. These units would be autonomous, exploit new technology, on the condition that they respect the natural environment. Perhaps in Greece, under the current difficult socio-economic conditions, such an approach would help decrease arson and other similar destruction of the environment.

1 left. Refuge, Bachte-Maria Leene, Belgium 2008, Architect: Wim Goes
1 right.House K, in Sausal Pistrorf, Austria 2007, Architects: Yes Architecture
2 left.Summer Wooden House, Norway, Architects Todd Saunders& Tommie Wihelmsen
2 right.The Barn House, Belgium 2007, Architects: Buro II
3 left. La petite maison du weekend, Canada, Patkau Architects
3 right. Joshua Tree,Hangar Design Group
4.House C Chiba, Japan Architect: Hiroshi Nakamura
5.left. vitrahaus exterio, architects: Herzog & de Meron
5 right.The Berkovitz- Odgis House 1988, architect Steven Holl
6 left.Tree-trunk garden House, Netherland, 2009
6 right.Farm House, Norway, Architects: Jarmund / Vigsnaes AS

Micro Compact Home at MoMa 2008

Design Groups: Facultyof Architecture,
Institute for Architecture and Product Design

Archetypa

2010-05-02T00:46:00.000-07:00

Thessaloniki, Lake Megali Volvi, 05-11-2007.

North Euboea, Kirinthos, 06-06-2005.

North Euboea, Farakla, 30-04-2005.

Viotia, Livadia, 18-06-06.

Lesbos island, Agia Paraskevi, 20-05-2007.

North Euboea, Dafni, 05-05-2005.

Fthiotis, Agia Triada, Lokris, The sheepfold of Dimitris Margaritis, 06-11-2005.

Tinos, on the road to Santa Margarita, 24-08-2005.

Nocrth Euboea, Spathari, 06-05-2005.

Thessaloniki, Lake Megali Volvi, 05-11-2007.

North Euboea, Papades, Tsougana area, 18-08-2005.North Euboea, Dafnousa , 09-04-2007.

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