Missing Spaces, an installation comprising a map and a ladder, draws attention to the landscape that has been excluded from the contemporary narrative of the archaeological site. It points to those spaces that have been both emptied and exploited, both metaphorically and literally, through industrial extraction, economic activities, and archaeological processes. 

 

Spaces that are there but aren’t.

They are empty, but they are not voids.

They stand for non-material culture that is impossible to preserve.

They are occupied by different entities,

moving on different axes, where transmutation, regeneration and decay take place.

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One of these missing places is a deep hole, a space between huge wall structures. Deep inside it grows an enormous fig tree, creating an inaccessible, concealed space, excluded from the historical narrative of the site. Little or no information is given about it. Much like our partial knowledge of the Mysteries themselves, the hanging ladder seems to promise that the space is accessible, while in reality what’s down there remains a mystery.

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The project was realized during Mystery 19 Visual Arts Initiator III – But Don’t Tell Anyone Residency in Eleusis 2023 European Capital of Culture.

Curator of Mystery 19 : Joanna Warsza 
Concept of legacy project Mystery 19 Visual Arts Initiator: 2023 Eleusis 
Production: Delta Pi

An event by 2023 Eleusis
Supported by the Goethe-Institut Athens

With the support of the Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica

Photo: Vangelis Gkinis