What does it signify if we have reached the end of the natural landscape as we knew it? If we are entering a post-terrestrial reality, wherein digital, virtual, or algorithmic landscapes surpass the physical? Does Google Maps constitute a new form of geological stratum? How does one excavate a form of mediation or other remnants that seemingly have no physical presence? What does this mean for archaeological stratigraphy?

The exhibition This way, the traces never die is the result of an artistic exploration focused on the landscape as both a concept and a material object of memory, transformation, and absence. Through a series of works that function as material witnesses or hybrid remnants, the show constructs a narrative with open-ended questions about the landscape and its loss in a period of climate crisis. Matter emerges as a vessel of memory, a depository of stories, like a time capsule that can provide information about past uses of the landscape that have led to its disappearance.
The works in the exhibition depict gestures that do not aim to preserve what remains, but instead excavate what has disappeared. The artist’s experience as a conservator of antiquities, specifically the conservation of an object made of wood tar, served as the starting point for the exhibition. The temporal coincidence with the widespread wildfires during the 2021–2024 period shifted the research in a new direction, with destroyed landscapes becoming case studies.
Adopting archaeological methodology but transforming it into an artistic tool, the artist presents a new form of excavation that includes fragments of the landscapes she investigates. Among them, casts of burnt tree roots serve as physical records and imprints of a disaster. In parallel, 3D model fragments of trees that no longer exist are composed through photogrammetry, using digital material sourced from Google Street View. Seeking presence through absence, the exhibition maps a landscape that is both imaginary and utterly real.
The concept of absence functions as the central axis of the exhibition, not as something static, nor through the sadness of loss, but as a field of exploration into how we might encounter the landscape again, even when we can no longer see it. Ultimately, it is a search for a new relationship with the irrevocably transformed landscape.

The exhibition also includes archival and photographic material from the artist’s research, which is inextricably linked to her practice.
This way, the traces never die Athens, 2025 at a.antonopoulou art gallery
From the press release of the exhibition.
Exhibition text written by Kyveli Mavrokordopoulou HERE

The exhibition is accompanied by a printed publication and a video, which include textual and visual interventions by other artists and researchers. They function as a series of conversations between friends, where personal reflections compose a collective commentary on the work. (Contributors to the publication include: Katerina Stamou, Alexandros Psychoulis, Vasilis Galanis. Documentation photographs by Romane Bourgeois. Video by Konstantza Kapsali).