Title: Lidinos for Syria, Lagini Workshops
Date: September 14 – 16 2012
Venue: Eynardeion, Aegina
ARTISTS: Nikos Charalambidis, Giannis Charitidis, Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Ioannis Dedes, Kostas Emmanouilidis, Giorgos Goulias, Pavlos Habidis, Voula Karampatzaki, Ryusuke Kido , Filippos Koutsaftis, Nikos Larios, Olia Lazaridou, Tarohei Nakagawa, Ioannis Nestoros, Angelos Papadimitriou, Georgia Sagri, Aspasia Syrigou
PARTICIPANTS: Paraskevi Annousi, Eugenia Asimakopoulou, Maroula Baharidou, Ismini Chrysochoou, Anastasia Dimoulaki, Anastasia Ferentinou, Despoina Giannouli, Mari Katsika, Stavros Koumoutsos, Eleni Moniodi, Kostis Lieros, Ioanna Papageorgiou, Giorgos Papamatthaiakis, Alkis Peppas, Thodoris Pitsilis, Loukas Protopapas, Thalia Sahinidi, Mario Salata, Ksanthi Sotiraki, Eleni Stavrotheodorou, Vassiliki Tantaoui, Ioanna Tsakanika, Konstantinos Tsimbouris
.. completed another edition of the HAM project recently at Palais de BOZAR in Brussels, the journey of the most precious Belgian embroidery continues to Aegina, where through years has been established as kopaneli. A small needle-work of Kopaneli’s purchasing value, not surprisingly, is higher than a gold jewelery. Deceiving the financial crisis, LaginiWorkshops / Exhibition explores the luxury existence of the embroidery through the bombing in Syria; making the whole procedure even more provocative …Nikos Charalambidis
Through a linguistic device, Aegina is connected via Cyprus with Syria that is currently stricken by war. Peanuts, a typical product of Aegina, are called “chalepiana” in Cyprus, from the city of Aleppo (Chalepi) in Syria. The connection of these places on the map is realized by the work provided by laginiWorkshops, curated and based on a concept by Nikos Charalambidis.
… once, to tease my male architect associates, I invited them to my apartment to discuss business matters and I was talking to them while ironing my clothes… Zaha Hadid
Frankfurt Kitchen
Is it possible that everyday functions, movement or the necessary household work in the habitual space of our house, are predefined not so much by us but mostly of our own home? Is it possible that the design of our house, the furniture, the objects but also the utensils of household equipment, be decisively involved, apart from their initial role, in our routine?
Exceeding our mood and emotions, can they affect deeper our spirituality, consciousness, or even our ethics? Is it possible that a small household can comprise a small fortification of everyday resistance to the razing bourgeois power of the contemporary globalized civilization? Can it be the idiotype of a gym for our daily practice of those mechanisms that hold us alert? Are a subversive routine and an alternative lifestyle indispensable conditions for achieving general radicalness in social change? Is it possible that our house itself is indeed the beehive of revolt?
In an era of incontinent disposal and ethical recession, how paradoxical can the poetry of Evagoras Pallikarides seem; how strange and distant does the heroic lifestyle of him and his companions seem – the contenders of our recent history of resistance against the superpower of colonization? Is it possible for an old cabinet or the wooden bench of a kitchen to have their own renowned history, forming a model of an alternative lifestyle? “EOKA” (National Organization of Cypriot Fighters) fighters’ hideouts were particularly attached to furniture and household equipment, like the legendary hideout-cabinet of Grivas Digenis. Placing the detergents and the plastic mopping bucket in the cabinet under the kitchen sink is typical of most households. Yet, in the kitchen of the photo they had a misleading role. No one could imagine that underneath them and the removable floor of the cabinet, there was a wooden ladder leading to the underground hideout-headquarters of EOKA.
Domestic Barricade
The hideout is an exercise to the participants, aiming to the final production of a Dovecote for the central square of the city of Aleppo in Syria. This dovecote is baptized as a symbol of peace, after having being first installed transitionally at Eleftheria Square of Nicosia. Designs, models and video-constructions will be exhibited around a central sculptural construction, given as a starting point for the projects. As signified by the title, Domestic Barricade, the construction is based on the idea of a barricade for every home! It comprises a kitchen bench manually revolving around a brace of barrels. So, it limits or liberates space, according to the user’s or visitor’s position. This sculpture refers to the improvised hideout of G. Digenis and the scientifically studied Frankfurt Kitchen.
Dovecote
The totemic architecture of the Dovecote is a reference to the scarecrow of Lidinos, symbol of the earthly rebirth, carrying the message of peace to warzone. This symbol of peace and freedom is directly connected to the events of Syria. One of the goals of the project is to collect and preserve visual material related to the Eleftheria Square, before its reconstruction by Zaha Hadid, such as concerts, demonstrations and talks that have marked the history of Cyprus. This square has been a very important centre of intense sociopolitical events and it’s now redesigned by Hadid into a contemporary example of innovation in urban architecture. The Dovecot will be studied at a realistic scale and in relation to the model and aesthetic of the project by Hadid, so that the construction may be installed at a selected site in the square.