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Exhibitions

“Under the Landscape” at the Tomato Industrial Museum “D.Nomikos”

 

The Tomato Industrial Museum “D. Nomikos” is hosting the “Under the Landscape” symposium and exhibition in the summer of 2022. They are the culmination of a series of events, research and participatory projects around the two islands organized and coordinated by Bouluki during 2021 and 2022.

The Symposium Under the Landscape takes place in Santorini and Thirasia from June 26 to 29. Its purpose is to activate a dialogue between different fields of knowledge that develop around the study of landscapes. The symposium includes keynote addresses – open to the public – by five distinguished thinkers. It also includes a three-day workshop that will be held in Thirassia from June 27 to 29, during which fifteen young researchers will discuss their work with recognized academics from Greece and abroad. Finally, two roundtables between representatives of different agencies will attempt to anchor the theoretical discussion in specific challenges facing the island landscapes of Santorini and Thirasia.

The symposium finds in the concept of landscape a common ground for addressing the complex social and environmental challenges of the 21st century. The work of the invited speakers has promoted alternative approaches to the built environment and landscape, going beyond understanding it as a panorama or an object of admiration, and reading it more as a space of coexistence and reconciliation. Philosopher of architecture Karsten Harries, cultural geographer Kenneth Olwig, landscape architects Teresa Gali Izard and Jane Mah Hutton, and anthropologist Tim Ingold are prominent figures in contemporary international debates around cultural landscapes and architecture. Young researchers, invited commentators, and roundtable speakers represent a variety of cultural and scientific backgrounds. In order to capitalize on contact with the islands’ unique landscapes, the symposium will take the form of a roving outdoor workshop, encouraging multi-layered dialogue between participants, and highlighting the value of place and human contact in the post-coronavirus era.

The exhibition Under the Landscape is organized with the aim of presenting to the public the results of the action organized by Bouluki throughout 2021 with a focus on Thirasia. It is developed in two parts, one in Santorini and one in Thirasia, inviting the visitor to travel from one island to the other. The first part in Santorini, entitled “Learning from below: the case of the Theraic land”, edited by museologist Eratous Koutsoudakis, focuses on the presentation of the special methodology, findings and results of the whole project “Below the Landscape” . Whereas, the part of Thirasia entitled “In Ex Situ”, focuses entirely on its visual dimension. In essence, however, both strands pose a common, very simple, question: does the beastly land concern us today? And if so, why and how?

With the opportunity to find answers, the exhibition invites us on a journey back in history, a journey that begins 30,000 years ago, passing through caves and vineyards, listening to songs of the harvest, tasting “aspa” with bare hands, learning what a snail is and in which ports of the world was the land of Thera used and if the Romans had concrete. In the exhibition, the local is constantly in conversation with the international, tradition with science and innovation, and practicality with imagination. By visiting eight thematic sections hosted in Santorini, as well as an independent section in Thirasia, the visitor will have the opportunity to learn how these two islands took their current form, how man adapted to the landscape and adapted the landscape to his needs, what it was like when the now abandoned Agrilia was inhabited, a settlement that hides within it all the wisdom that the struggle for survival brings and of course how you build and how you create artistically with wild land, in the most experiential way.

In the exhibition, on the occasion of the beastly land, we will learn “from below” how we can use our past to help our future.

The two events are organized by the Boulouki – Traveling Workshop for Traditional Construction Techniques, are held under the auspices of the Technical Chamber of Greece and are supported by the JM Kaplan Fund, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), the Headley Trust, AMKE AEGEAS, EYDAP , the Cyclades Preservation Fund, Blue Star Ferries and local businesses.