(A building)
is nothing else but a “life tool”, a
“life vessel” (a temporary refuge for the human body).
-Aris Konstantinidis
Archive: Soul Vessels is an experimental project comprised
of found ephemera and photographs which form a quasi-fictional architectural-psychogeographical
archive. The term “soul vessels”
was inspired by Greek architect Aris Konstantinidis who coined the phrase “life vessels”
to describe buildings as functional spaces whose sole purpose is to serve human
needs.
The work challenges the
“traditional” concept of the archive: it is not only “important” and
“celebratory” photographic moments that are worth collecting and assembling. The emphasis is on ideas concerning
day-to-day living, the burden of constant wear-and-tear, and the inevitable damage and erosion of all
objects and living beings.
In a
certain sense Archive: Soul Vessels is an attempt to rewrite and re-register
reality, as if creating an array of urban portals which open onto a plethora of
mental spaces. Through this meticulously assembled pseudo-archive the deepest
strata of the imagination can be explored: imprints of past realities, which
are fused into the photographed relics, are rediscovered and reinterpreted generating
new auras of the unknown.
