interior of a structure
posted by gregorios pharmakis | 4:01 PM
Construction of a plural person.
Gregorios Pharmakis is constituted as a person when acting within
the circumstances of a closed framework: a bus, an exhibition,
an organization, etc. it is there that the person's face can be shaped,
as a shared fantasmatic figure. Pharmakis is somehow identified
to the invisible ghost of this non-consciously structured
community. The person's figure could be seen
as a semi-conscious, irresponsible network function.
4 Comments:
In the summer of 2005 two major cultural events took place in Istanbul; the XXII World Congress of Αrchitecture by the International Union of Architects (UIA) in July and the 9th International Istanbul Art Biennial in September. The city of Istanbul is the same scene for the two events. Istanbul is in different ways important and silent for the events. Gregorios Pharmakis engaged in a twofold activity, participating to these major art and architecture events with the double project Apothecae. In many european countries, apotheca means pharmacy. Apotheca is also the greek word for storehouse. Each apotheca is structured in shelves and cases, used for an organized accumulation, or for the minimal archiving of things that are obsolete, or of not much need.
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The project searched for such spaces inside the venues where the events took place. Members of Gregorios Pharmakis visited the lecture and exhibition places one week before the opening of each event. They investigated spaces situated right next to the highlighted ones: cleaning and storage rooms, maintenance rooms and basements. Moreover, a dynamic structure of storage was installed in the internet, capable of accepting the ‘findings’ during the works, and offering open access to collecting, sorting and use of information for individuals and groups.
WWW.APOTHECAE.COM
During the XXII World Congress of Αrchitecture, Farmakis focused his activities on the storage room at the basement of the large amphitheatre in Istanbul Convention and Exhibition Centre. In situ works were undertaken during the course of the Congress works. Presice measurements were taken and linear drawings of objects and spaces were made. It was soon realized that the large storage room provided the space, not only for the accumulation of piles of chairs, announcement boards, tall metal ashtrays, etc, but also for the gatherings of the personnel during the break. It was the only place in the Convention Centre where smoking was allowed. The working team recorded conversations with the personnel concerning their working and living conditions. They also mapped their everyday itineraries through the city while commuting to work. This preoccupation with people did not mean to reveal personal facts, but information related to the “invisible” function of the organized event. Findings of this small, and rather unorganized investigation could be a newspaper on a table (photographed), an announcement on the wall (transcribed as a sketch or linear drawing), the talk of a cleaner (recorded). The findings were being continuously published by the working team to the internet archive. An unusual archaeology of the circumstances of the cultural event, in its most basic infrastructures, was being under construction.
The interest in the 9th International Istanbul Biennial Istanbul Biennial turned again to the ideas of active storing, attachment to the mechanism of each institution and dispersement in the city. The Biennial addressed thematics of the city. Exhibition spaces were spread in buildings “between uses”, situated at the commercial centre of Istanbul. Farmakis concentrated on one of Biennial venues, the derelict Deniz Palace Apartments. Inside the building, Farmakis worked in the Office of EMSA power regulator company, the only functional space among the rooms dedicated to the exhibition of artists work. Repeated visits resulted in numerous drawings of spaces and objects as well as mechanical recordings of sound and image. The works continued in collaboration with the office employees. Collected material also derived from talks, discussions and informal meals in the office. For the elaboration of collected material, Farmakis was moving a flexible workshop from place to place, inside and next to the biennial premises, in coffee shops, hotel lobbies and rooms. The workshop reworked information and produced printed material and internet feedings. For the dissemination of this material, different storage structures were invented and used, not only in the internet, but also in the city, in busy streets, specific advertisment stands, newspapers and leaflets left to the biennial venues, in coffee-shops, patisseries and bookstores.
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