Trade Syllables
June – 23 September, 2019
Organized by Andreas Melas and Christopher Garrett
At Martinos, Pandrossou 50, Athens 10555
Operating hours:
Monday, Wednesday 10:00 – 15:00
Tuesday, Thursday 10:00 – 18:30
and by appointment.
Featuring a collection of pre-Cycladic vessels, (3,000 – 2,200) BC, along with works by:
Tauba Auerbach
Elizabeth Blackadder
M. C. Escher
Simone Fattal
Vincent Fecteau
On Kawara
Alicia McCarthy
Jim Nutt
Aliki Panagiotopoulou
Christodoulos Panayiotou
Nathalie Du Pasquier
Ken Price
Sue Tompkins
We were mute once, when we were capable of being astonished.
Our idols curved, bore fruit and pitched to celestial rhythms.
We kept our knees loose and kneeled in front of fires.
Our skin grew thick from smoothing stone.
Stone gave in our hands, earth hardened to carry water, our bones encased elemental colors.
Our spines held straight under the sun.
For refuge we used our shadows.
Water kept us close and apart.
Most of few visitors succumbed quickly to our heat, while we watched coldly.
Nowhere was bright more darting.
There never was any talk or concept of love.
There was only wonder and use.
We never prayed nor waited.
We were part of a spiral whose center was portal.
There was no horror in sand, only access.
The afterlife was always on the horizon. Distance depended on the winds.
Journeys were arranged in accordance.
Some nights, we floated in between.
We were mute once, our codes tactile and inferred.
Then came the seed to acknowledge the wonder.
We grew mouths.
The wonder was framed but never captured.
Language became common.
Time started to count.