Special Relations: Athens Chapter

A bus journey across the Balkans into a new Mediterranean context: Athens and its polykatoikia blocks, generated into an endless city; life inside it, the hills around it, and self-discovery.

Athens is held together by the repeated polykatoikia – the concrete-frame apartment block that small private builders put up all over the city from the 1950s, usually in exchange for land for flats, with balconies and an unfinished top where another floor can be added. The chapter was conceived as a counterpart to Prague. Athens is more cramped; you can feel it grew organically and fast, and in that it resembles Prague's panel housing. Its bustle has its own colourful charm – a different context, not better or worse, and inspiring in that. Back home, living in Prague's generous centre felt more like luck, and an exception in the middle of the housing crisis.

The music is not an accompaniment to the image but the other side of it. Next to what was composed in the city, it carries recordings from the streets, their calm and their noise, and the voice of a character who speaks up close, at ground level, even when the image rises above the city.

The chapter was made during sixty-one days of the Culture Moves Europe residency: a model of the city, animated scenes, character work and the wider Greek landscape. A second DIY eurorack case in lacquered plywood was built for the residency. It premiered at Solomou 34 in Exarchia as a screening and live AV performance, watched from inside and from the street.

Part of Special Relations, a world built since 2020 in chapters tied to particular places and to how life is lived in them.