ART CITIES:Athens-Φεγγίδες

The public baths played a decisive role in the formation of culture as they were places for meetings, social gatherings, body and soul purification, relaxation and relaxation, but they also served the practical needs of cleanliness because few homes had the comforts of a bath. For hundreds of years, the tradition of the public bath was integrated into the cultural mosaic of Greece and was necessary in the everyday life of its citizens.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Marigo Kassi Archive

One of the few remnants of Athens’ Ottoman period, the Bath House of the Winds is the only public bath of Athens surviving at the present days. It dates from the first period of Turkish rule (1453 – 1669) and stands near the Roman forum and the Tower of the Winds. It functioned as a bathhouse until 1956, in 1998 the building was handed over to the Museum of Greek Folk Art, which is responsible for its new use as a Museum-Information Centre, devoted to the subject of the cleanliness, care and beautification of the body throughout the ages. Six Greek artists participate in the group exhibition “Φεγγίδες” that takes its name from the small openings in the roof that were the only source of light. As the curator of the exhibition says “the artists in the exhibition are looking for the traces left on the walls and white marbles, traces of conversations, emotions, traces of the people who passed through the hamam in their long history”. Sulptures, mixed media installations, and videos narrate the rituals, symbolism, and multifaceted meanings associated with bathing practice and at the same time trace the extensions that this story may have in the present by using each artist his personal visual language. Marigo Kassi, like many of female contemporary artists, works with knitting and embroidery. The artist has created a body of work that has the persuasiveness of myth. Working with pieces of fabric, patterns and remnants the artist resembles a festive unfolding of female symbols within a space that once separated the sexes and identities. At the same time Marigo Kassi places towels in the space as a reminder of the activities that took place there. An intense narrative that contains powerful elements of symbolism and a source of humor characterizes Antonis Michailidis’ artistic language. The artist comments the absence and the memory of the space, creating works, using tar-paper and cotton. With a background of important studies in England, a lively professional career and a remarkable originality of subject matter, Christina Morali belongs to a group of contemporary artists who throughout the years have given a new lease of life to Greek Ceramics. For the exhibition the artist created ceramic versions of linens, with towels hanging on a ladder as a trail of activities. Also Morali has installed fruit pickers and a suitcase with broken dolls, ghosts of a life that is no longer exhists. Lili Bakoyannis has installed ceramic babies in natural poses, sometimes laughing ], sometimes crying as a testimonial to a place once full of laughter and tears of babies and children. Aliki Palaska’s work is characterised by an ‘obsession’ with the drawing being created by writing text, repetition of brushstrokes, cut-outs and realistic compositions of small shapes, as well as sculptural installations using various materials. Ιn the center of a space the artist created a precise paper mold of a bathtub. In Mary Christea’s work, concepts such as redefinition, knowledge, thought, responsibility, are revisited for reexamination and rethinking. In her video projection steams and natural sounds from nature transfer the visitor to another place and time.

Info: Curator: Thanasis Moutsopoulos, The Bath House of the Winds, 8 Kiristou street, Plaka, Athens, Duration: 15/12/18-21/1/19, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 8:00-15:00, www.mnep.gr