To recall means to transform
(Intervention at the Numismatic Museum of Athens)

This site-specific sculptural intervention was presented in the garden of the Numismatic Museum of Athens, engaging with the neoclassical terracotta statues positioned in the courtyard. Rather than altering or obscuring their historical character, the work introduced a discreet, non-invasive layer that acknowledged the statues as carriers of cultural memory and symbolic continuity. The gesture operated within the existing material and aesthetic vocabulary of the site, allowing a temporal and conceptual dialogue to unfold.

A modular system of folded paper structures, produced in terracotta tones, adhered to the surfaces of the statues as a secondary skin. In certain areas the forms followed anatomical contours; in others they filled recesses, mapped intersections, or echoed the drapery of the Roman cloaks that historically signaled the appropriation of classical Greek originals. Through this morphological interplay, the intervention added an additional stratum of history—an ephemeral mantle that foregrounded questions of transformation, cultural inheritance, and the persistence of forms across time.

The intervention was developed within the grounds of the Numismatic Museum of Athens, a 19th-century neoclassical residence designed by Ernst Ziller and historically associated with Heinrich Schliemann. The museum’s courtyard hosts a series of neoclassical terracotta statues that replicate ancient Greek prototypes and mediate their legacy through 19th-century material and aesthetic conventions. By situating the work within this layered environment, the project emphasized the continuities and ruptures between archaeological heritage, modern institutional display, and contemporary artistic production.

Site-specific intervention and durational performance
Location: Courtyard, Numismatic Museum of Athens
Format: modular paper structures applied to neoclassical terracotta statues
Year: 2017
Materials: folded paper, adhesive, terracotta surfaces
Presented in collaboration with the Numismatic Museum of Athens