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The girls' Cabinet de Curiosités
The girls' Cabinet de Curiosités
Athens, Greece
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Other Projects by Myrto Kiourti
The girls' Cabinet de Curiosités
Athens, Greece
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2019
SIZE
0 sqft - 1000 sqft
BUDGET
$10K - 50K
This apartment is designed as a clear white canvas where people can narrate their own personal stories. With this project, the resident continues the story of her mother's family. The resident's grandmother lived in Andros, an island in the Aegean, with a long tradition in shipping and homeland of numerous renowned Greek shipowners. Due to this tradition, nearly all the men in the island would go to sea at a young age, while women stayed at home to raise the family. Women were raised to endure a rough life, living in solitude in this remote island, when all male relatives were at sea for months or even years at a time. Women in Andros were perceived as captains of the household.
The resident was born in Athens and raised under the influence of some of the island's norms and values, reproduced by her mother. Therefore, she married young, started a family and received the traditional dowry; namely, her mother's house. However, the resident was also part of the urban Athenian society and eagerly adopted novel narratives regarding gender roles, developed after the social and political reforms of the sixties. She studied at the University of Athens and departed symbolically from the domestic realm, albeit not as a sailor, but as the Head of Finance for a leading Greek shipping group. She was granted a divorce, remarried, bought a new house with her own earnings and eventually sold her dowry, her first house. With this money, she bought this small apartment in the center of Athens. In our sessions during our collaboration, she told me: “I want this apartment to become my private space, a peaceful corner for myself, my personal retreat. When I grow older, this house will pass to my daughter. I would like her to own something that belongs to the story of the women in my family. I want to retain this tradition”. She had sent her daughter away when she was young. She went to London for studies, then Paris, and recently Boston. She told us: “I often feel guilty about sending my daughter away at such a young age. However, I did it for her own good”. Whenever her daughter visits Athens on vacation, she stays at this apartment. She says: “I call this place ‘my submarine’! Being here is such a relaxing and comforting experience!”
This house was designed as an enormous closet. Behind it, the resident keeps her family heirlooms, all the treasures that sailors used to bring back home after their journeys, inherited cutlery from older aunts and grandmothers, wedding gifts and memorabilia. The house resembles a hyper-modern Mediterranean version of a ‘cabinet de curiosités’.
This apartment is located in a typical Greek “polykatoikia” (apartment building). The bedroom and the bathroom are situated at the back facing the typical Athenian interior courtyard, a space which is usually poorly lit, neglected and used for storage or for drying clothes. The ruined walls facing the apartment were varnished, and this resulted in a light golden hue. For the restoration of a damaged concrete beam, we employed the traditional Japanese technique of Kintsugi, but instead of gold we used white paint. On the walls we created a visual, collaborating with street artist Bilos. We projected the living room as if the interior of the private space was mirrored in the public space. We asked the two women to each choose a favorite item for us to draw in this fantasized parlour. The resident selected an ancient Cycladic female figure, a wedding gift which she greatly cherished but which was lost when she moved from her first house. The daughter asked for the repainting of Gala, the wife of surrealist painter Dali, a feature for years in a beloved teenage poster of hers.
Construction: ACRM, Stephanos Veronis
Photography: Yiorgis Yerolymbos
Visual: Bilos
The resident was born in Athens and raised under the influence of some of the island's norms and values, reproduced by her mother. Therefore, she married young, started a family and received the traditional dowry; namely, her mother's house. However, the resident was also part of the urban Athenian society and eagerly adopted novel narratives regarding gender roles, developed after the social and political reforms of the sixties. She studied at the University of Athens and departed symbolically from the domestic realm, albeit not as a sailor, but as the Head of Finance for a leading Greek shipping group. She was granted a divorce, remarried, bought a new house with her own earnings and eventually sold her dowry, her first house. With this money, she bought this small apartment in the center of Athens. In our sessions during our collaboration, she told me: “I want this apartment to become my private space, a peaceful corner for myself, my personal retreat. When I grow older, this house will pass to my daughter. I would like her to own something that belongs to the story of the women in my family. I want to retain this tradition”. She had sent her daughter away when she was young. She went to London for studies, then Paris, and recently Boston. She told us: “I often feel guilty about sending my daughter away at such a young age. However, I did it for her own good”. Whenever her daughter visits Athens on vacation, she stays at this apartment. She says: “I call this place ‘my submarine’! Being here is such a relaxing and comforting experience!”
This house was designed as an enormous closet. Behind it, the resident keeps her family heirlooms, all the treasures that sailors used to bring back home after their journeys, inherited cutlery from older aunts and grandmothers, wedding gifts and memorabilia. The house resembles a hyper-modern Mediterranean version of a ‘cabinet de curiosités’.
This apartment is located in a typical Greek “polykatoikia” (apartment building). The bedroom and the bathroom are situated at the back facing the typical Athenian interior courtyard, a space which is usually poorly lit, neglected and used for storage or for drying clothes. The ruined walls facing the apartment were varnished, and this resulted in a light golden hue. For the restoration of a damaged concrete beam, we employed the traditional Japanese technique of Kintsugi, but instead of gold we used white paint. On the walls we created a visual, collaborating with street artist Bilos. We projected the living room as if the interior of the private space was mirrored in the public space. We asked the two women to each choose a favorite item for us to draw in this fantasized parlour. The resident selected an ancient Cycladic female figure, a wedding gift which she greatly cherished but which was lost when she moved from her first house. The daughter asked for the repainting of Gala, the wife of surrealist painter Dali, a feature for years in a beloved teenage poster of hers.
Construction: ACRM, Stephanos Veronis
Photography: Yiorgis Yerolymbos
Visual: Bilos
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