Borderline

Expanding drawing into space: An ephemeral intervention

The estuary of the river, where sweet and salty waters mix, feels more natural and vivid than the urbanised part of the river, which is dry, dusty and full of anti flood construction sites. Even though there are houses just a few meters from the riverbank, (one of them is abandoned, has never recovered from the last flood in 2020), there is a nice natural sensation of the environment.

I have been visiting this place several times during this three month period (September-December) and each time the estuary was different. Me and my family, we experienced different weather conditions, from a sunny warm day with incredible light to a rainy and windy day. On three different days, I used salt (a lot of it!) to mark the lines which divide water from dry land. Each time the borderlines were different.

The drawing requires my body to move quickly and determined. I am inside the drawing, I am part of it. Because of its scale, it is simultaneously intended and accidental. I don’t know exactly how it is developing because it is not possible to see it as a whole. I can see it only after I “finish” (the salt is finished), from the aerial pictures and videos made by the drone. Actually, in that moment of action my attention is in the place and the process, not the final result.

My body is in a state of alertness. I am climbing up and down the hill, carrying the salt and equipment, walking up and down the stream, bending over, pouring, I am cold, I am hot, I feel an energetic boost! My mind is aware, in the moment, reflecting in action, but strangely also “switched off”. It seems like a reciprocal relationship, I am mapping the space and the space is mapping my physical and mental movement.

Ephemeral, with a limited time of existence, the salt is dissolving and the form I draw is changing quickly as the water also changes its border. It would constantly change because of the reaction of the water making it disappear. Borders, boundaries and limits are in a flux and have to be redefined.

Close by there is an abandoned salt pans (Kopana). Apart from its properties, salt has a variety of symbolism. In ancient Greece salt was a symbol of trust and friendship And still in our time it is used as a protection of the “evil eye”.