Use the FORM to write a post related to your architectural or art proposal. This may be a part of the proposal or/and material not to be included in it—indicative of your view on the commoning of Xenia Motel. Your text may include URL links. Posts will appear in this page after moderator approval.
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Angeliki Giannisi
Xenia Motel Redesign
13/6/2015
Xenia Motel represents for many a notion of the past, of a Greece that remains forgotten. Built by the great architect, Aris Konstantinidis, it did embrace ideas of modernization and modernity that were used to shape the architectural ideas of the time and also to push Greece’s envelope to the limits of the rest of Europe. Trying to synchronize the country I believe that one of the main goals got lost. Now we are given the chance to re-examine and re-evaluate the situation proposing a design that will bring the community together.
Konstantinos N. Papaoikonomou
XENIA RELOADED | A travelogue in the footsteps of Aris Konstantinidis / talk and Photography exhibition on XENIA Hotels and Motels
17/6/2015
For my MArchD specialisation, which was Research Led Design, I presented the work ‘XENIA RELOADED | A travelogue in the footsteps of Aris Konstantinidis’ and XENIArt | Redevelopment of Paliouri Bay.
You can have a look on : http://www.archisearch.gr/article/1458/xenia-reloaded-%7C-a-travelogue-in-the-footsteps-of-aris-konstantinidis-by-konstantinos-n–papaoikonom.htm
My research is based on Aris Konstantinidis, Xenia Hotels and Motels, Greek Tourism and Critical Regionalism. Followed Konstantinidis’ prompt to ”see and experience” Architecture I made a travelogue across main Greece and visited 6 of Aris Konstantinidis’ Xenias. I suggest – as we have discussed on the first approach-email with XM Collective – a presentation of this complete work based on the main topic would be really helpful in order to present to public the importance of XENIA programme heritage and Aris Konstantinidis legacy (as a tribute).
Furthermore I suggest a photography exhibition from the Travelogue photobook. (http://issuu.com/knpapaoikonomou/docs/a___xenia_reloaded___the_travelogue)
As concerns the Architectural proposals, I would like to contribute and share with you my ideas suggesting on XENIArt | Redevelopment of Paliouri Bay. Re-using the XENIA Motel in Karteros with the aim of creating an alive space which would be used by artists and people who are into arts or interested in, would be a great first step. The motel wings could be easily transformed to dormitory rooms and the common-use spaces as exhibition spaces. The restaurant could be worked as a bistro and with some DIY equipment ( tables with wheels) could work as well as a workshop space.
Incomes from the bistro and future workshops could sustain ‘the art centre’ and the whole idea I believe it will generate interest from the international tourists of Crete. Also if the ‘art centre’ start building its own workshop with equipment (laser cut , 3d printers etc) a pop-up designers shop within the proposal would gather more publicity and income. (check on open source 3d-print databases)
Linardaki Eirini & Parisot Vincent Sentig
IA-OS, project for the motel
25/6/2015
http://linardakiparisot.wix.com/linardaki-parisot#!photo-gallery-/zoom/cacz/image_1odi
Our project is the modification of the signboard Xenia Motel. Playing with the ambiguity of the word xenos and the situation of the motel now. Create a slight visual disorder. Xenos (Greek: ξένος, xénos, plural xenoi) is a word used in the Greek language from Homer onwards. The most standard definition is “stranger.” However, the word, itself, can be interpreted to mean different things based upon context, author, and period of writing/speaking, signifying such divergent concepts as “enemy” or “stranger,” a particular hostile interpretation, all the way to “guest friend,” one of the most hallowed concepts in the cultural rules of Greek hospitality.
Martin
community engages Xenia Motel
3/8/2015
For my proposal in Xenia Motel I want to combine my two main artistic interests/researches: mapping and collective practices. Since these are really broad terms I briefly want to explain which meaning they have to me.
The word Collectivity circles around two things its either the work within a collective such as the ATB group or different free-education programs, or to engage into a community and work on-site as well as using that site to present the artwork as in the project “Gefährliche Orte”.
Mapping can have a spacial as well as a relational dimension. As a representation I prefer a Diagrammatic form. For me a diagram is not just a tool of visual communication but also an artistic expression that gives the freedom to show the development of a topic or process. Furthermore it gives the freedom to claim connections and propose further questions and dont need to be fully consistent.
My project for the Xenia Motel will be to encounter the impact of capitalist crises in our daily life. We can criticize capitalism as an economic system, as a mechanism of exclusion or alienation and many other things that are might not even specifically connected to capitalism. But often this reflection lacks the perspective of its “acteur’s” within the system. Or to put this into a question: How does capitalism effect the space between you and me? This question will be the center of my interest and addressed in different ways. Personally I think that talking and reflecting is the first step to make change since analysis is the first step within critic.
As an introduction I will provide a lecture on my research about the relation between “friendship and capitalism”. Furthermore I want to invite people for discussion panels to gain insight into hopes, fears and opinions to investigate the local context of the question. For this panels I will act as a moderator, rather than giving opinions, but will provide a set of questions to stimulate the discussion process. Part of my facilitation will be to introduce different methodologies for getting to know each other and to experiment with various ways of mapping. Besides from inviting people to the site I also like to engage into the local community through visiting acteur’s such as shop owners or political stakeholders directly. As the project following a open process methodology a clear output can not be given in advance. Within the project I see myself as a participant equally to other participants.
From the material of the discussion process I will develop a diagram which will be painted on one of the Xenia-Motels walls. The painting will be also available in a digital version and free for further distribution and research.