http://issuu.com/bourouni/docs/depositing_personal_memory_low

Starting point for this project is the case of mass emigration from Greece occurring in the last 5 years as a result of the economic crisis. During this time the country hit the highest rates of unemployment in the E.U., directly linked to the size of the emigrating population. Upon leaving each one is bound to select and fit in a 20kg suitcase those necessary for a new life. This survival package naturally doesn’t fit all the belongings to which everyone relates in an emotional or a practical way. Given this context of population movements I focused on the importance of personal memory which is denoted through the belongings of oneself.

Beginning from this material trace I am introducing a symbolic system of storing oneself, through one’s tokens of personal memory and a subsidiary second-hand marketplace, supplied by the newly unattended belongings.  Through the two units, of the “memoriotheque”  and the market, this project highlights the presence of personal and collective memory in the city. The personal collections are summed vertically in storage columns, of volume 1x1x23 m3, documenting an ongoing phenomenon. The market, while placed beneath the urban surface and above the historical ground of the outer Keramikos, expands the public realm and reveals ancient depositions of burial gifts - kterismata.