The Exchange of Athens
Project by Jakub Raspl
Urban Cuts Across Media
The Interface
Initial interface prototype was an attempt to interrogate the Katakouzenos House Museum in Athens and its art collections and reproject them inside of the old stock exchange hall, an abandoned hall in the centre of financial power of the city. The idea involved translating the form of each piece of art into an extruded pillar. These pillars, each referencing different piece of art, are arranged inside the old stock exchange hall and form a new gallery space.
Like the Katakouzenos House during its time, this space will provide a platform for visitors to express themselves, debate various topics or just meet and socialise with like-minded people. It all happens surrounded by references to the stories and art of the intellectual elite of the 1960’s and suddenly an old stock exchange building is transformed into a place of intellectual exchange and power of the people’s mind. This will open up a currently closed space with a new meaning.
The Proposal
The interface helped to establish a connection between the past and the present through re-territorialising the artistic and intellectual exchange of the house within a new gallery space. This play of moving the idea of exchange across the city and through time prevails within the main proposal which introduces the concept of a physical exchange of object used by everyday people.
The new gallery inside of the stock exchange hall is established with a purpose of referencing legacy, preserving memories and providing platform for intellectual exchange. It bridges the past and encapsulates it within a confined space.
As a contradiction to this and an idea of opposing power, the New Exchange, located in the centre of trade in the city, will provide a platform for people to create an economy based on trading objects, such as those preserved within the house museum, that might not have a particular value for some but may provide an opportunity for new future of those objects. Just like the Katakouzenos couple gathered a collection of objects valuable to them, the new building will create a collection of objects that hold value to people of the current society.
The process will be done through upcycling and recycling everyday objects but also giving the opportunity to create new objects. They will be of the same nature as those in the house museum – furniture, art and clothing. The building will have spaces for creating and trading for the permanent occupiers but also spaces for visiting traders or creators. It will establish a centre of commerce with a different type of economy where money is not always the means of trading but for some it will be the value some objects hold to them.
