Ilias MARMARAS
Culture Highlander
Vidéo expérimentale - dv - couleur - 0:20:0 - Grèce - 2000

The 20 min. video ''Culture Highlander'', is a kind of historical fantasy documentary, based on the cultural and political affair, of the Pathenon's marbre sculptures, which have been taked off, by Lord Elgin of Scotland, at the early 19th century.The case has a permanent actuality at least 20 years, for both envolving countries-Greece and England-taking the dimension sometimes of a fully sentimental soap-opera.The story here focus on Elgin's artist and architect J.B. Luggieri, responsible for the choise of the marbre pieces. This video patch is made half by scenes taken from a documentary film ( Lord Elgin, Atlantic productions-London 1996) in which I was paricipating as actor( J.B. Luggieri) as well as part of the greek production team.The other half of the visual material is done by apropriating the ready-made possibilities of create digital worlds, by the use of Microsoft's internet multiplayer P.C game, Age of Kings.
Each country usually treats self-admiringly and as a privilege her own particular history, i.e. the politics of memory and, of course, the economy of memory. These things are automatically seen as transferable to those entitled to inherit them - those who will carry on the tradition. As with any transfer - of tangible or intangible things, events or information - the use is required of some technique which determines what the inheritance is and to whom it is bequeathed.
The differences between cultures go beyond the content of each narrative to the techniques which form them and make them effective. In the Balkan states these techniques - in terms of production, management and the rules of implementation - are such that History has always been almost a family affair: some sort of a 'cottage industry'. This is true of the production of both narrative and images.
The process of heritage and its transfer is not an instantaneous affair: it is a function of time, with a duration determined by the rules of the employed technique. With the passage of time, legacy and its recipient become interchangeable concepts. One does not inherit a tradition - that is, something exceptional - in the same way one would inherit houses, land or money: it is a different thing. Holderlin says that the gift of speech is granted so that you can testify to the things you have inherited. And it is the faithful observance of these rules of transfer - which are technical rules, in a sense - that makes the benefactor a reliable witness of what he has inherited. Tradition is always an explanation or part of an explanation; understanding this explanation means observing its rules.
The confusion that arises in a time of advanced technological applications such as today is not a question of content or selection of the subjects that constitute the special character which is to be transferred; after all, it is only that special character that is bequeathed, not the general one. For instance, one cannot inherit the invention of the wheel or the alphabet or other such generic techniques. And the generic techniques in use today are not necessarily oriented towards acknowledging the special or the authentic, instead turning time into time in general - real time - and memory into memory in general. What the recipient of the legacy has to decode is no longer taken for granted: we do not follow the natural succession of conditions - winter does not bring spring - and the inheritance does no longer have a name. The heir cannot bear witness any more, neither as to what the inheritance is nor as to what he himself is becoming or may become.

Biographie

Born in Athens 1960. Lives and works in Athens
Exhibitions (selection):
2000 Personal Cinema, Tsimiski 127, Thessalonique
2000 Open source lounge, Greek-American union, Athens (curators:Jenny Marketou, Steve Dietz, cat.)
2000 Egnatia project, Arc de Galere, Thessalonique (curator: Marie-Noelle Semet, cat.)
1999 Videoshow, Klauthmonos sq., Athens
1998 Vernissage, Unlimited, Athens (cat.)
1998 Art Frankfurt 98, Unlimited, Athens
1998 Moodiatel, Alkiviadou 30, Athens
1997 It looks human, Babel, Athens (curator: Th.Moutsopoulos, cat.)
1996 Hond and Hamer, National museum of Aman, Jordania (cat.)
1995 Latomeio, Asvestoxori, Thessaloniki (cat.)
1994 Proposals for the city, Thema Gallery, Athens
1993 Hond and Hamer, De fabriek, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (cat.)
1992 Different opinion present entartete Kunst, Via Farini, Milan
1992 Mare Nostrum, Municipal museum, Palermo & Catania (cat.)
1991 Assault on the senses, Cyprus house, Athens (curator: K. Kafopoulos, cat.)
1990 Bestiario, villa Gioiosa, Milan (curator: M. Scerini, cat.)
1988 Meduse, Cariou Gallery, Paris
1987 Invito, Palazzo Pantano, Milan (curator: M. Scerini)
1985 Gallileo, Andinor Gallery, Athens