Silo(e)scapes

Zenovia Toloudi /Studio Z

2017

16.05.2117, 20:20

...spearmint, fennel, thyme, oregano – check
...grapes, peaches, cherries, melons – check
...olives, sesame, figs – check
...wheat, barley, almonds, walnuts – check

collecting, sorting, drying, depositing, freezing, sealing, exchanging – transactions completed

16.05.2017, 20:20

The spectator stoops slowly, inserts themselves in the inspection hole, observes the silos-displays, surveils the activities of community workers, experiences the architecture, is being lost in space.

Silo(e)scapes envisions a hybrid of a seed bank, a sharing economy and a museum for Mediterranean plant species that may disappear. In Silo(e)scapes techno-utopia, the threatened native seeds are stored in transparent silos/museum displays which are also the columns of a communal architecture. Silo(e)scapes provides to community workers the preservation of local seeds biodiversity and the protection of Mediterranean tastes, flavors, nutrients, and medicinal capacities threatened by environmental catastrophes as well as the increasing demand for control and standardization. Silo(e)scapes does not belong to private corporations. The members of Silo(e)scapes share the contents of the deposits. Autarky is a priority. And so is freedom and security.

Is the future of Mediterranean food a ruined landscape? Silo(e)scapes art installation transforms the anxiety of such dystopia into the experience of a futuristic architecture. In Silo(e)scapes spectators surveil a doll-house metaphor of a futuristic microcosmos through a panopticon structure that expands in infinity. Silo(e)scapes functions as a wearable room, a portal between reality and fantasy: Spectators insert their head into a hole to observe the threatened species, the seed bank museum, and the sharing economy of Lilliputian citizens. The seed-columns of the infinite space, the kaleidoscope of mirrors and agrarian sounds construct a perceptible space, which is neither real, nor a replica; it is rather artificial and illusive. Silo(e)scapes is both threatening and seductive. The theatrical and voyeuristic experience of Silo(e)scapes forms an apparatus that awakens memories, but also empowers spectators to disrupt the sequence of events causing the disappearance of these species.