la morale de l'histoire
2019
Sound, 03:31 min
About
la morale de l'histoire takes Aesop's fable "The Shipwrecked Man and the Sea" as a starting point to look at the relationship between the sea and the Other in the context of exile.
Part of the body of works "It is always summer somewhere" created during Kosmatopoulos' stay in the refugee camps of the island of Lesbos, the sound piece serves as an epilogue to a mythology of exile that brings together in a same narrative stories from refugees that have been coming to Lelbos since 2015 and stories from the Greeks that were forced out from Turkey in 1923 during the massive Asia Minor population exchange and seeked shelter in that exact same island.
In the sound piece, the artist reads in a monotonous voice the daily wind data for the month of July she spent in Mitilini, the capital of Lesbos. In Aesop's fable, when the Shipwrecked Man accuses the sea for being the cause of his misfortune, the sea shifts the responsibility on the winds that are the ones that create the waves. For Kosmatopoulos, the winds act as a metaphor of the geo-political dynamics and interests that dramatically shape a land and the relations between people.
Aesop Fable: The Shipwrecked Man and the Sea
A shipwrecked man struggled mightily against the waves and was finally cast ashore, more dead than alive. After a while he awoke, and looking upon the Sea, loaded it with reproaches. He argued that it enticed men with the calmness of its looks, but when it had induced them to plow its waters, it grew rough and destroyed them. The Sea, assuming the form of a woman, replied to him: “Blame not me, my good sir, but the winds, for I am by my own nature as calm and firm even as this earth; but the winds suddenly falling on me create these waves, and lash me into fury.”
Exhibitions
2020 BEACON | CURATOR: CM TURNER | THE ALICE AND HARRIS K. WESTON ART GALLERY | CINCINNATI, UNITED STATES*