John Stathatos - The Book of Lost Cities

On 22 November 2005, the Athens Art Gallery will present The Book of Lost Cities by photographer John Stathatos.

The Book of Lost Cities is a finely designed and printed artist’s book published by expose-verlag, Berlin in an edition of 500 copies. The work will be introduced by Costis Antoniadis, professor of photography at the Athens Technical Institute and lately director of the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. The book includes colour photographs and texts by John Stathatos, a preface by the French art critic Yves Abrioux and an afterword by the well-known Catalan artist Joan Fontcuberta.

Writing in Camerawork (San Francisco), Fontcuberta noted that “John Stathatos has taken over from Marco Polo and tells us, more than several hundred years later, of Daedala and Gauzaka, Tigranocerta and Arkiotis. In The Book of Lost Cities, Stathatos reviews, with photographs and text, a Borgesian labyrinth of unearthed cities”.

The Book of Lost Cities plays upon the ambiguous nature of the photographic image, upon the powerful authority of scholarly texts and upon the fluctuating interpretation of historical and archaeological evidence. It is also a commentary on the way landscape is shaped and interpreted by history. Finally, like history itself, it is a labyrinth weaving truth and fiction into an inextricable whole.

On the occasion of the book launch and until November 25th, the Athens Art Gallery will exhibit five of the original (and unique) works making up the Book of Lost Cities. These consist of illuminated Duratrans transparencies in wooden display cases 130x45x10 cm, each accompanied by a corresponding text and a schematic map.

The publication was made possible thanks to the international “Aide au projet” award which Stathatos received at last year’s Rencontres Photographiques at Arles, France.

ATHENS ART GALLERY
Glykonos 4, Dexameni, Athens 10675
Tel: 210 721 3939 Fax: 210 725 8216
http://www.athensartgallery.gr - e-mail: info@athensartgallery.gr