Mystery 44: Heiner Goebbels 7 Columns

2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture presents the installation of Heiner Goebbels, entitled "7 Columns", is hosted at the Old Oil Mill Factory of Elefsina from 5 February to 23 April 2023.

With this installation, artist and composer Heiner Goebbels is transforming the spacious hall of the Old Oil Mill Factory. With great respect for its post-industrial history, its architecture, and its generous aesthetic, he utilises the elements of light, projection, water, and sound to turn the space into a kind of Telesterion: a secular initiation hall, openly inviting the public to discover - without hierarchy - the eloquent surfaces of the stones, the surprising reflections on the walls and ceiling, and moving images in which a group of performers are seen (literally) pulling relics of European history out from the arsenal of the past.

These performers are organised in a decentralised way. Their actions are based on agreements that remain unknown but clearly follow a logic of resonances between the bodies, the objects, and sound. The high degree of attention and care each pays the other is apparent. Together, they construct a landscape that simultaneously shows a world in the ruins of dominant narratives, and the poetic power of resistance to an existing order. Music is heard in which delicately composed sounds cannot be attributed to well-known instruments. And voices are heard - aural documents collected in Greece during the mid-20th century by Samuel Baud-Bovy, an ethnomusicologist and musician renowned worldwide for the erudition of his work. A carefully composed balance between the elements - between what is seen and what is heard - allows visitors to become sovereign observers. And attentive viewers might even discover the seventh column. 

Announcement: Due to national mourning, the exhibition will not be open from 1 to 3 March 2023.