Unlimited Places Cards - Art practices in public space
Zervou Angeliki, Lafazanis Antonis - 2006
How many places can you be in at the same time? How many people can you communicate with while being here? In how many different places?
Our action was the result of a discourse on human communication when that takes place via cell phone, thus creating a network connecting different places. As the location of the action, we chose a cafeteria in downtown Patras, on the Gerokostopoulou pedestrian way. We created and handed out postcards to the cafeteria customers, asking the questions mentioned above. The holders of the postcards had to write down on them a part of a conversation they had had or a message they had sent using their cell phone while at the cafeteria, as well as the location of the other party. This procedure was carried out three times during one week. After the third time, the postcards were collected and their contents were archived.
cards fronts
cards backs/answers
In an effort to highlight, but also to intensify the parallel connections between people and places, we mixed up the messages with their respective places and made a new archive. Based on this archive, a new series of postcards was created. One side of the postcard depicted the cafeteria, showing details of its interior. In the upper left hand part of the same side, we printed the conversation excerpts we had collected. On the back of the card, at the bottom left corner (where the card’s title appears), we printed a different place to which a connection had been made. The places and conversations did not match, thus creating thirty new combinations. The cards bearing the new, paradoxical communications were made available to the cafeteria customers. A stand with the cards was placed on the pedestrian way outside the cafeteria.
