DIGITAL APPLICATION “PEOPLE΄S WATER”

EYDAP selected to represent the city of Athens in the "Seoul International Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism" 2017, Seoul, South Korea | Dates: 02.09.2017 to 05.11.2017

EYDAP is currently participating in the inaugural "Seoul International Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism" in a project titled "From Antiquity to Tomorrow: The People’s Water Project". For this project, EYDAP developed an interactive digital map which traces the historical water sites and contemporary hydrological networks of Athens and the district of Attica. Through the framework of a digital application, a collection of water-related images enables viewers to interact and make visual connections across a historical water timeline of the city of Athens.

This inaugural Seoul Biennale, titled "Imminent Commons" was designed as a large-scale public event to present public programs and exhibits, and as a forum for debate among policy-makers, experts and citizens at large to address the current state and imminent future of the major urban centers of the world. The 50 contributing cities tackled issues such as globalization, rapid urbanization, city governance, scarcity and the politics of public resources, privatization of commons, imbalances in ownership, consumption and capital - while at the same time proposing how cities might also be able to sustain their unique history, local culture, social and geographical contexts.

EYDAP’s visual presentation was created out of the process of bringing together its important historical and contemporary archival collection of photographs, plans and drawings, within the framework of a digital application that would be accessible to the general public. Additionally, new photographic material from employees of EYDAP, amateur photographers, and from external sources was also produced for the development of the application. The final outcome of this effort enables the public to appreciate the relationship that citizens and residents of Athens have had with the resource of water though the course of its history.

The intent of the overall project was to bring the topic of the water into the Biennale’s curatorial context of modern urbanism, and to consider the role of water today as a ‘commons’ in the city of Athens. Read the project statement at the Biennale website.
 

Visit the digital app: The People’s Water Project

The Project is part of the EYDAP Culture Network.

EYDAP would like to thank independent curator Melina Nicolaides for the invitation to represent the City of Athens at the Seoul Biennale 2017, and for an excellent collaboration on this project.

Biennale photos courtesy of ACTIVATE nonprofit arts organization

Snapshots from the exhibition: