Design practice 24° Studio linked together hundreds of hollow paper stars to line a tunnel and stairway in Santorini, Greece.
The installation, called Daphne, has been placed on the path up to the ruins of Kasteli castle in Pyrgos.
Starting from a few panels at the foot of the stairs, the tunnel grows up and around until it encloses the space.
In the evening the tunnel is lit up by LED lights which glow through the paper.
The tunnel is part of the Santorini Biennale of Arts, which continues until 30th September 2012.
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Here's some more text from the designers:
Daphne is a site-specific installation situated within the tunnelled stairway that interplays with the notion of concealing and revealing the ancient interior surfaces of the tunnel leading to the peak of Pyrgos. Made entirely of self-supporting paper panels, Daphne creates an enclosure that intervenes the visitors' perception of the existing conditions as a container of conglomerated memory as the paper panels age and take their shape accordingly to the local condition. The installation is part of Santorini Biennale of Arts that will take place until September 30, 2012.
A village is a vessel of memory, and reaching to the highest peak at Pyrgos from the main village square is, therefore, an excursion to its past memory where every surface contains a history. During the excursion to the Kasteli, visitors will have to encounter a tunnel stairway that leads to the destination. The history of the tunnel may be unknown to visitors and the space of the tunnel may seem insignificant to the passers by at first.
Daphne makes a mundane moment of procession through this enclosed space into highly charged space that will celebrate the coexistence of past, present and future. A trace of Daphne will appear at the entrance of the tunnel. Starting from a few panels at the foot of the stairs, it will grow its number and encapsulates the interior surface of the tunnel, only maintaining its key element to wrap the space and juxtapose the "past" with the "present" intervention. The interior illumination will accentuate the space from dusk to dawn that can be of an emphasis on how the existing materiality can coexist with new materiality to suggest uncanny, yet, mesmerising possibility.
Further impact of environmental condition will also play an important role in this installation. The wind and humidity condition as well as people's interactions during the endurance of Santorini Biennale will affect the ageing of the material. This inevitable and also unpredictable factor of the installation and this process will illustrate how the transformation of textural and colour quality can bring phenomenal conditions of time and space. These latent effects of material expressing this ephemeral condition will become a key factor, in which the "past", "present" and "future" all will be contained.
24° Studio is a multidisciplinary practice established in 2008 by Fumio Hirakawa and Marina Topunova. We dedicate our investigation in working at the intersection of architecture, technology and environment. It is in our inherence to collaborate with a vast network of experts to deliver new solutions to our clients and audiences in realising their aspirations. With ever changing global movements bringing us limitless inspirations, 24° Studio believes that the process of integrating multiple perspectives will lead to innovative result, thus redefining the connection between our body and our surroundings.
Project Title: Daphne
Type: Installation
Location: Pyrgos, Santorini, Greece
Completion Date: July 2012
Materials: Watercolor Paper String
Light Source: LED
Area: 25m2 /82sf
Design: 24° Studio (Fumio Hirakawa + Marina Topunova)
Client: Santorini Biennale of Arts Organising Committee