The haunted villa of Spetses

Unfolding through dialogues during a hike and a drive on the island of Spetses, this project focuses on the narratives, rumours, oral histories and misunderstandings surrounding a haunted villa. Taking as a starting point the story of Eleni Altamoura, a female painter from the 1800’s who disguised herself as a man to study art and later on destroyed her works, the interlocutors in the video keep getting distracted by the landscape and the stories it carries. They drift from the main narrative, making assumptions, elisions and speculations. The politics and histories of the island are traced on the natural materials, the architectures, infrastructure and even the weather. An installation of ceramic pebbles, an a 3D-printed compass were presented alongside the films. Drawing from the pebble mosaic tradition (βοτσαλωτά) of Spetses, the split, handmade stones are attached on the existing holes of the historical building of Het Hem (a former munitions factory).