Vlad Brăteanu

Offerings, 2023

site-specific installation inside the archaeological site of Eleusina,

for Mystery 19 Visual Arts Initiator: 2023 Eleusis @2023eleusis

Vlad Brăteanu is offering a visual speculation:

After an intense summer with loud crowds of tourists and sunburns the artefacts from the
archeological site of Eleusis are exhausted and in urgent need to rest and recover. For the
time of the exhibition, three lucky artefacts are taking a break, getting extra protection to
catch some sleep in the silence and the shadow offered by the wooden boxes, away from
tourists gaze. The three boxes have just arrived and are ready to be displaced soon but
nobody knows how and when or what they contain. Someone said there are returned
fragments from a Museum collection, but nobody knows exactly as no one is allowed to look
inside. Please don’t disturb the boxes.

The artist starts to (un)pack the archeological site, an impossible speculation, which serves
as an exercise to unveil and rethink the material and immaterial heritage. The art handling
boxes are the new vessels at the sanctuary, quasi-objects that are usually considered
supplements, secondary to the artefacts that are being preserved. Now the potential route
of restoration, return and repatriation of the objects starts, rightfully so, to dominate the
discussion. How can we bridge the distance between the ancient values and ideas with our
current materialities and cultural asymmetries? What are the open secrets? What fragments
do we need to highlight in order to challenge the foundations of Western Museums?

Text by Joanna Warsza

Curator of Mystery 19 Visual Arts Initiator III – But Don’t Tell Anyone: Joanna Warsza (PO) @jowa_hkhk
Concept of legacy project Mystery 19 Visual Arts Initiator: 2023 Eleusis @2023eleusis
Production: Delta Pi @deltapiproductions

An event by 2023 Eleusis @2023eleusis
Supported by the Goethe-Institut Athens @goetheinstitut_athen

With the support of the Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica