WORKS
Athena
ATENEA is a physical and symbolic journey through a Europe marked by depression and disenchantment. Far from the avid gaze of news, the series reveals a mysterious and disturbing Europe, inhabited by scenes where animate and inanimate beings dialogue in an encrypted language. Embarked on a kind of situationist drift, the author crosses the old continent in the style of an observant flâneur, an authentic homo ludens who dwells on the unusual visible signs found along the way, turning the ephemeral line drawn on the territory or on the game board itself. Like an immersion in the origins of the West, ATENEA takes as its starting point the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, the epicenter of contemporary political and financial power. Two months later, the journey culminates at the foot of the Parthenon in Athens, thus closing the journey between the current speculative “temple” of finance and the ancient Greek temple of art and wisdom. A journey from north to south, from rich Europe to poor Europe, from the contemporary crisis of values to the original value of ideas.
GALLERY
Roger Grasas
ATENEA
ATENEA is a physical and symbolic journey through a Europe marked by depression and disenchantment. Far from the avid gaze of news, the series reveals a mysterious and disturbing Europe, inhabited by scenes where animate and inanimate beings dialogue in an encrypted language. Embarked on a kind of situationist drift, the author crosses the old continent in the style of an observant flâneur, an authentic homo ludens who dwells on the unusual visible signs found along the way, turning the ephemeral line drawn on the territory or on the game board itself. Like an immersion in the origins of the West, ATENEA takes as its starting point the headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, the epicenter of contemporary political and financial power. Two months later, the journey culminates at the foot of the Parthenon in Athens, thus closing the journey between the current speculative “temple” of finance and the ancient Greek temple of art and wisdom. A journey from north to south, from rich Europe to poor Europe, from the contemporary crisis of values to the original value of ideas.
The headquarters of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt
July 19, 2012. It is 8:45 in the morning, and I am, camera in hand, waiting for the arrival of the members of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. They meet several times a year, but today the atmosphere is especially tense. The financial crisis is devastating half of Europe, and hitting the Mediterranean countries particularly hard. In front of the ECB, hundreds of citizens of different nationalities are camped out in protest. At nine o’clock sharp, several official cars stop in front of the building. From them descend the so-called “men in black.” I begin to photograph their briefcases. Their faces do not interest me too much; what really fascinates me—and has brought me here—is the texture and the shine of that leather that hides the numbers. I shoot several bursts with the telephoto lens. In less than a minute, they have disappeared behind the security checks. I know it will take hours for them to leave, so I decide to wander around the surroundings. As I walk around the building, I pass a store that belongs to the Bank itself. Inside, I discover all kinds of souvenirs related to the euro: T-shirts, mugs, plates, posters, lighters, all “tattooed” with the € symbol. I wonder who would want to buy such a collection of banalities. I am about to leave when, in a corner, I discover some packages that appear to contain bundles of banknotes. The clerk explains to me that, in effect, they are packages of one million euros, withdrawn from circulation due to printing defects, shredded, pressed, and packaged for sale as souvenirs, at a modest price of ten euros. I am amazed by the perverse genius of the capitalist system, capable of generating profits even from money that has lost its value. I decide to buy one of those packages and take it from the heart of European economic power to the Parthenon in Athens. ATENEA is the visual account of the journey I made, traveling across Europe from north to south and from west to east, with a million fake euros in my suitcase.
Published by RM Verlag
Publication year: 2017
ISBN: 978-8469738788
Texts by Roger Grasas
Edited by Eloi Gimeno and Roger Grasas
Design by Eloi Gimeno
Dimensions: 15.2 x 23.5 cm
Pages: 144
Images: 54
Edition: 1000
Hardcover
Language: English
