Off-History

Overview

Off-History is a video-essay which presents, as its central ‘character’, an unfinished building located at the port of Piraeus, Greece's main harbour. The narrative of the film departs from newsreel footage shot in 1972 documenting the 'sanctification of water' in the harbour of Piraeus during Easter celebration. Throughout the clip the Piraeus Tower appears repeatedly in the background of the image and thus situates the ”off” in relating to an already written history. The “off”, in Off-History constitutes a position that wishes to shift the focus within a historical document by focusing on its margins. As a way of reading history from the backgrounds of the images, that construct it. It takes a second look at already existing narratives inspired by the concept of ”the off-modern”, a term invented by Russian/American artist Svetlana Boym.