Cut – 7 Dividing Lines
Danae Stratou
2007, Greece
Installation, 14 photographic prints, texts, sound
Greek artist Danae Stratou creates large-scale installations and audio-visual environments. For ‘Cut – 7 Dividing Lines’ she travelled 60.000 km across the globe to capture the lives of populations divided by borders originating from socio-political, economic, nationalist or religious tensions, from Cyprus to Eritrea, from Palestine to Kashmir. As the artist calls them, seven open wounds: seven lines on the planet where historical tensions have shaped impenetrable divisions, founded on unresolved issues and relentless claims.
Stratou highlights the similarities between people on both sides of the borders. As viewers walk along a narrow corridor which serves as a dividing line between seven pairs of photographs, hearing the quotidian sounds of the worlds on both sides, they experience the feeling of being on a dividing line themselves. The text on the floor, written by former Minister of Finance of Greece, Yanis Varoufakis, guides the visitors through the installation. Through this immersive experience Stratou reminds us that despite ‘borders’ and differences, the desire for a ‘normal’ life is a universal longing that transcends the barriers that separate us.
Danae Stratou: ‘I imagine two parallel realities in the way that we view the world. There is the world inside and the world outside of us. It is through the senses that we are able to connect the inside to the outside world. My whole life, including the choice to become an artist, has been an attempt to research, to understand, and to connect these two parallel realities.’
Courtesy National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), Athens
Danae Stratou is an installation artist born in Athens, Greece. Danae’s work consists of large-scale installations and audio-visual environments. She uses various media ranging from digital and audio technology, video, and photography, as well as metal or natural materials. The artist uses a minimal, geometric visual language and engages in contemporary issues such as immigration, life in contemporary cities, the growth of population, the relation to the environment, as well as political and social tensions worldwide.
She has exhibited widely, including at the 48th Venice Biennale, Italy (1999), the 1st Valencia Biennale, Spain (2001), La Verriere, (Fondation D’ Enterprise Hermes) -Solo Show, Belgium (2010), Istanbul – Culture Capital of Europe 2010 International Program, Turkey (2010), the Adelaide International Festival 2012: Restless, Australia (2012).