Chapels of Remembrance

Floating shrines, remembrance of the drowned, unburied refugees and immigrants, in the Mediterranean Sea.

“I would not leave the dead unburied …” Sophocles, Antigone 467 BC.

“No god imposed such a law on the people”, Antigone replies to King Creon, who tells her that she will lose her life for ignoring the law, that her brother was to be left unburied. Antigone cannot but bury her dead brother, defending the code of honour, tradition, family and gods. This action leads to her doom.

The thousands of refugees and immigrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, the unburied dead, Antigone’s brothers – the ones whose bodies have never been found, the ones that you cannot mourn.

According to the statistics from the International Immigration Organization, thousands have drowned in their quest for a better life.

It is no longer enough just to record and refer to these tragic statistics. We should also take action. It is our duty.

An inspired, sensitive, and self-taught artist Anna Saloustrou, shows us through her art a heart-breaking way of taking action, in the form of floating shrines – memory and remembrance. A small step reminding us, that it is time to put an end to this painful oblivion that is characterising our times.

K.N.M. Kazamiakis – Architect Architecture Historian, Art Historian