In the second story of our series «De-constructing the Kifissos River», Alexander Schellow meets Arif, an immigrant from Bangladesh. In their discussion, Arif points out specific issues around his stay in Greece. Where the Iera Odos crosses the former riverbank, even in ancient Greece, there was a bridge. Myth says that it was a particular …
Alexander Schellow: Here it was triggerd by the acoustic quality of the space. In my studio, I was working with some sound-documents that I recorded during the process of walking at the south-part of the river. Some of the sounds of Galateia’s environment are very specific. First of all, the clap-clap of birds-wings, of course. But also the nearby heavy traffic-situation of the coastal-road, still at a certain distance. Plus in this particular case, there is also some water that flows out of a damaged pipe very nearby and the low-level-movement of the old ladies’ plastic tarps.
As we are selecting points from the dialogues Alexander Schellow had, we find some interesting coincidences in the story of the woman named Galateia who lives by the Kifissos River. One of them refers to the myth surrounding her name. Galateia is said to be a daughter of Nireas and Doris, deities of the calm sea. Furthermore, it is said that she married Pygmalion, King of Cyprus.
During his walks Alexander Schellow met Galateia, an 80-year old woman living in Kallithea, who today dedicates her life to feeding pigeons. The first post of our series «De-constructing the Kifissos» tells the story of this meeting by the river.
Recently I stubbled upon David Bauer’s manifesto «How to be a Successful Musician». Sometimes success just happens to you, there are always special circumstances, a special timing with special people around you that make the chemistry of success happen. If you are not into music but you want to read something inspirational to travel …