Serapis Maritime 
Liquid Grounds

Seamanship of Lagkada Cultural Space
Agia Irini, Lagkada
10 July - 21 August
Wednesday to Sunday 19:00 - 21:00


DEO Projects, in collaboration with the cultural association of Lagkada “Kydianta”, presents the exhibition Liquid Grounds, opening the space that will house the “Seamanship of Lagkada” collection for the first time to the public. The exhibition encounters material from the upcoming “Seamanship of Lagkada” Cultural Space, with new contemporary artworks by the hybrid artistic entity Serapis Maritime, created especially for the occasion. 

As the existing institutional and museological structures exclude the presence of Lagkada from the dominant maritime narrative of Chios, the exhibition Liquid Grounds explores issues of cultural memory/amnesia and proposes an expanded, polyphonic and inclusive documentation.

Inside the building, photographs, physical objects and excerpts of oral testimonies are displayed in preview: a representative part of the material, the collection of which started in 2019 to become the contents of this small museum.

On the two floors of the space, the visitor’s gaze is directed down to meet Palimpsest 2, a floor installation of tangled, corroded fishing nets, used at different times in the past, which have been sunk for different periods of time and fished out by fishermen in different parts of the Aegean. Serapis Maritime’s work stretches like a suspended, almost fluid base over the fixed floor: the floor, now resembling the sea, serves as a platform for the promotion of the local collection and, ultimately, the emergence of maritime memory.

The fishing net, this worn, discarded material, emerges as intellectual matter of great value: a travelled material that was in obscurity, remaining in the unseen of the watery depths, is transported to a new place and time –like the unseen maritime history of Lagkada which awaits to come to light.

On the walls, among the exhibits, the Serapis Maritime collective presents paintings on wood, made with the technique of Byzantine hagiography. The works focus on details of nets’ rigging and tears and highlight the forms shaped by these techniques/randomities. Small instances of a greater whole, they are pieces of a poetic narrative with many implications –like modern marine hagiographies.

In this new state of visibility, through the dialogue between artistic production and museum collection, memories of seamanship are reconstructed and rewritten as a collective experience, adding new pages to the palimpsest history of Lagkada.

SERAPIS is a hybrid art, design and fashion collective which creates work inspired by the aura of the oceans and the industries related to the sea. It aims towards an expansion of the boundaries of artistic production and distribution and functions like a multimedia ocean-themed novel. This results in a human centric narrative which takes place inside the universe of the sea but is instilled by an intense spirituality throughout its imagery and references. This artistic production can also be read as a contemporary seascape.

Serapis solo exhibitions include ALL AS ONE, ARCH Athens, 2019 - LIQUID SOUL, large scale public installation with RODEO gallery, 2019 - SECCMA Trust, gallery St. Catherine, Paris, 2019 - HANDS ON YOUR SOUL, 13 rue d’ Ormesson, Paris, 2018 - BY HIS WOUNDS YOU WILL BE HEALED, Cité des Arts, Paris, 2017 - I AM YOU HOPE, Dio Horia Contemporary Art Platform, Mykonos, 2016 among others.

Serapis garment and homeware works are distributed in stores internationally including SSENSE (WOMEN, MEN, HOMEWARE), PRINTEMPS FR, NUMBER 3 GR, LABOUTIK UK, FYSIKA JP, 082+ JP, 2K91 KR and in international museums & institutions including NEW MUSEUM NY, BENAKI MUSEUM GR, BELVEDERE VIENNA AU, CAN GALLERY GR, DIO HORIA GR among others.

In 2018, the cultural association of Lagada " Kydianta" opened a discussion for the creation of a space that would host and showcase the maritime history of the village. One year later, the priest of the community offered to the association a small space to house the museum. The association invited the architect and museologist Eleni Boumpari to supervise the design process of the museum and the selection of the objects. Boumpari organised five events at which the local community donated personal items of maritime value –and also recorded testimonies from local residents to contextualise the collection. Today, the association organises events to raise the necessary funds to allow the museum to remain permanently open to the public.