Absence / From essence
Artist: Marina Razheva
Date: 2025
Type: Installation, participatory action, living archive
Materials: Table, chair, newspapers, printed matter, digital platform
Dimensions / Duration: Variable; exhibition-based and online continuation
Work description
Created for FrontPage: Next 2025 at the Melina Cultural Centre in Athens, Απουσία / Απ’ ουσία takes the form of a reading corner with a table, a chair and a stack of newspapers whose texts and images have been partially removed.
Visitors are invited to read, look, search and interpret. Reading becomes an active process of reconstructing meaning from what is missing.
The work extends beyond the physical installation through Proofs of Presence: Living Archive. During the exhibition, visitors could upload photographs and comments via a QR code placed inside the installation. Their submissions were edited and published in real time, allowing the work to continue online through the participation of its visitors.
Exhibition and realization
2025 — Athens, Greece
Exhibition: FrontPage: Next 2025
Venue: Melina Cultural Centre
The installation was conceived specifically for the exhibition. Its participatory structure connected the physical reading space with an online archive generated through visitors’ contributions.
Online continuation
Proofs of Presence: Living Archive
The online archive extends the work beyond the exhibition space through photographs and comments submitted by visitors.
Press and publications
- ONE live: Κεντρικό Δελτίο Ειδήσεων, 2 May 2025. Watch the broadcast
- Artviews: FrontPage: Next στο Πολιτιστικό Κέντρο «Μελίνα»
- Festival Miden: FrontPage Project — Melina Mercouri Cultural Center
- LIFO: FrontPage Project
- Interview with curators Julia Sysalova and Eva Maragkaki: Artviews interview
- Exhibition catalogue: FrontPage: Next
Related pages
Project: Απουσία / Απ’ ουσία
Story & Archive: Traces of the Work