ILISSOS / limbo eξótica

The River Ilissos, once a sacred river of Athens, takes the form of a wretched and grotesque deity rising to the surface at points around the city through which it once proudly flowed.

This natural feature of the city – one that has quite literally been driven underground, marginalized and repressed – announces its existence by means of a journey-cum-manifesto.

The Ilissos, described in Plato’s “Phaedrus” as winding through an idyllic landscape, today finds itself paved over, a sewer. On the pretext of public health concerns and the dangerous floods it once caused, the river today flows out of sight. Traces of its storied past still lie intertwined with its present-day state of dereliction. Much as its riverbed was “taken care of”, so too are other things considered “dirty” or “dangerous” in the city – societal groups, practices, habits, and desires that are by turns revealed or hidden away. But they continue to exist.

The stretch of riverbed that lies uncovered beside the Church of Aghia Photini Ilissos (also known as Santa Phopho) is the thread that connects its mystical past with the present.

All rights related to the monuments visible courtesy of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (law 3028/2002).

The Panathenaic Stadium monument is under the jurisdiction of the Directorate of Modern Cultural and Intangible Cultural Heritage.