Windows With A View
I was absolutely bewitched by the ruins of this old mansion - an archontiko - on the picturesque island of Chalki which lies lazily in the vast blue of the Aegean. The following excerpt by Svetlana Boym expresses - in part - why I find dilapidation so fascinating.
"Ruins make us think of the past that could have been and the future that never took place, tantalizing us with utopian dreams of escaping the irreversibility of time.
The fascination for ruins is not merely intellectual, but also sensual. Ruins give us a shock of vanishing materiality. Suddenly our critical lens changes, and instead of marveling at grand projects and utopian designs, we begin to notice weeds and dandelions in the crevices of the stones, cracks on modern transparencies, rust on withered “Blackberries” in our ever-shrinking closets.” Ruinophilia: Appreciation of Ruins by Svetlana Boym
Photo taken on Chalki Island, Greece