Nixe [between the palm trees and the abyss, the probability of an island]

The sculptural installation at CCA Andratx was produced in response to my research into the expeditions of the Austrian explorer Archduke Ludwig Salvator and their connection to the history of my extended family, the Tsilimigras, residing in the islands of Zakynthos and Majorca. In 1901 Salvator, having sailed from his chosen domicile, Majorca, arrived at Zakynthos where he conducted an extensive research on the island’s animals, plants, history, local customs and architecture. During his stay, a romance evolved between the daughter of Salvator’s secretary and the Zakynthian doctor Ioannis Tsilimigras. Upon the end of the expedition Tsilimigras joined her and the rest of the crew to Majorca to start a new life there. In 1904 Salvator published the outcome of his research in the extensive monograph “Zante”. Since the island was devastated in 1953 by severe earthquakes, the monograph represents an inestimable cultural heritage and an image of a world now lost.

The project Nixe—named after Ludwig Salvator’s ship—examines how this story of scientific exploration, romance and diaspora is transformed into a dense, century-old network of exchange between cultural as well as personal milieus. The installation, simulating an abstract topography, consists of ceramic sculptures based on historical objects of my extended family as well as Salvator’s drawings from the Zante monograph. The sculptures are accompanied by a series of monoprints representing the Abyss, a location in Zakynthos extensively documented by the Archduke, and the image of a palm tree, a recurring visual motif of his travelogues.

CCA Andratx, Artist-in-Residence program, Majorca, Spain