Under the name of Sacred Band. The “perfect analogue” in three acts

Item

Title

Creator

Lykeion ton Hellenidon (Lyceum Club of Greek Women)

Spatial Coverage

Online

Relation

A thousand stories stitched on a piece of cloth, 1821–2021

Subject - keywords

Military uniform

Ypsilantis Alexandros See all items with this value Ypsilantis Alexandros -> Searchculture.gr

Date

12 February 2021

Date Issued

2021

Abstract

Through an audiovisual montage, Mary Thivaiou attempts to approach the clothing identity of the black-clad men of the Sacred Band, the battalion of selected soldiers brigaded by Alexandros Ypsilantis in 1821, in Focșani. The visual artist, as a conceptual videographer/biographer of the Sacred Band uniform, searches for corresponding written references to the uniform of the Messolongi Brass Band as the only ensemble still in existence. She matches up close-up shots of the uniform to the information or the documents from each time period, creating an one-to-one connection. The shots succeed one another, indicating the transition from the past to the present tense of the narration and vice-versa. In addition, with techniques such as slow motion, she urges us to notice the detail. The agitated rhythm of the soundtrack intensifies and completes the sequence of the pictures. Finally, she incorporates visuals that evoke barcodes into the frames. They move and change shape depending on the soundtrack, and it is as if the Sacred Band dress code is revealed every time the components of the uniform are “read”. Within the triptych of Object (the garment, in this case)–Image–Written Language that Thivaiou uses, as well as within the pairing of one field with the other, one can find eclectic affinities in the way meaning is created in the museum. On the other hand, the quick switching between frames and the conciseness with which the Sacred Band members biography is summarised gives the work the aspects of a film trailer. Moreover, her work carries a feeling of being both anachronistic and multi-temporal, as with many theatrical ventures today: they are simultaneously in the here and now, and in the there and then.”

(Edited description from organiser’s website)