Written by the artists

The willingness to revisit is a research-art project in progress. It consists of an idiosyncratic record of souvenirs from Greece found in various ea markets in Berlin. Ceramic museum copies of vessels, statue replicas, postal cards and photograph albums of trips are all nds of an open performative experience of collecting. The ea market as a space of negotiation and exchange, an un- predictable meeting point of objects and people, becomes the temporary melting pot of various stories; Narratives that can metonymically bring to life personal journeys, places, memories but also cultural and institutional con- texts. The distinctive postal card stands and the staged-looking stalls selling ancient statue reproductions one nds in archaeological sites and holiday destinations, form an integral part of tourist attraction practices. Nowdays there are laws that set the terms and conditions that govern the expoitation of cultural heritage, including the allocation of permits to photograph and lm and to use archaeological sites for various events. At the same time the project explores these souvenirs as objects that illustrate a personal understanding of history and locality as evidence of the shifting of ideas and experiences. To what extent have these objects in uenced and shaped a stereotypical view of the Other? To what extent do they exoticise and romanticise antiquities and representations of places? And on the other hand, how signi cant a part have they played in the promotion and development of tourism and construction of “Greekness”?