Homo Faber by Akis Goumas, Karolos Vlachiotis

The co-creation: From the Byzantine East to the Contemporary West.
In our piece we do Not try to hide the toolmarks. Instead, we try to make them visible like the toolmarks we can see under the microscope when we study an old piece of jewellery. Through the toolmarks, the work done by one creator hundreds of years ago is revived before our eyes. We created a sculptural object, symbolic of our collaboration, inspired by 2 gold Byzantine jewellery pieces of the 11th century from the Canellopoulos Museum's collection that were studied using the museum's microscope. The shape and details of the object derive from elements of the Byzantine earrings and bracelet that were studied. We attempted to transform them into what we perceive as “contemporary art deco”. The decoration is based on deconstructing elements of the Byzantine griffin and rendering them in more rigorous lines, tracing the toolmarks of the Byzantine craftsman on the surface of the metal. Looking inside the object there is a griffin similar to that of Byzantine jewellery to remind the viewer of the object's journey from the Byzantine period to the present day. The Byzantine aspects give way to the contemporary when we look at the exterior of the work. The object is handmade using chasing, repousse and hammering techniques from silver derived from old silverware, maple wood and gold-plated silver.