Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the on-film juxtaposition of two current material processes — the archaeological restoration of the wall in the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos in Athens, and the treatment of sheepskin in a tannery nearby — and how these, respectively, relate to the polis.

Paper long abstract:

This paper stems from recent filmmaking-led research. It analyses the on-film juxtaposition of two current material processes: the archaeological restoration of a wall in the ancient cemetery of Kerameikos in Athens, and the treatment of sheepskin in a tannery nearby. Both processes deal primarily with the outermost layers of their respective material fabric, but while the former painstakingly restores it, the latter expediently removes it from its original body.

Filmic observation can reach beyond the immersive and the visceral experience of the workers, and illuminate how work and labour relate to the polis. At Kerameikos, through close-ups and wide shots the film shows how the material friction on the minute scale of restoration work plays out against greater forces, such as weather, urban pollution and political realities. In contrast, labour in the tannery is inward-looking, related to one's body rather than directed towards the polis. The film uses footage of labour but also frames devoid of humans, such as close-ups of sheepskin, in order to notionally separate the ever-changing processes and conditions of labour from the commodity, skin, which has been a constant from antiquity until today.

Through these two paradigms the paper addresses the reliance of commodities (the cultural commodity of ancient artefacts or the commercial value of leather goods) on their changing materiality and on processes that reverse or accelerate the effects of time on materials. In parallel, the paper discusses the artistic language and filmic methods which can help hold such diverse paradigms in a dialogic relationship.