Françoise Caraco explores belonging as a dynamic system composed of fragmented narratives and rituals, everyday gestures, and the shifting rhythms of time. During her three-month residency at Yellow Brick, she focused on the Nea Ionia district, which was built on the outskirts of Athens in the 1920s to accommodate the numerous Hellenic refugees from Asia Minor affected by the population exchange between Greeks and Turks following the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. Nea means ‘new’ and Ionia refers to Asia Minor. Many of the small houses originally built for refugees in Nea Ionia now stand empty or have fallen into disrepair. Others have been demolished to make way for larger, more modern homes. The neighbourhood is changing rapidly, and with it, the stories of loss and suffering, and the search for a new identity and home that these houses represent, are disappearing. From an artistic perspective, Françoise Caraco was interested in the memories that these abandoned refugee houses still hold within them. To this end, she looked for architectural features or objects left behind that tell the story of these once-new homes. Using the cyanotype process, Françoise Caraco created delicate, light-sensitive prints that capture the architectural details of the refugee accommodation built in Nea Ionia for those displaced from Asia Minor. For example, the pattern of an old, rusty spiral staircase or the grille of a locked entrance door. Caraco exposed the motifs in their original size using sunlight onto various light-sensitive materials. The cyanotypes capture the vivid shadows of these motifs and, with them, the individual stories hidden behind the originals. The universal title of the work, ‘Remnants of a Home’, refers to the constant state of being on the move, for to this day the Treaty of Lausanne serves as a blueprint for ongoing exclusion, displacement or even annihilation on the grounds of religion and nationality. Furthermore, Françoise Caraco uses cyanotypes to document the rapid transformation of this neighbourhood. Even in the last three months, she has not had enough time to capture all the planned subjects in light prints, as many buildings are currently being demolished. In this way, Caraco also captures how the traces of a bygone era in Nea Ionia are disappearing and fading away. The vibrant textures of these cyanotypie prints evoke memories and a sense of belonging, whilst the buildings themselves are gradually disappearing. What kind of home do they bring to mind?
