Aristaios Tsousis was born in 1982, in Athens (Greece). He studied interior architecture and design at the Superior Technological Institute Athens, with his thesis being done on ceramics (2010), and sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2016). Currently studying Russian Language, Russian Literature and Slavic Studies at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. Has been taking part in numerous exhibitions and artistic festivals in Greece and abroad (North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, France) since 2000. Speaks English, French and Italian. Professional tattooist since 2002, graffiti writer and street artist since 1997, having taken part in numerous festivals and activities of the sort.
Aristaios participated in the Art Residency that took place in Bitola (North Macedonia) from 22 October 2018 to 22 November 2018, and focused on the local events of the First World War (Macedonian Front) and their impact in the local community.
Bitola, November 2018
My beloved Mother and Father,
I am doing well, and I hope you do so too.
Time passes quickly, and at the same time very slowly. Quickly during the time of action, and very slowly during the moments of awaiting.
I have ended up in the management of cannon-barrels and bomb-shells. We dig up used material, and we take it to reuse. It takes a lot of work to be done so that these tubes, that used to spit fire, and fire in its turn used to burn people, can be turned into something useful. It is almost impossible, I would say! Anyhow, in these places, impossible and possible do not stand far apart from each other… Spacewise and timewise speaking.
The inhabitants of this old, famous city, Bitola, -which in the old times, the Ottomans named it Manastir due to its many monasteries-, are very likeable and hospitable. We are so similar in so many things. Even their language sounds familiar. Same melody and many common words. Turkish, Greek, Slavic, Latin, Albanian, even Jewish. And a similar alphabet, too! It is easy to read with a minor effort. I almost managed it already.
Some of the locals speak Greek. I myself employ the little Serbian I know, and we reach a level of communication!
The war has ended for 100 years now more or less, and it seems that by next week, we shall be coming back home.
With love,
your son A.
P.S. My dear father, get well soon and kisses to my brother, and uncle N.
A sculpture of rusty iron tubes representing bomb cells / sockets. Aristaios mixes letters half in Cyrillic and half in Greek alphabets depicting the word “foreigner”. This separation symbolises the result of a bomb attack. The choice of the word communicates the message existing in every conflict: to fight and destroy those who are “foreigners”.
The digital and digitised outcomes of the ECHO project are in copyright. We publish them on the ECHO II website only for communication and dissemination purposes. We’ll do our best to open them up as soon as possible, in collaboration with the project partners, the artists-in-residence, and any other rights-holders. If -in the meantime- you want to reuse these materials, don’t hesitate to contact us.