Voulolimna - lacustrine paraphernalia, 2022  | analog photographs, carrier belt and vest,  traditional cretan knife, human hair
(part of the project “Lakes: Myths, Stories and Meanings” produced together with Olga Evaggelidou, Nefeli Papaioannou in Crete, Greece )
 

*Text by Eleni Riga, curator

Voulolimna proposes a variation of the myth of Kournas lake and tackles contemporary ecofeministic issues regarding the protection of women, children and nature, in two unique locations: the aforementioned natural lake, as well as the artificial lake Agyia, near Chania.

The project is presented as an exhibition that consists of a short film, “Voulolimna”, which is the result of field observation at the protected wetlands, an educational workshop with children and parents where they created creatures with reference to the fauna of the area and the re-appropriation of the local myth, along with sculptural elements deriving from it. It is a contemporary portrait of the lake that includes all living and non-living things, real and imagined: animals, plants, fairies, tourists, even pedal boats.
 

I. Ragusini created the accessories of the dress, the vest and blade guard for the knife. In order to do so, she studied both the men’s and women’s costumes of Crete. She was particularly impressed by the functional role in men’s costumes of the ziponi, 
a type of vest for carrying weapons and other items. Thus, the ziponi ensures the privacy of men’s possessions and intimate
physicality, in contrast to women’s where the breasts and the objects remain exposed. Ragusini remediates the unequal distribution 
of roles with a hybrid belt-vest. 

Also, the women’s costume is completed by the silver dagger, the women’s knife, which is the same as the men’s but of
smaller dimensions and is carried on the Cretan women’s belt. The artist imagines a similar knife, small and yellow, 
between a toy and a real weapon, which bestows symbolic qualities such as bravery and combativeness.