All objects
Breathing Life into Abandoned Spaces
Echoes of Emptiness
2025
Artwork description
Abandoned urban spaces become living canvases for virtual sculptures, envisioned as mediators between the present and imagined futures. The integration of AR allows audiences to engage with these spaces in new ways, turning static structures into dynamic centers for exploration and imagination.
Object description
Metaxourgio Square, junction of Lenorman and Achilleos
For many years the fountain was the main place of water supply to the locals (until the late 1950s), while due to the coolness it brought, around it were gathered the tables of the cafes of the square. The degradation of the area and the evolution of the water supply system led the fountain to disuse in the last decades of the 20th century, which resulted in the square itself being deserted.
About the artist
Echoes of Emptiness is an augmented reality experience for the Heriscope project by Communitism
Echoes of Emptiness is a community-driven project initiated by Karl Heinz Jeron (https://jeron.org/echoes)
Communitism, an open community of creative professionals in Athens, seeks to reimagine the potential of abandoned cultural heritage buildings in the Metaxourgeio neighborhood.
Echoes of Emptiness transforms abandoned spaces into interactive, hybrid environments using augmented reality (AR) sculptures. By placing posters with QR codes at selected sites, visitors can unlock and interact with digital objects, reimagining these forgotten spaces as dynamic centers for community engagement and speculative futures. This web-based AR experience fosters creative exploration, dialogue, and social transformation, turning neglected urban areas into platforms for collective imagination and cultural revitalization.