Megan and Murray

The Oldest Song We Know: Additional Installation Images

Megan and Murray McMillan, The Oldest Song We Know: Installation, 2007

Megan and Murray McMillan, The Oldest Song We Know: Installation (detail), 2007

The Oldest Song We Know: Online Opening

Megan and Murray McMillan, The Oldest Song We Know: Photograph 1, 2007, 26'' x 39'', ed. of 3

Today our exhibition The Oldest Song We Know opens at Qbox in Athens, Greece. In conjunction with the opening in the gallery, we are hosting an online opening here on our blog, featuring the same work: three photographs, an installation, and a video. The work will only be online for the duration of the show, from Sept 11-Nov 10.

Megan and Murray McMillan, The Oldest Song We Know: Photograph 2, 2007, 20.5'' x 31'', ed. of 3

Megan and Murray McMillan, The Oldest Song We Know: Photograph 3, 2007, 20.5'' x 31'', ed of 3

Megan and Murray McMillan, The Oldest Song We Know: Installation, 2007

Megan and Murray McMillan, The Oldest Song We Know: Installation (detail), 2007

Megan and Murray McMillan, The Oldest Song We Know: Installation (detail), 2007

Megan and Murray McMillan, The Oldest Song We Know: Video, 2007, 1:06 min, ed. of 3

The Oldest Song We Know: Essay by Dana Turkovic

From the essay by Dana Turkovic which accompanies our current exhibition at Qbox gallery in Athens (through Nov 10)...

"The Oldest Song We Know" is undeniably, and in many complex ways, tightly linked to the current state of re-building on the island of Kea and the Parthenon’s literal and linear approach to its telling of stories, but particularly aligned with the displacement of a large portion of the friezes from Athens to London in the early 1800s by the British ambassador and antiquarian Lord Elgin. The McMillans describe the scandal of the “Elgin Marbles” as one inspiration for the piece: “it is a deconstructed narrative that exists in two places at once; between the people who experience the pieces in England and the people of Athens, as they approach the works in different ways with different readings; both a historical reading and a modern one; where narrative itself is deteriorated over time.”

Download the essay here.

Dana Turkovic is an independent curator based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Related: from The Los Angeles Times, Taking the Long View of Architecture in Athens; from The International Herald Tribune, Campaigner urges Greece to fight for Marbles for new Acropolis museum, and from The Guardian, Should we give the Parthenon marbles back?

Simultaneous Athens and Web Opening Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Tuesday Sept 11, when The Oldest Song We Know opens at Qbox in Athens (noon EST), we'll simultaneously post images and exhibit the video on YouTube for anyone unable to come to the opening in Greece.

Sinking City: The Oldest Song We Know

Our exhibition, The Oldest Song We Know, opens at Qbox in Athens on Tuesday, Sept 11. The exhibition features photos, a video and an installation. In the days leading up to the opening, we'll be showcasing additional photos from the series, including the one above, here on the blog.

Read about it here on Art Daily.