Those who build ships know that ships first set sail on paper, while they’re still sketches. You do, you undo, the ratios keep changing; strings, cards, wires, spools, etc… and gradually the dimensions and materials come closer to their actual form. Actual reality is the greatest challenge. Every ship that’s built wants to float and sail.

Don’t be fooled by its golden shimmer, Antonio Cosentino’s ship is made of tin, therefore it’s very light, so you can carry it in your arms and land it on water, as it’s always ready to go, always alert.  For the price of 2 Turkish liras, anyone can board on this ship and enjoy the attractions guaranteed to enchant everyone, like amusement parks, fairs and auctions, double highways for passengers with cars, unlimited exhibition opportunities on Polinesia Islands for the academics, and much more.  Those who leave, those who stay, those who are exiled, those who are expelled, all can find a place for themselves along the historical course of the ship. 

If you’ve never built a ship, you won’t know this; but it’s not OK to ask shipbuilders whatever that comes to mind, especially the question of why they’re building a ship! Trifon and Antonio who together built the Stelyanos Hrisopulos – one’s a painter, the other’s the child protagonist of Sait Faik’s story which is also the ship’s namesake – answer this futile question anyway, so as not to seem rude: “We’re not obliged to like it around here!” 

The Stelyanos Hrisopulos will be once more launched into water on Tuesday, 23rd of October at 18:00 hrs in Riverrun. 

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The Stelyanos Hrisopulos, 2013

Tin, 320x148x68 cm

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Sketches, 2013

Drawings on paper

Various dimensions 

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Kumkapı. Escape from Marmara, 2013

Video, 10’15”