Beach Ruins

Beach Ruins is a site-specific installation by Andreas Angelidakis at Galeria Municipal do Porto. Engaging with various notions of ruin – contemporary, ancestral or imaginary – the Greek artist-architect presents an intervention in which ancient columns embark on a journey across Europe, resting in Porto.

Beach Ruins key reference is the “Grand Tour”, a custom of the 17th to 19th Centuries in which upper-class people ventured on journeys searching for classic antiquity, the Greek ruins being one of the prime destinations. The installation subverts stable notions of reality, by transforming the ruined columns into characters who set off from southern Europe in search of new experiences.

Here, ruins are paired with parasols, setting the stage for a playful engagement with dynamics such as tourism, monumentality, class, taste, heritage or history. The installation is simultaneously a space of criticality, enjoyment and rest, where the superficial hardness of the stone is deflected by the softness of its interior. The structures function as large poufs that can take on different configurations devised by the visitors, and accumulate markings and tags on their surface, just like any other outdoor city object or building.

Based in Athens, Andreas Angelidakis describes himself as “an architect who doesn’t build”. All his projects are based on the idea of architectural ruins that still exist in contemporary cities.

Beach Ruins is the inaugural project of a new initiative of Galeria Municipal do Porto: the summer outdoor commission which happens annually from May to October.