Island Keepers

ISLAND KEEPERS

2024-2025

What is an island?

A piece of land surrounded by water.
A physical reality, a meeting point of land and sea.
A floating mountain, an ocean’s pause.
A symbol of isolation, a self-contained ecosystem.
A boundary, a border, a place of exclusion.
A network node, a navigation point.
A testing ground, a cognitive tool.
A metaphor, a refuge.

Beyond their physical and geographical characteristics, islands serve as paradigms in urban studies, representing fluidity, exclusion, interdependence, and self-organization. Stefania Staniscia suggests that islands embody a series of contrasting identities: they can be both paradises and prisons, utopias and dystopias, isolated yet connected, sharply bounded yet permeable, rooted yet mobile, vulnerable yet resilient.1This duality, coupled with spatial constraints, makes islands ideal models for studying challenges in interconnected urban environments.

Island infrastructure does not rest on a solid territory but rather depends on dynamic interactions with various and diverse microcosms. These microcosms collectively generate systems and networks that shape the production of space. These unique landscapes offer invaluable insights into how communities can adapt, manage resources, and build resilience. As climate change accelerates, islands emerge as invaluable research tools for understanding complex environmental dynamics. Their unique balance of isolation and interconnectedness inspires new strategies and approaches to resilience, ultimately helping us "stay afloat."

LAVA invited architects and designers worldwide to explore the island as a physical and metaphorical space—of isolation and connection, constraint and adaptability. Contributions traverse fictional and surreal archipelagos, flows and structures, geological archives, migration and displacement, sovereignty, ephemeral terrains, and transportation networks.

What can islands teach us about survival, coexistence and reimagining the future?

1 Staniscia, Stefania. “The ‘Island Effect’: Reality of Metaphor.” In New Geographies 08: Islands, edited by Daniel Daou and Pablo Pérez-Ramos. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016

Participanting Artists: Shane Ah-Siong, Michela Bonomo, BothAnd Group, Katerina-Shelagh Boucoyannis, Shant Charoian, Maria Chasioti & Klelia Siska, Konstantinos Chatzaras, Sebastián Cole Galván, Nida Ekenel, Studio Ephyra, Akshar Gajjar & Bhavya Jain, Chloé Gillespie & Alice Braastad, Anna Goga, Kathlyn Kao, Lena Kitani, Tina Marinaki, Micropolitan Studio, NYSA, P4architecture, Penelope Phylactopoulos, Petra Pfaff & Anne Sofie Kristensen, Region Austral Architects, really not really, Edgar Rodriguez, RRO, Antonis Sarris, Sofia Sofianou, Peeraya Suphasidh, Anya P. Stevens & Jeff Stevens, Dewi Tan, Margarita Voyiatzi, Tassis Yianakos, Dimitris Zampopoulos

Exhibition Information
Organized by: LAVA
LAVA Space, Ippokratous 9, Athens, Greece
Exhibition Dates: 19th December 2024 – 14th February 2025
Photography: Douglas Martin Eveleigh