THE REBIRTH

AGATHI KATSENI

The “Rebirth” is something beyond a shelter. The aim is the one who enters the space to grasp the essential qualities of sukkah as a space that provides the same intimacy of a house, the protection and bliss that it grants us. The poetic character of “Rebirth” is a corporeal and sensual realm of experience, a wandering into our inner self. The space aims to invoke thought, daydreaming and dreaming, actions which resurrect the past and connect it with the present. The immersive experience is a “time-out” from the reality zone, a heterotopia that creates a rupture between time and space.
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​The plywood boards form a cone built that encloses the encounter and simultaneously reminds to look up. To enter the sukkah, one must push the suspended dried lulav leaves aside to make a path. Then, the visitor encounters a scenery of circular sandy landscape, an illusion of desert in the infinity of time. The suspended stretchy translucent fabric, hanged by 3 bamboo poles that pierce the wooden walls, is strong enough to hold 2-3 persons. The dweller penetrates to the womb through a cut and feels the warm embrace. Enhancing the experience, hanged citron pieces and willow leaves trigger the olfaction. The top is covered by a bamboo basketry sieve which has rectangular cuts, allowing a heavenly sunlight to penetrate during the day and the shimmering moon to enter at night.