Cats of Athens was a cross species art project in summer 2018. I experimented if I could accomplish an art intervention for the cats that live free in the streets of Athens. In the beginning of the project I explored the city through long walks. I got sensitised to the place and I formed a picture of the city’s geography in my mind. Oh, those Athenian hills in the plain of Attica. There is a chapel in the top of Lycavittós; hoopoe birds around Filopáppou. The wayfarer sees the Acropolis at every turn, from the hillsides and the roof gardens of the city. There are the ruins of the stone roads and the ancient cemetery in Kerameikos… Everywhere I met cats, young and old, with a friend or alone, healthy and weak. 

Before my trip, I had watched the cat videos where the domestic cats like to step into rings made of belts. A vet in an article said that the cats have a natural tendency to take control of these kinds of clearly limited territories. I experimented if this holds true with the cats of Athens. I produced three interventions, which were built of unfired clay rings. I situated them on the streets. I stayed observing the intervention.

Cats of Athens was a situation; a space for seeking the connection and getting closer with the cats. When I tried to look at the surrounding world through the cats view, I got closer to the cats reality. The gap between me and the cat diminished. 

We are in interaction with other lifeforms everywhere. Still many ethical and linguistic complexes are intertwined in the relationship between human and non-human. We need to strive into connection with other species, and to look for more ethical ways to be with others here and now. We can let the troublesome feeling indwell, we don’t have to escape to disregard. 

Cats of Athens was on show at Myymälä2 gallery, Helsinki in December 2019.

Link to the Aalto University MA thesis Cats of Athens – Tutkielma lajienvälisestä taiteesta (FI): https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/41501/master_Levonoja_Siina_2019.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y