"Hotel Aphrodite" is a diptych project consisting of a small site-specific installation at the entrance of the Heart Monastery in Tinos Island. The installation is the work of Zissis Kotionis and hosts a sound piece by Phoebe Giannisi. The construction of the installation is titled "The Bedroom" and the sound work is titled "Invocations".

The work is inspired by the architectural typology of the traditional dovecotes of Tinos, where pigeons and humans lived together in a single cycle of mutual feeding of their metabolism. Since in antiquity pigeons were birds of Aphrodite, the structure of the Pigeon Hut can be understood as a kind of hospitality space for the absent goddess. In anthropocene terms, the Dovecote is an exemplary structure of symbiosis between humans and animals, or humanimals.

The material part of the project, which is the installation "Bedroom" consists of two IKEA bedside tables for humans and pigeons, placed near to the two pillars of the entrance of the Monastery of the Heart. The transponder for the audio portion of the project is included in the structure and relays the "Invocations". The two bedside tables on either side of the entrance contain and provide food and water for passing birds. Thus, the invocations to the goddess are also invocations to the birds to come and be accommodated in the open installation. As the birds arrive, the whole area of the small monastery becomes a large dovecote and the "Aphrodite Hotel" becomes a metonym for the "Monastery of the Heart".

Diptych work by Phoebe Giannisi and Zissis Kotionis, for the art exhibition "The Nightmare of Persephone", curated by Christoforos Marinos and Christos Chrysopoulos.

Construction time: June 2023

Materials: Iron, particleboard, Karystos slabs, bird food, water

Dimensions. 40X40X70cm (two items)