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Monday, August 3, 2015

What Happens in Xanthi Every Morning at Precisely 10:23 a.m.

  "Niki of Xanthi" is my first "sun" sculpture. It's an amorphous bas-relief on the wall of "the House of Shadow" in Xanthi, Greece. Next to the raised section of the wall there is a painted flowerpot... Now since the flowers need water all summer long, a woman, "Niki of Xanthi," will come out at 10:23 every morning to water them. This woman will appear as the shadow of the "amorphous sculpture," which will be produced by the sunlight. The period of time during which the shadow assumes its perfect form lasts about three to four minutes, while it is recognizable for about 20 minutes, with its features changing with the passage of time after 10:23 a.m. Another peculiarity I would mention is that the perfect shadow takes place at 10:23 a.m. on July 19. Each day preceding and following July 19, the angle of the sun is only minimally different (in summer the sun is higher than in winter), and this contributes to the shadow's negligible diurnal change. Niki of Xathi looks for your company every morning... This post originally appeared on HuffPost Greece and was translated into English. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


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