"It represented an endeavor to explore a realm that I had known since childhood but had felt less accessible to me as a woman. In many ways, this photo book is my attempt to deal with the awkwardness I experienced due to the male-dominated atmosphere."
Artist: Katerina Moschou
Project: How to Drive
Developed and Published in collaboration with ZOETROPE ATHENS
Text by Katerina Moschou and Christos Mellios
There are stories other than the triumphant victories of Le Mans racers. Or there could be no such stories in that sense. There is meaning beyond victories and losses.
24 hours of racing sound exhilarating but how about 365 days of driving? One's driving routine could hold enough value to do away with heroes.
The car, ''a purely magical thing''* but still an object almost exclusively shaped by his gaze and his ways of making stories.
Only if it was not for the same thing over and over again.
'' Hence it is with a certain feeling of urgency that I seek the nature, subject, words of the other story, the untold one, the life story.'' **
She tends to forget the petty things, or perhaps she considers them rather banal.
Yet everyday life is built on banality, the small gestures, the repetitive movements. She has grown dependent on her everyday rituals to navigate through life.
His hands slowly remove the gray wrinkled cover. The metal body is being unveiled and prepared to be driven. She is now seated inside, ties herself up, ready to join in a complex dance. Over time her limbs have grown so familiar with their mechanical counterparts they almost respond unconsciously. Once the car gets going one cannot distinguish hands from levers or feet from pedals. Their individual bodies merge into a speeding unity.
Her car becomes a moving place, a vessel through which she experiences her contemporary world.
''Train your ear to distinguish the slightest sound foreign to the consistent rumming of the engine. A single misfire meant that there's some little things needing attention.''***
*Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Trans. by Annete Lavers. Vintage, 2009.
**Le Guin, Ursula K. The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. Ignota books, 2020.
***Levitt, Dorothy. ''The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Woman And The Car, by Dorothy Levitt.''
"I didn't initially intend to create 'How to Drive' as a project right away. It actually started when I began visting my father's car repair shop regularly. It represented an endeavor to explore a realm that I had known since childhood but had felt less accessible to me as a woman. In many ways, this photo book is my attempt to deal with the awkwardness I experienced due to the male-dominated atmosphere.
A significant influence on this project was Ursula Le Guin's book, 'The Carrier Bag.' In it, she talks about how most stories focus on heroes, winners, and dominant figures. But she also emphasizes the importance of the untold stories, the everyday narratives that don’t revolve around heroes, which are often the stories of women.
Following her way of thinking , I built a narrative around everyday life. I watched my own own gestures and movements, almost like I was an outsider looking in. Mundane actions and routines became the focal points of my analysis.
Over time, my initial specific idea, evolved into something broader. I began recording myself using my camera's remote control while driving, meticulously observing each moment and movement. I found that the more I dug into it, the more I discovered. It felt like I was gradually establishing a personal routine, something like a preparation of a ceremony This ceremony was all about the everyday and how it can be redefined.
The space inside the car, my personal container, remained the same with their unchanging shapes and materials. But the way the limbs used them fell familiar and even cozy. The pace of this photobook slowly unfolds through the interaction between the car's body and human body.
This personal routine that I almost unintentionally developed goes beyond my initial thoughts. It emphasizes the importance of paying attention to the bits and pieces of our daily lives, as they reveal what our bodies experience all the time."
© Katerina Moschou