Hippodrome, 1997–1999
Video, colour, sound, 15’
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Donated by Dakis Joannou, 2017
Lina Theodorou’s work illuminates micro-narratives about knowledge, fate, and the human illusion of control, set in uncertain and volatile environments and within the kind of fluid social and cultural contexts often encountered in the lived history of the Balkans and the broader Eastern Mediterranean. In the video Hippodrome, Theodorou follows an avid horse-racing gambler as he obsessively analyses information from a race predictions magazine. In an almost scientific tone, the narrator explains possible combinations, “fixed” races, and hidden strategies, creating the impression that one can predict—or even control—the outcome of the races. As the analysis unfolds, certainty gradually gives way to a peculiar blend of personal theories, conjectures, and wishful thinking, which, through Theodorou’s subtle humour, ultimately emerges as a commentary on the culture of—and obsession with— gambling. Filmed on the grounds of the old racetrack (hippodrome) at the Faliro Delta, the video also seems to reflect on the ongoing transformations of the Athenian urban landscape, through which entire worlds of memory and lived experience are ceaselessly lost, only to be replaced by others.
In her work Hippodrome, Theodorou focuses on the language and logic of the obsessive gambler, tracing how statistics, experience, and intuition merge into a personal system of interpretation. Information drawn from the horse racing magazine serves as raw material for a compulsive ritual of analysis, in which every detail—odds, past performance, rumours—takes on particular significance. However, as the narrative unfolds, this ostensible rationality begins to reveal its limits. Calculations and theories turn into a circular line of reasoning that fuels the belief that chance can be explained or tamed. The work thus captures a delicate balance between logic and the illusion of control. The artist approaches the subject with subtle irony and empathy, neither criticising the narrator nor portraying him in stereotypical terms. Instead, she foregrounds a broader human tendency: the need to recognise patterns and devise explanations in a world where chance and uncertainty are ever-present.
Lina Theodorou was born in Athens in 1968. She lives and works in Berlin.
