Fotini Gouseti’s work focuses on the social and ideological crisis that follows the financial one. Her case study is the small town Kalavryta, symbol of the establishment of the Greek state in 1821. She draws on the controversy that arises when after the last elections in Greece it was announced that a big amount of votes for the right-wing Golden Down came from Kalavryta. This is noteworthy because Kalavryta was totally destructed and its male population massively executed by the Wehrmacht Army on December 13, 1943.
Kalavryta 2012, reflects on one episode from the post-war history of Kalavryta. After the war the village received supplies from the Red Cross and UNNRA. The Vagia family one day received a huge package that contained over two thousand neckties. Not knowing what to do with them, the mother of the family used them to make a traditional “kourelou” carpet. “We were starving, but walking on silk,” her son recalled laughing. For this artwork Fotini Gouseti collaborated with people from the villagers and a group of volunteers with knowledge of the traditional weaving technique to recreate the carpet using about two thousand neckties.