Our solo exhibition, The Oldest Song We Know, opens at Qbox in Athens, Greece on Tues., Sept. 11. The show consists of photos, an installation, and the video that we made during our residency on the island of Tzia over the summer. The title of the exhibition refers to the soundtrack of the video, a rendition of the Epitaph of Seikilos, which is the oldest known complete musical composition with lyrics, dated around 200 BC.
The song is inscribed on a tombstone found in modern Turkey in the late 1800s. It’s thought that Seikilos, the songwriter, wrote it as his wife’s epitaph. The inscription reads: I am a tombstone, an icon. Seikilos placed me here as an everlasting sign of deathless remembrance.
The lyrics to the score read:
While you live, shine
Don’t suffer anything at all;
Life exists only a short while
And time demands its toll.
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