VISUAL REPORT | CONTEMPORARY ART | LANDSCAPE | ENVIRONMENT
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Prehistoric Hunters Face a Planned Offshore Drilling Site in the Ionian Sea
Prehistoric Hunters Face a Planned Offshore Drilling Site in the Ionian Sea
The temporary 500-square-metre art intervention was created on Othonoi, Greece’s westernmost inhabited island, facing Block 2 in the northwestern Ionian Sea.
The temporary 500-square-metre art intervention was created on Othonoi, Greece’s westernmost inhabited island, facing Block 2 in the northwestern Ionian Sea.
Quick Facts
TITLE The Hunt
ARTIST The Krank
LOCATION Aspri Ammos Beach Othonoi Island Greece
SCALE 500 m²
DATE July 2026
MATERIAL Black geotextile
DISTANCE Approximately 10 km from Block 2
ORGANISERS Ionian Lab residency by Space52 & Kalogerou1844
PROJECT STATUS — UPDATED AUGUST 2026
Block 2 entered its second exploration phase in March 2026.
An exploratory well, Asopos-1, is currently scheduled for February 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.
PROJECT SUMMARY
A temporary 500-square-metre land art installation titled The Hunt has been created on Aspri Ammos Beach on the Greek island of Othonoi, the country's westernmost inhabited point. Created by artist The Krank during the Ionian Lab residency by Space52 & Kalogerou 1844, the work depicts two prehistoric hunters confronting the silhouette of an offshore oil platform.
The installation is located approximately 10 kilometres from the nearest boundary of the Block 2 in the northern Ionian Sea, where offshore hydrocarbon drilling is planned. Rather than presenting this relationship in a gallery, the work is situated within the actual landscape facing a possible industrial transformation, allowing the site itself to become part of the artwork.
Drawing on the visual language of prehistoric cave paintings, The Hunt connects humanity's earliest forms of survival with contemporary resource extraction. The temporary intervention remained on the beach only for documentation, leaving no permanent alteration to the site while inviting public reflection on the relationship between landscape, energy and collective memory.
Most offshore exploration projects are experienced through maps, technical documents and government announcements. The Hunt approaches the same geography differently. Rather than documenting a landscape after it changes, the installation introduces a temporary visual intervention while that future remains uncertain.
By placing prehistoric hunters opposite the outline of an offshore platform, the work creates a direct visual relationship between deep historical time and a possible industrial future. Visitors encounter the landscape before any physical transformation has occurred, allowing the site itself to become part of the conversation.
THE IMAGE
The Hunt was conceived as an image that cannot be fully read from ground level. At human height, visitors encounter fragments: black lines, figures, stones and the horizon. From above, these fragments resolve into two prehistoric hunters facing the silhouette of an offshore platform. The aerial viewpoint is therefore not simply a method of documentation, but part of the work’s visual structure.
The offshore platform is the only represented object in the image that does not yet physically exist in the landscape. By placing its outline on the beach before any such infrastructure is visible from the island, the work gives temporary form to a possible future and asks how an anticipated transformation begins to alter the way a place is seen.
LOCATION
The installation was created on Aspri Ammos beach on Othonoi, Greece's westernmost inhabited island. The site faces Block 2 in the northwestern Ionian Sea, an offshore exploration concession. The artwork is located approximately 10 kilometres from the concession area.
ISLAND / HUMAN CONTEXT
Othonoi is a small, remote island at Greece’s western edge. Here, offshore exploration is not only an abstract question of energy policy: it enters a lived landscape defined by the sea, the horizon and the everyday experience of a small island community.
In a testimony collected during the project, one resident recalled earlier survey activity in direct physical terms:
“When they started searching, you could feel the vibration at night, my entire house was shaking.”
The Hunt was developed within this local context. Rather than illustrating a distant policy debate, the work places the prospect of extraction inside a landscape that is inhabited, remembered and experienced at human scale.
VISUAL DOCUMENTATION
Overall aerial view of the temporary 500 m² installation.
Installation in progress. Black geotextile strips were positioned directly on the beach and secured with local pebbles.
Detail showing the manual assembly process using removable materials.
Initial concept drawing referencing prehistoric cave paintings.
Detail of the installation where the black geotextile meets the white pebbles of the beach.
VIDEO DOCUMENTATION
Drone film, 50 sec, 4K, colour, no dialogue.
PUBLIC RESPONSE
"On the last day of the installation, visitors kept asking whether the black material would harm the beach. Once we walked together toward the rocks and looked back at the work, the conversation shifted from the material itself to the offshore exploration area on the horizon."
— The Krank
MEDIA DOWNLOADS
Web-resolution images are available for editorial preview and online publication.
Full-resolution print files are available upon request.
Please contact: mail.thekrank@gmail.com
ABOUT THE ARTIST
The Krank is a Greek visual artist based in Athens whose practice focuses on large-scale site-specific installations, land art and public interventions. His work explores the relationship between landscape, collective memory and contemporary social and environmental issues, often transforming real locations into spaces for public dialogue.
online portfolio: https://www.behance.net/thekrank
MEDIA CONTACT
For press inquires:
mail.thekrank@gmail.com
www.instagram.com/the.krank
PROJECT CONTEXT
The Hunt was created during the first edition of the Ionian Lab artist residency by Space52 & Kalogerou1844 on Othonoi Island, Greece. The residency provided the context for developing site-specific projects responding to the island's landscape, history and contemporary environmental realities.
Organisers:
www.kalogerou1844.gr x www.space52.gr
FOR INSTITUTIONS & PARTNERS
Beyond its use as a visual communication resource, The Hunt can develop through curatorial presentations, public programmes, research and educational initiatives, campaign partnerships, and future site-specific commissions.
Cultural institutions, environmental organisations, foundations, researchers and commissioning bodies are invited to explore the project’s wider institutional framework and potential forms of collaboration.
>> VIEW THE INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERSHIP & FUTURE COMMISSION DOSSIER<<
Project information last updated: August 2026
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