A preview of my ongoing long-term project On Land and Water, has been published at Voxeurop, a multilingual online independent media informing about Europe. On Land and Water is a a visual research about the growing interest in fossil fuels, and the environmental issues that come with it, in Greece and Albania in times of climate emergency. See the full photo story at Voxeurop.
Thanks to Constance Decorde for curating this publication.
How much do we know about everyday life in the neighbouring Balkan countries? What do we have in common? What makes us stand apart? What unites us? What can we accomplish together? With those questions in mind, we called on photographers of all ages and ethnicities, in order to find photographic series that could leave stereotypical representations behind and help us, instead, to better understand both our neighbours and our own selves. This is how we organised a pop-up photo exhibition in 17 different spots (bookstores, records stores, cafes) of Exarchia, a central historical neighbourhood of Athens.
26 photographers from 12 countries participated in this pop-up exhibition, which took place in the context of the 3rd Film Symposium Balkan Can Kino and was curated between Evi Stamou and me. The photographic series were distributed across the streets of Exarcheia according to the following themes: our relationship with the rest of the Balkans, the younger generation’s perspective and its dilemma facing immigration, the recent past, the painful recollection of the war and, last, the fluidity and the fragility of the present state of things.
Taking the lack of funds in the cultural life of the Balkans as a given, but eager to stand on our own feet and willing to keep exploring all those factors that shape our daily life, we invited visitors to wander about the neighborhood of Exarcheia in Athens and to get reacquainted with our city and its inhabitants in a real Balkanic context.
Thanks to all the photographers who trusted us with their work.
Participating photographers: Kostis ARGYRIADIS (GR), Aggelos BARAI (AL), Petrut CALINESCU (RO), Laura CNOSSEN (NL), Nicholas CONSTANT (UK), Dan COURT (UK), Sylvan DAHLGRUN (SE), Vedad DIVOVIC (BIH), Jeanne FRANK (FR), Hannnes JUNG (DE), Ilir TSOUKO (AL), Babis KOUGEMITROS (GR) & Vassilis KONSTANTINOU (GR), Jacopo LANDI (IT), Thodoris NIKOLAOU (GR), Madalin MARIANUT (RO), Antigoni PAPANTONI (GR), Kosmas PAVLIDIS (GR), Ioanna SAKELLARAKI (GR), Orestis SEFEROGLOU (GR), Nick StOEGGER (US), Louiza VRADI (GR), Patrick WACK (FR), Dominik WOJCIECHOWSKI (PL), Rafael YAGHOBZADEH (FR), Lila ZOTOU (GR)
Follow the exhibition’s Instagram account. More at: https://bit.ly/3jaqQC3
Snapshots from the protest against the new controversial environmental super-law proposed and approved by the greek government on the first day after the ease of the strict lockdown measures due to COVID-19. Environmental law has been drastically transformed with the purpose to attract investments. NGOs and over 80 civil society’s groups active on environmental issues oppose the new super-law worrying that it will put economy over the protection and preservation of the environment.
Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis refered to the the protest as “a terrible image”.
See the full article on LIFO.
Many thanks to amazing Spyros Staveris for hosting the pictures in his blog ΑΛΜΑΝΑΚ
Singing to save the waters, documents two different actions by Vrisoules, a women’s activist group who sing and dance in order to raise awareness and their opposition to oil and gas exploration and extractions projects currently taking place in Greece.
See the full set of pictures and the related article in Greek on LIFO.
Published on Greece Is / Words by Alex King, Pictures by Penelope Thomaidi
Creativity in the Countryside: How Art and Tech are Revitalizing Epirus
Three inspiring initiatives are drawing on art, tradition, and open-source technologies to shape a better future in the rugged mountains of Epirus.
In the wild and beautiful Tzoumerka mountains young people from the Balkans collaborate to repair an old stone path reviving traditional building techniques, an open-lab designs and fabricates open source farming tools and contemporary art is exhibited in the building of the old school of Elliniko village.
What these three initiatives do is really inspiring! Read the full article.
Many thanks to Click Magazine team for including an interview and presenting a big part of my A Zone to Defend series in its No. 68 issue. Browse through the pages of Click Magazine #68, to discover the work of photographers Vicky Martin, Ivan Clemente, Claudio Rasano, Mauro Liggi, Paolo Manzo, Penelope Thomaidi.
Helsinki Photo Festival is on!
The theme for this year is “Anarchy”, and the main exhibition presents the works of 50 winning finalists, including 25 winners of the Best Image competition and a multimedia presentation of 24 shortlisted artists from all over the world.
A Zone to Defend will be shown at the main exhibition at one of the most iconic historic warehouses in Helsinki, the “Katajanokan Tulli- ja Pakkehuone & at the outdoor collective exhibition at Hesperian Esplanadi Runeberginkatu 32-34
Duration: July 30 (Tuesday) – September 9 (Monday) 2019
Discover all the participating projects and photographers at
helsinkiphotofestival.com.
Coming back to greek summer childhood memories can be a strong fuel for the new working season! Thanks to L’Oeil de la Photographie for sharing this holiday picture. Back to work now!
Sharing here some views from the exhibition of A Zone to Defend at the Young Greek Photographers exhibition of the Athens Photo Festival 2019 in the Benaki Museum, Pireos Annexe, Athens, 2019.
A Zone to Defend has been selected as one of the winners of Open Call 2019 – Anarchy! As a result, the project and will be on show at the Helsinki Photo Festival 2019 during 5 July to 9 September, 2019.
The full list of the open call winners includes 50 photographers whose projects will be exhibited at HELPHOTO 2019:
Y, Dieter Schamne, Federico Estol, Seunggu Kim, Charles Park, Marco sanges, Denise Prince, Svante Gullichsen, Robert Rutöd, Janne Korkko, Valerio Polici, David Arribas Gonzalez, Tine Bek, Ruben Martin de Lucas, Christa Blackwood, Minoo Hassanzadeh, Hossein Fardinfard, Sem Langendijk, Alex Yudzon, Diego Saldiva, Neha Hirve, David Sladek, Maxime Reynie, Ma Siliang, Vitor Queiroz, David Verberckt, Laura Brichta, Sadaf Rassoul Cameron, Emilie Royer, Ryan Walker, Marcus Gustafsson, Ute Behrend, Victoria Crayhon, Henri Blommers, Isadora Frost, Niina Vehmaa, Kasa Loka, Evgeni Attsetski, Claudio Verbano, Thadé Comar, Penelope Thomaidi, Arianne Clément, Saara Tuominen, Jenni Emilia Toivonen, Tatiana Bondareva, Annagenia Jacob, Jon Lanbroa, Daniel Minsky, Jorge López Muñoz, Michael P Martin