“Critical Archives I: Ruins”
Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete
Duration: 11 June – 6 September
Curators: Maria Maragkou, Pasqua Vorgia, Pavlos Fysakis
ODYSSEIA
Antoine D’Agata
Personal odyssey is the focus of this body of photographic and video works by Antoine D’Agata. The raw French photographer sought out migrants in Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia in order to experience, document and understand the often harsh reality of their journeys. In a desperate quest to reach a better life in Europe, many migrants inhabit deteriorating urban landscapes, endure detention centres and slip past ports and borders undetected, fully aware of the danger and illegality of their situation, and nameless to the world. Includes striking photos and images from videos, statistical data and texts by Bruno Le Dantec and Rafael Garido. When I was on the ground, I constantly questioned the usefulness of my presence. I photographed people dying, to show them to those who let them die.
HOMESICK
Hrair Sarkissian
In “Homesick” (2014) Hrair Sarkissian recreated and destroyed an architecturally exact scaled model of the apartment building in Damascus where his parents are still living. Like many of their generation, they have until now refused to leave Syria. Sarkissian grew up in this building, and lived there until he left Syria in 2008. It represents more than just a house. In addition to providing shelter to his parents, it is the place where he belongs, a container for his memories, and a place for his family’s collective identity.
Through “Homesick” Sarkissian constructs a story that, considering the current political situation and the ongoing destruction in his home country, could very well take place in the near future. What would be the consequences? What is it to expect the worst? Can we fast-forward the present and acknowledge loss and begin reshaping a collapsed history before the event? At the same time, by taking fate into his own hands, he is trying to regain some control over the situation and to tear down an unreal imagination.
EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED, HAPPENED HERE FIRST, IN REHEARSAL
Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin
The invasion of Beirut, the first and the second Intifada, the Gaza withdrawal, the Battle of Falluja; almost each and every one of Israel’s major military tactics in the Middle East over the past three decades was performed in advance here in Chicago, an artificial but realistic Arab town built by the Israeli Defence Force for urban combat training.
ABBANDONI
Davide Monteleone / Francesco Zizola
In the work by Francesco Zizola, we see a monumental photograph from the tragic shipwreck of Lampedusa, while Davide Monteleone is photographing the personal belongings of the passengers of the ship that have been washed to the shore.
DEPRESSION ERA
group exhibition
Artists: Zoe Hatziyannaki, Kostas Kapsianis, Dimitris Michalakis, Dimitris Rapakousis, Spyros Staveris, Yiannis Theodoropoulos, Lukas Vasilikos, Pasqua Vorgia
Works from the archives of the artists collective Depression Era, will be presented in an attempt to record the speedy socio-political transformations in Greece the recent years.
LIFE NARRATIVES / screening
Nikos Markou
Nikos Markou, in a sequence of short videos, invites the audience to have a brief but penetrating look in the life of various people of the contemporary Greek reality.
KURDISH FIGHTERS IN THE CITY OF NUSAYBIN
Emilien Urbano
Diptych 2 (Turkey) – The city in war
They wait for the enemy. Before they start with the war they are rehearsing it, masked faces, vests tactically fit over their civilian clothes. In the abandoned streets, marked by previous combat, they reproduce the gestures and poses of the battles to come, guns pointing towards a perspective in void. Adolescents in partisan districts immerge in the images of televised wars, ancient revolutions, conflicts which went the other way, for which they’ve been hearing testimonies throughout their little lives. Only the next martyr will bring their faces back. Vanished into their common hood, they won’t appear again but only through the offered death, images of glory posted on the city walls after the battle. The living have already abandoned it, leaving only blind windows behind. The movement of martyrs which rises, blossoms in streets where the war is installed imposing its geographical position over a lost reality. However, behind the barricades, on the destroyed cobbled roads and the forbidden streets, fresh drinks are still sold while expecting the disaster.
THE ZONE / screening
18ANO photographic team
The Museum hosts the screening of «The Zone», by the Photographic Team of the 18 ΑΝΟ rehabilitation centre.
Old Commercial Bank (Old Town)
Duration: 9 June – 15 July
Curators: Giorgos Moutafis, Pavlos Fysakis
CROSSINGS
group exhibition
Artists
Sokratis Baltagiannis, Alfredo D’Amato, Loulou D’Aki, Dimitris Michalakis, Giorgos Moutafis, Myrto Papadopoulou, Alessandro Penso, Giulio Piscitelli, Jerome Sessini, Aggelos Tzortzinis, Emilien Urbano, Achilleas Zavallis
The exhibition presents the routes of refugees towards and across Europe. It is hosted in the old Commercial Bank’s building, an aspect that marks the relationship between the recession and the displacement of populations. The photographs come from the shores of Lesbos, the port of Piraeus, the crossings of immigrants to Africa, the torn-apart Syria, the Calais Jungle, the settlements in Patra and Idomeni, the smugglers’ hotels in Smyrna.
Twin Building inside the Fortezza Castle
Duration: 10 June – 15 July
Curators: Yorgos Prinos, Pavlos Fysakis
ALIEN TERRITORY
group exhibition
Artists
George Awde, Konstantinos Doumpenidis, Antonis Damolis, Petros Efstathiadis, Giorgos Gavrilakis, Olga Gortsa, Yorgos Karailias, Giannis Karpouzis, Marily Konstantinopoulou, Charalampos Kydonakis, Randa Mirza, Marita Pappa, Georges Salameh, Orestis Seferoglou, Kosmas Stathopoulos, Eliza Tamo, Vaggelis Tatsis, Serkan Taycan, Antonis Theodoridis, Marinos Tsagkarakis, Nikolas Ventourakis
Working on a more symbolic subject, this exhibition (inside the town castle) is the effort to research our internal state, the state of everyone living from the inside of the border, regardless of their descent, trying to find meaning in an uncertain era, an era of insecurity, crisis and increasing inequality. Alien Territory is the uncharted area of our familiar environment, where our own self is the stranger.
“Critical Archives II: Testimonies”
Kara Moussa Pasha Mosque
Duration: 9 June – 20 July
Curators: Maria Maragkou, Pavlos Fysakis
STATE / screening
Apostolos Zerdevas
MY ARAB WORLD / screening
Giorgos Moutafis
9 DAYS – From my window in Aleppo / screening
Issa Touma
This is a video series, documenting important international affairs, like the war in Syria, the Arab Spring and the action of a terrorist group in Middle East. The artists have created a collage of experiences: Giorgos Moutafis in “My Arab World” works as an eye-witness, recording scenes that take place right in front of the press-photographer. Issa Touma, in his video “Nine Days” communicates the image as well as the experience of a person-potential victim: he sees -and at the same time records- trapped inside his own house, the happenings of a war that takes place right outside of his own window,. Finally, Apostolos Zerdevas in “State”, uses the video recordings of extremists and isolates snapshots with his own camera, trying to critically reflect on the news and the Media.
SIDE EVENTS
ANTOINE D’AGATA LECTURE / 30 June
at Cultural Centre of Rethymno (Old Town)
FETART / 9 June
Open exhibition with photographs placed on the walls of central spots of the Old Town on Rethymno
curated by Marion Hislen (Festival Circulations, 10 June)
STEREOSIS, FOCUS school of Art, EFE Herakleion / 10 June
projection at Cultural Centre of Rethymno (Old Town)
EFI HALIORI / Dates TBA
exhibition at Morfes Gallery (Old Town)
WHERE I RESIDE / 12-25 August
Photography exhibition curated by Costis Antoniadis
photographers: Stella Aggelaki, Dimitris Barounis, Foteini Farmassoni,
Konstantinos Gdontakis, Mixalis Kalaitzakis, Giannis Klouvidakis,
Eleftheria Sistaki, Spyros Zervoudakis
at Gate Sabbionara (7-11 pm), Chania
WORKSHOP FOR KIDS AT EPISKOPI VILLAGE / 9-12 May
with Takis and Apostolos Zerdevas (FOCUS School of Art)
OPEN DISCUSSION and PHOTOGRAPHIC SCREENINGS
with the public and the artists
VOLUNTEERS EXHIBITION / 11-25 August
at Morfes Gallery (Old Town, Rethymno)
Workshop for students at Episkopi Village
Tutors: Takis and Apostolos Zerdevas
19-23 May
Cost: free
For Medphoto Festival is also important to approach young people and teach them the basic principle of photography , for this reason we are organizing a photography workshop at Episkopi village, aiming at making young people acquainted with photography. The workshop’s tutors will be Takis and Apostolos Zerdevas, successful photographers and founders of the Focus School of Art, with years of experience both in photography and education.
The workshop will be open to twenty Junior High and high School students among the schools of Episkopi village. The workshop’s main goal is to promote creativity through cooperation and collective work and for this purpose only one camera will be used. After the workshop the photographs of the participants will be exhibited at the village’s school. The subject matter that the students will be asked to deal with through the procedure is the matter of boundaries and identity, in whatever form and direction they chose.
Workshop’s programme
Day 1: Presentation of the tutor’s photography
Day 2: Practice (part I)
Day 3: Discussion and critical analysis of the photographs taken by the students
Day 4: Practice (part II)
Day 5: Editing and final selection