MedPhoto Festival is an international photography festival based in Rethymno that takes place through the collaboration of a collective of photographers, curators, journalists, designers and researchers with the Contemporary Art Museum of Crete. With the contribution of a wide network of sponsors and with the support of public entities (Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Rethymno, Region of Crete), it has organised from 2016 until today exhibitions, workshops, publications, screenings, lectures and various educational activities throughout Greece, all oriented towards the cultivation of a social and artistic dialogue around critical issues of our time. MedPhoto has developed collaborations with important international and local cultural organisations such as the Benaki Museum, the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, the Circulations Festival, the University of the Aegean, the Central Public Library of Veria, the Central Public Library of Rethymno and the Ragusa Festival among others, in an attempt to also contribute to the understanding of the role of photography in contemporary visual culture.

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Organisational Team

Pavlos Fysakis
artistic director

Born in Athens in 1969. He is co-founder and curator in the artistic collective Depression Era. He has worked as a freelance photographer for newspapers and magazines. He has taught photography at FOCUS School of Photography & New Media. His work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at: BOZAR (Brussels), Biennale of Nice, Slought (Philadelphia), Thessaloniki Photobiennale, Circulations Festival (Paris), Unseen (Amsterdam), Athens Conservatory, Contemporary Art Museum of Crete, Benaki Museum, Art Space Pythagorion, etc. His photobook “Land Ends” was awarded the prize for best Greek photography book in 2010.

Maria Maragkou
curator, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete

Maria Maragkou is an art critic and curator, in charge of the artistic direction of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, in her hometown Rethymnon. She worked as an art critic in the art column in the Greek daily newspaper Eleftherotypia from 1982 until its final issue of the printed version at 2014. She has organised more than fourty exhibitions in various institutions in Greece and abroad. She was Commissioner of the Greek national participation twice at the Venice Biennale [1995 and 2011] and at the Sao Paolo Biennale [1991]. Her curatorial practice focuses on issues of contemporary art that relate with society such as violence, racism or the refugee crisis. She is a member of the Greek chapter of AICA-The International Association of Art Critics and of the Athens Daily Press Editors Union [ESIEA].

Pasqua Vorgia
curator

She studied cultural management (MA) at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens, organizational psychology (MA) at Columbia University in New York (as an Onassis and Fulbright scholar) and psychology at the Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has worked as an independent documentary film producer and freelance writer for the Greek press. In 2011, she joined the art collective Depression Era, as an artist, curator and producer in various exhibitions, workshops and other public events and interventions in Greece and abroad. Since 2015, she has been working in the field of cultural management at Onassis Stegi, curating and coordinating the Talks & Thoughts program, which consists of discursive, artistic and inter-disciplinary events, inviting artists and intellectuals from around the world. During the same time she has been part of the Medphoto team, as a curator and producer in various international exhibitions and cultural events focusing on lens based media and contemporary photography in particular. In her artistic and curatorial practice, she is interested in the dialectic tension between images and text, especially in the context of history, mass culture and the media.

Dimitris Kechris 
curator

Dimitris Kechris is a photographer, filmmaker and curator. He holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Athens and an MA in Digital Arts from the Athens School of Fine Arts. His work has been presented at the Benaki Museum, the Athens Epidaurus Festival, the Byzantine Museum, the Greek Film Archive, the Athens Municipal Art Gallery, the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, and Galeria Hexagono (Barcelona). In 2022 he was awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS. His writings on photography and cinema have appeared in edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals. In 2023 his book “The Essay-film and Its Political Aesthetics” was published by Egokeros Publications and his film “Athens, My Love” (2022) was honoured with Documentary Award in the 46th Drama International Short Film Festival. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Film History and Theory at the Ionian University.

Eleni Pagkalia
texts, press, translations

Eleni Pagkalia was born in Athens in 1973. She studied English Literature at the University of Athens. Since 1993 she has been teaching English and translating literature and cultural theory, while working as a journalist as well. She is co-founder of the socio-political and cultural web-magazine toperiodiko.gr, while she had also been editor and Head of “Special Editions” of the “Difono” magazine. She collaborated with Theo Angelopoulos in the film “The Weeping Meadow”. She has also been involved in contemporary dance projects through her participation in the dance-theatre group “Akropoditi”, which in 2016 was awarded with the “Karolos Koun” Dance Award for the performance “Medusa”.

Elena Ntosa
production manager

Born in 1995, Elena Ntosa specializes in Cultural Productions and Management. With a BA in Cultural Management at the Department of Communication, Media and Culture (Panteion University), she continued her studies in Sustainable Tourism Development through Cultural Heritage, Society, and Environment (Pantheon-Sorbonne University, Paris 1). During her studies, she has worked as a project assistant at EMST, Onassis Stegi, and Nieuw Dakota (Amsterdam). She has also worked as a facilitator at NEON, and as a curatorial assistant at the Neohellenic Historical Collection of the Benaki Museum. Since 2016 she has been working as a production manager at EllinikoTheatro (Greek Theatre of New York), coordinating performances and educational programs. Since 2017 she is collaborating with the visual artist Aemilia Papaphilippou. Since 2019 she is a member of the Oneness Act, and since 2021 she coordinates the production of “illustradays”, the first illustration festival in Greece and of the MedPhoto Festival.

 

Ioannis Markakis
graphic designer

Born in Athens in 1988. He studied design at the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean. Since 2012 he has been working as a freelance designer and art director in various projects. Since 2013 he has been co-organiser of the industrial design conference “Hellenic Design”. In 2018 he was a member of the jury of the Hermes Awards in the “Digital Design” category and participated as a speaker at the panhellenic visual communication conference “Design Athens”. In recent years, he has taken over the graphic design of multiple publications and photography exhibitions. He also works creatively with photography, having participated in exhibitions such as: “The sense of an Ending” at CAN Gallery (2017), “Follow me Home” at Trii Art Hub (2018) and “Good luck” at Onassis Stegi (2019).

Athanasios Katsougiannis
designer, coder

Athanasios Katsougiannis is a designer and coder. His design practice focuses on connecting digital and analog interactions in our everyday lives. He creates websites, design tools and experiences that disrupt user habits and explores the boundaries of new technologies and their unique functions that will bring life to the static world around us.

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