This would not be a lab if we did not dive into experimenting. Here are some of its transdisciplinary projects

The Blind

 

Overview

Many novels are often adapted into films or operate as the conceptual framework for the production of artistic works. Could a novel, whose content is intrinsically linked to its architectural structure, as it were, (permeated by the presence of on-ground, underground and mental labyrinths, networks, memories, inter-textual references) trigger the creative process of an architect-researcher and two photographers to visually depict it in a non-descriptive manner?

This trans-disciplinary project is based on a reading of the award-winning novel “The Blind” written by Nikos Mantis and published in 2017 (Kastaniotis, Athens; untranslated in English for the time being). It is inspired by one central question: when and how do we become aware of the state of things? In that light, it is designed to highlight aspects of the cognitive adventures in which we find ourselves while seeking for understanding of the world and for knowledge regardless of the setting. For this purpose an architectural abstract structure simulating the ‘brainscape’ will be constructed, following the ceaseless play between darkness and light, the obvious and the oblique. The photographic works produced will be incorporated in the structure inspired by specific incidents, roles or details of the story plot taking place in Athens.

Participants

Spyros
Staveris

Photographer

Aliki
Tsirliagkou

Founder of Nitra Gallery, Curator

Eirini
Vourloumis

Photographer

Emmanouil
Zaroukas

Researcher, Architect

Spyros Staveris

Photographer

Born in 1952 in Athens. Up until 1974 he lived in Paris and from then onwards he divided his life between Paris and Athens, until when he moved permanently back to Greece.

He has a dual citizenship, both Greek and French.

He studied History in Paris (Université Paris VII and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales).

He has been working as a journalist since 1989, mostly in the Greek and foreign press. Among others he has worked with the international editions of: Liberation, L’ Hebdo, Vice, etc., as well as the Greek editions of various newspapers and magazines.

His works have been shown in solo exhibitions (Gallery Elika and Thessaloniki Museum of Photography) and he has taken part in a number of group shows. His photos are included in several photographic publications like the exhibition catalogue of The Aegean Archipelagos, an Aquatic Metacity (2006, Greek participation at the Biennale of Architecture in Venice), and Kyvotos (2010, Greek participation at the Biennale of Architecture in Venice). He was a member of The Depression Era collective. Some of his works belong to private collectors and the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. In 2021, he published in Greece a book called  “Δεν υπάρχει τίποτα πίσω από μία φωτογραφία” (There is nothing behind a picture), ed. Polis.

Aliki Tsirliagkou

Founder of Nitra Gallery, Curator

Aliki Tsirliagkou is the Founder / Director of Nitra Galleries (Athens-Thessaloniki, Greece).

Amongst the projects she has independently curated are the ‘Techniques of the Body’ installation in Alaca Imaret, Thessaloniki; a project by Constantine Giannaris / Mark Mazower (exclusive donor Stavros Niarchos Foundation (2016) and was a member of the curatorial team of the PhotoBiennale of Thessaloniki ‘Logos’ (2014), organized by the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography. She has worked with the Contemporary Arts Center (part of the State Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki), the Biennale of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki (Biennale:3/Old Crossroads- Make it new).  She has also curated for the Greek America Foundation, the Greek Film & Foto Week (Toronto Canada).  As the Visual Arts Director of the not-for-profit Organization ‘Thessaloniki Allios‘ organization she has designed, curated and implemented a series of large scale exhibitions and art projects.

Aliki is the curator of the Artists in Residence Program by Eagles Palace powered by TORhotel Group which has hosted more than 45 artists in weeklong residencies, leading to group exhibitions of the created works.  She has also worked on private and corporate collections and has collaborated with various corporations, among which the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, TOMS and Louis Vuitton, for which she has delivered tailor made art programs and exhibitions.

In 2016 she was selected to participate in the NEON Curatorial Exchange in collaboration with Whitechapel gallery in London.

With a special interest in the moving image, Aliki has worked as the Contemporary Art Program Consultant for PCAI, a not-for-profit organization which aims to raise environmental awareness through contemporary art with a focus on the moving image. In November 2017 she was a member of the Jury for the Best VR film at the 58th Thessaloniki International Film Festival.

Eirini Vourloumis

Photographer

Eirini Vourloumis was born in 1979 and raised in Athens, Greece and is of Greek and Indonesian background. Vourloumis is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York.

She began her career as a contributing photographer for the New York Times Metro section and is currently freelancing for various international publications from Greece, focusing on covering the ongoing economic and refugee crises. She has also contributed as a writer for Lens, the New York Times photojournalism blog.

Her current personal work has shifted from pure reportage and combines a documentary and conceptual photographic approach, in which she explores social and political environments to reflect their dynamic within the context of the economic crisis in her home country.

Her reportage clients include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Time, Le Monde, Business Week, and The Guardian, among others. She has exhibited at the Bozar Museum in Brussels, the Martin Gropius Bau Musuem in Berlin and the Benaki Museum in Athens. Her photographs have been acquired by the Dakis Joannou Collection and her first book, ‘In Waiting’, was released in October 2017 by the German publisher Hatje Cantz. Vourloumis is a member of the Greek Depression Era collective. She is currently working on her first feature hybrid documentary, ‘The Secrets of the Owl’. A musical portrait of present day Athens seen through the lives of its taxi drivers.

Emmanouil Zaroukas

Researcher, Architect

Emmanouil Zaroukas is an architect, researcher and educator. His research interest is on posthuman design by focusing on the speculative capacities of artificial neural networks, machine learning and machinic pareidolia. Emmanouil is a registered architect in Greece holding a diploma in Architecture from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and a postgraduate degree in Digital Architecture Production from the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) Spain. Currently Emmanouil is a Visiting Lecturer at the BPro MArch Urban Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL) where he leads the Histories and Theories module and teaches histories and theories related to computational design processes applied at multiscalar built environments. He has presented his research work at various international fora. Emmanouil Zaroukas is also the co-founder of Architecture and Construction Team an architectural practice that specialises on residential projects in Greece.


The Blind

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    Connections made by me

    Respectively it is targeted to philosophers and researchers, who are interested in conversing with artists, sharing knowledge and also learning from their artistic practice.It is a lab where visual artists mostly work with philosophers and not exclusively on philosophy. In that respect philosophical texts and wider topics may be in our areas of interest more as a means to explore seeing and thinking rather than the end on which we focus to extract information. It is lab which also aims at creating through experimentation and transfigurations of artefacts material which may raise philosophical questions and discussion.