Thursday 31 May 2018

Caesura*

*A breath, a caesura in music representing a break or a pause

We would like to invite you to the closing event of the series of seminars Mobilities in/of Crises: Critical Investigations that will take place at the French School at Athens (EFA) on Thursday, 31 May.

At this event, Georges Salameh will present a collection of six bodies of work which explore different trajectories in the journeys of people forced to flee from their countries for various reasons.

The work of the following photographers will be presented:

Shadows of Greece by Enri Canaj

Patra Palace by Alfredo d’Amato

Limbo by Valentino Bellini & Eileen Quinn

Fragile States by George Awde

Caesura by Demetris Koilalous

A discussion between the photographers and the audience will follow.

The event will be accompanied by the screening of the documentary Shingal Where Are You? directed by Angelos Rallis. After the screening, there will be a Q&A session with the director.

The metaphor of caesura is used to signify the politics and poetics of injurious temporalities defined by wars, authoritarian regimes and neoliberal governmentality, as well as by personal attachments, failed fantasies, uncompleted crossings and affective dispositions of limbo, suspension and waiting. Questioning mainstream representations of such states and the related objectification of people, the discussion will be based on the following questions: Is it possible to challenge the politics of biased representation and what kind of representations can move us beyond the bordered frames of lineal historical narratives and fixed identities? What comes after and beyond the emergency reports? What are the challenges and limitations of witnessing stories of human suffering?

The event will start at 5:30pm. It is open to the public and all are welcome!

George Awde is a visual artist, Awde is on the board of directors for the Arab Image Foundation, an associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, and co-founder/co-director of marra.tein in Beirut. He received his BFA in Painting from Massachusetts College of Art (2004) and his MFA in Photography from Yale University School of Art (2009). Awde’s work explores the formation of kinship, masculinity, the “state,” and the self. His work explores human corporeality and how we reconcile ourselves with the world. Awde’s work has been exhibited and published internationally including seven solo exhibitions and dozens of group exhibitions & publications.

Valentino Bellini was born in Italy, in 1984. He is a documentary photographer born and based in Palermo, Italy. He graduated at CFP R.Bauer of Milan in 2010. Valentino worked at Linke. lab in Milan from 2011 to 2013 specializing in fine art pirinting and image processing. Since 2014, he has been part of the ISSP team in Latvia as co-director of the digital printing lab. In 2015 and 2016 he was nominated for the World Press photo Joop Swart Masterclass. His photographic series about the kidnapping of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, was screened at the VISA Pour l’Image Festival 2015 in Perpignan. Valentino is co-founder of Minimum a lab and space for photography in Palermo, Sicily.

Enri Canaj was born in Tirana, Albania, in 1980. He spent his early childhood there and moved with his family to Greece in 1991, immediately after the opening of the borders. He is based in Athens and has been working in the Balkans, mainly Kosovo and Albania, as well as Greece, focusing on migration and the recent crisis. He studied photography at the Leica Academy in Athens. In 2007 he took part in a British Council project on migration, attending a year-long workshop with Magnum photographer Nikos Economopoulos. Since 2008, he has been a freelance photographer for major publications such as  Time Lightbox , CNN Photo, New York Magazine, MSNBC Photography, Vice Magazine, The Financial Time , Newsweek, Paris Match, Le monde Diplomatique , sample of his work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki personal exhibition), Benaki Museum Athens, Museum of Photography Thessaloniki, BOZAR Center for Fine Arts , Cultural Foundation of the National Bank of Greece in Athens and Thessaloniki, at the Bilgi Santral in Istanbul, the European Parliament in Brussels and the Athens Photo Festival, New Delhi Foto Festival, Doku Fest in Kosovo, Foto Art Festival in Poland, Bursa Foto Fest in Turkey.

Alfredo D’Amato was born in Italy, in 1977. He studied Art, Media and Design at the London College of Printing. He later graduated with a degree in Documentary Photography from the University of Wales, Newport, UK. He has mainly worked on long-term projects focusing on both, Western and Eastern Europe, Africa and South America, with a particular interest in Portuguese speaking countries, focusing on the interrelationships between African origins and western influences. Alfredo has had his work published in many international newspapers and magazines and has worked with UNHCR, UNICEF and many other NGOs in Europe and further afield. Alfredo won the prestigious Observer Hodge Award and received the first prize in photojournalism at the One Media awards as well as UNICEF Photo of the year in 2005, the same year he was also selected for the World Press Photo Master class and was granted the Marco Pesaresi scholarship in Italy. ‘Cocalari’ (Postcart Editions), is Alfredo’s first photographic monograph, published in 2010. He is currently working on a new book project about lusophone countries in Africa and Brazil. Alfredo’s work is part of the permanent collection at George Eastman House Museum in Rochester, New York State.

Demetris Koilalous was born in Athens. Between 1980 and 1989 he was based in the UK where he studied ‘Urban and Regional Planning’ in Edinburgh and ‘Geography’ in London. He took up photography in 1982. Since 1990 he has been working as a freelance photographer. Since 2004 he has been teaching photography in various private and public institutions. In 2005 he created with his students the ‘Sympligada’ photography group. His works are found in private collections and in the collection of the MThPh.

Eileen Quinn is an Italian/Irish human rights researcher and freelance journalist living in Palermo. She completed her BA in human sciences at the University of Oxford, and her Masters in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She now conducts PhD research on migrant smuggling along the Mediterranean. She has published as freelance journalist for Al Jazeera English, the Financial Times, and the OCCRP among others. 

Angelos Rallis is a documentary filmmaker and photojournalist who started his career as a theatre play director for the Greek National Television and Athens University. He then moved to UK to do research in visual sociology in the Centre for Urban and Community Research. Since then he commenced a long-term project documenting London’s East End emerging cultures and communities. His work has been published in Newspapers, and has been used by press agencies and NGO’s around the world. He is the director of the award winning documentary film A Place for Everyone 2014 (10 Awards at International festivals) and the Director of the film Shingal Where Are You? premiered at IDFA 2016.

Georges Salameh is a filmmaker and photographer based in Athens. Born in 1973 in Beirut, he lived in Lebanon, Cyprus, Greece, France and Sicily. He studied Cinema and History of Art at Paris VIII St. Denis in France (1991-1994). Since 1999 he has directed shorts, documentaries, experimental/essay movies, and video installations. He has curated exhibitions, festival programs and photography reviews & workshops. His work has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and film festivals. Since 2011 he is a co-founding member of the Depression Era Project. And since 2015 he is a curator for the contemporary photography platform, The Urbanautica Institute.