Third Person (Plural) by Aikaterini Gegisian

Within the framework of the 28th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, the cinematic iteration of the project Third Person (Plural) by visual artist Aikaterini Gegisian, which draws on archival material, was presented on Saturday, March 7th, at the Takis Kanellopoulos theater.

TFF takes part with this installation in the exhibition of the multifaceted and subversive program, titled “Wait… How Did We Get Here?”, which is presented at the MOMUS-Experimental Center for the Arts through June 14th, 2026. The program includes visual arts exhibitions, club nights, workshops, an artist residency, educational activities, and guided tours.

Third Person (Plural) is a multilayered project, structured as an installation with multiple screens, a feature-length film essay – collage and an artist’s book. The work is based on an extensive archival collection of two hundred post-war informational films and newsreels sourced from the Library of Congress and the American National Archives. The installation is the project’s first version, comprising eight episodes projected on separate television screens. The film follows the installation’s structure and the episodes, while introducing a rupture through the re-editing of informational films produced by the first institutional bodies of the European Union. By allowing randomness and embracing expanded associative thinking, the film questions the function of an archive (of surviving images), permitting heterogeneous material to infiltrate its closed system.

Prior to the screening, the artist offered a brief welcome to the audience, introducing them to the film’s themes and starting point: "When I started working on this project, I didn't think it would be that relevant today. However, as you will discern, connections with the current state of affairs become apparent. The film is inherently political, as it refers to political history, incorporating archival material from the European Union, specifically from the EU’s informational films. The book, which has just been published and will be presented in London, is a third reading of the work. The film has no subtitles, which is a conscious decision stemming from the fact that I approach it as a visual work.” After the screening, a discussion with the audience followed.

In response to a question about whether the project operates as a triptych and whether its three segments engage with the same material, Aikaterini Gegisian disclosed: “Yes, they both engage with the same material, but in different ways. The starting point for the project was the installation. That’s where its core structure was first formed, in a series of eight episodes that emerged during the research period at the Library of Congress. From the very beginning, the project was designed to be presented on eight square, old-fashioned televisions, which would be aesthetically reminiscent of newsreels. This choice was intended to create a sense of topicality, as if it were news footage. The episodes of the installation are longer than the film and function autonomously: the viewer can move freely around the space, choosing what to watch and in what order, without having to watch the whole thing,” the artist initially stated.

“The film is a different synthesis of the same material. This is where the need arose to restructure the episodes into a single narrative arc with a beginning, middle, and end, as dictated by the particularities of the cinematic medium. Within this framework, elements from the EU's newsreels, which were not included in the installation, were also integrated. At the same time, the film includes more references to pop culture, expanding the scope of cultural associations. In the book, the moving image is translated into a printed format. It is composed of eight magazine issues, compiled into a single volume. For this edition, collaborators were asked to write letters-texts, introducing new voices into the archive. Through these contributions, the material takes on new layers of meaning. Some provide commentary on the work itself, others on the archival material, whereas others write inspired by the personal associations it evokes. In this way, the archive opens up to more perspectives, and its capacity for interpretation is expanded.”

Our perception isn’t static. Each time we see something, its meaning changes depending on the frame of reference. Therefore, the document does not carry a fixed meaning; its significance shifts each time we re-examine it, as every viewing merges with what we have already seen, allowing for multiple readings. - Aikaterini Gegisian

Then, responding to a question about the process of encountering an archive and what it is like to navigate such a vast volume of images, the artist explained that this experience began during the research she conducted at the Library of Congress, which lasted approximately one year. In parallel, 90% of the audiovisual material that was examined did not exist in digital form, which required researchers to work directly with the original materials. “The initial intention was to investigate how European integration was portrayed in the US media. However, the process soon moved beyond this framework,” Aikaterini Gegisian explained.

During the first six months, she watched all the newsreels one by one, while archival cards from 1945 to 1957 were examined for five different production studios, revealing a huge thematic range. Through this process, the themes and the narrative structures that would later give shape to the project emerged. In many cases, she was the first person to see the material, decades later. This experience, coupled with the sense of solitude and discovery, became a pivotal element in shaping her research.

“In my practice, I am interested in how identity – be it national, cultural, or gender-based - is constructed through moving and photographic images. And because at that time I was in the north of England during Brexit, where I experienced hostile behavior, I wished to explore and understand whether there might be a way to rethink the concept of Europe from the beginning, or whether there might be room for a new European identity. When I began working on the film, I was certain I wanted to create something that would deconstruct the new world order and the way the American film industry has shaped our perception of the world,” she noted, when asked about the film’s aims, and how they evolved along the way.

Immediately afterwards, while discussing her work, Aikaterini Gegisian clarified that it is primarily archival, though it also incorporates other languages, such as surrealism. She also expressed that repetition fascinates her. “There are many elements in the film that are constantly repeating – some images in particular reappear over and over again – and this reflects the way we comprehend each new image or photograph. Our perception isn’t static. Each time we see something, its meaning changes depending on the frame of reference. Therefore, the document does not carry a fixed meaning; its significance shifts each time we re-examine it, as every viewing merges with what we have already seen, allowing for multiple readings.”

Finally, when asked about the management of cinematic time, the artist explained that she starts off from the structure of an idea, or an identity that is multifaceted, and then she gradually deconstructs it. “I was thinking of the different episodes – the European Union, energy, weapons, women and everyone else subsequently - as a sequence in which one episode leads to the next. The narrative functions as a binding element, so as to organize the materials, connect them, and create a flow that transforms the newsreels from something momentary into a unified narrative,” she concluded.