57th THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
November 3-13, 2016
“FACES AND SPACES” PHOTO EXHIBITION
Dedicated to the great director Theo Angelopoulos, the exhibition “Faces and Spaces” with photos by Nelly Tragousti opened on Thursday, November 10, 2016 at the Former Army Warehouse (Pier Α’, Port), as part of the 57th Thessaloniki International Film Festival. The event is organized by Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki and the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, and is supported by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.November 3-13, 2016
“FACES AND SPACES” PHOTO EXHIBITION
The exhibition, which will be open until December 17, 2016, includes photos prompting the viewer’s memory to recall faces and spaces from the time when Theo Angelopoulos was shooting in Germany, mostly in Berlin, his last completed film, The Dust of Time. In the foreground emerges the figure of the Greek director: his face below the camera, his gestures while he talks, explains or guides his actors and associates. At the same time, the photos depict the actors, the urban landscape and the settings that hosted the work of all the film’s crew.
In his welcome speech, the director of Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki Peter Panes thanked the photographer Nelly Tragousti and the Greek director’s wife, Phoebe Angelopoulos, for attending the exhibition. As Mr. Panes noted, the three of them met a year ago in Berlin and pledged to do this exhibition, as part of the 57th TIFF. “The exhibition took place with the collaboration of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture’s Berlin Branch director, Zachos Karatsioubanis, and Eleni Varopoulou’s curation. It is an extraordinary synergy, as the result shows”, mentioned Mr. Panes.
He also went on to present some facts about the artist Nelly Tragousti, who studied in Athens and Paris and made several exhibitions in Berlin. Closing his speech, Mr. Panes read extracts from the exhibition curator’s text, mentioning, inter alia: “Nelly Tragousti managed, through photography, to catch and depict moments, as well as the movement of images. Each photo seems to include an entire story within a single shot. That is exactly the power of the still image. That it can motivate the spectator’s imagination and put it in motion. And perhaps that is the reason why we see this slowness in many great film directors’ works, because they wish not to sacrifice this look that reaches deep inside, for the easy sensationalism of the quick switching of images that is the norm in mainstream cinema. These photos are really valuable because they can lock up forever the moments, the pauses, the time between”.
On his part, Mr. Karatsioubanis thanked the artist and Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki for their cooperation, as well as Phoebe Angelopoulos for honoring the event with her presence.
On her part, Nelly Tragousti mentioned that she met Theo and Phoebe Angelopoulos in 1983, during the shootings of the film Voyage a Cythera which took part in Thessaloniki inter alia, at the venue that hosts the exhibition of her works, which is “very moving”, as she noted. She also said her meeting with the Greek director happened in a moment of her life when she was in a transitional phase and that Theo Angelopoulos “played a very important role as an artist in my career. He inducted me into the images’ poetics. I am very excited to be in Thessaloniki, which was his favorite city”. She also thanked Mrs. Angelopoulos for attending the exhibition, Mr. Panes for his trust and his valuable help, as well as Mr. Karatsioubanis.
Information:
Free admission
Curation: Eleni Varopoulou
Opening hours: Monday-Sunday 10:00-20:00
Info: Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki: 66, Vas. Olgas St., Thessaloniki, tel. +30 2310 889610, 2310 889611 e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
