Souls
Photography
BA in Visual Arts, University of Ioannina,
MA in Digital Arts, Fine Art School of Athens,
2013-2021
By definitions given by dictionaries, in many religious, philosophical, and mythological traditions, the soul is the incorporeal essence of a living being. Soul or psyche (Ancient Greek: ψυχή psykhḗ, of ψύχειν psýkhein, "to breathe", cf. Latin 'anima') comprises the mental abilities of a living being: reason, character, feeling, consciousness, qualia, memory, perception, thinking, etc. Depending on the philosophical system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal.
Greek philosophers, such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, understood that the soul (ψυχή psykhḗ) must have a logical faculty, the exercise of which was the most divine of human actions. At his defense trial, Socrates even summarized his teachings as nothing other than an exhortation for his fellow Athenians to excel in matters of the psyche since all bodily goods are dependent on such excellence.
An other term came up in phylosophy, that is called "Panpsychism" and is the view that all things have a mind or a mind-like quality. The word itself was coined by the Italian philosopher Francesco Patrizi in the sixteenth century, and derives from the two Greek words pan (all) and psyche (soul or mind). This definition is quite general, and raises two immediate questions: What does one mean by “all things”? and What does one mean by “mind”?
On the first question, some philosophers have argued that literally every object in the universe, every part of every object, and every system of objects possesses some mind-like quality.
Other philosophers have been more restrictive, arguing that only certain broad classes of things possess mind, or that, at least, the smallest parts of things—such as atoms—possess mind.
The second question—what is mind?—is more difficult and contentious. Here panpsychism is on neither better nor worse footing than any other approach to mind; it argues only that one’s notion of mind, however conceived, must apply in some degree to all things.
Myths related to the gods and natural phenomena were based on the theory of panpsychism. Various kinds of phenomena were attributed to deities, such as lightnings and storms were considered to be the result of the forces of Zeus. To the same theory was applied on planets or plants, such as the Moon and the Sun which were considered deities or the laurel plant which was considered to be the nymph Daphne which was transformed into a plant. As a result, folk traditions throughout the centuries and places have created new myths and faces in them. Based on panpsychism, the seemingly inanimate become animate and acquire a different status and personality.
So, on this subject, I am dealing with what, from my personal point of view, could have a soul, even if they are seemingly lifeless beings.
Time
Photography & Video
MA in Digital Arts, Fine Art School of Athens, 2021
The impetus for this video & photography thematic, was the matter of the time, a theme with countless ways to convey and a variety of thoughts and perspectives to move around.
On a personal level, the word "time" has always referred me to decay, either in relation to people or objects. The main pillar, in this case, is the damage that time has caused to a specific part of the world and small references to some "eternities".
This place is located in Drapetsona and was a fertilizer factory by the sea, where after its abandonment it was transformed into a physical exercise park. The transformation of the space into a park did not change the abandoned buildings which continue to this day to be worn by the basic, in my opinion, "eternity" that encloses this place, the sea.
The sea, loved and hated, a source of peace and fear. It is, in my personal view, an eternal constant, that has always existed and may forever exist, alive in its own rhythm, with movement, with breath and atmosphere. It is a huge source of mystery as many parts of it have not been explored, creating an extremely fertile ground for the imagination, to give birth to thoughts and conjectures about what it can hide. Myths and stories from around the world come to light every now and then and create a huge interest and source of inspiration for the artistic field, since there has been a theme for literature, cinema, music, painting, etc.
In my case, it started out as something magical and adorable, but over the years it started to turn into something extremely scary. All the mystery that can hide terrifies me and keeps me away more and more, but paradoxically it magnetizes me creatively. Fantastic water creatures have been my subject several times, without always understanding how I came to this choice. In the case of this particular video, in fact, I filmed points that I could not even approach, but they seemed very interesting and completely obvious signs of time.
This place, in addition to a cemetery of factory buildings, is also a cemetery of ships but also a point of grounding of old ships in operation whose routes are now reduced due to their condition. The enormous erosion caused by seawater on the metal found on ships and on the now-naked frames of buildings creates a completely eerie atmosphere. The waves, sometimes calm, sometimes dynamic, sometimes "angry", that whip the whole place, seem to look like corresponding breaths, sometimes calm, sometimes intense and sometimes uncontrollable. This gives the impression that the whole place "breathes", combines abandonment and loss with life. Buildings and ships creak at every movement of the air or any other kind of interference, as if breathing. One has the impression that it is located in a highly navigable place, not on a piece of land, everything communicates.
Deformation - Expresion
Photography
BA in Visual Arts, University of Ioannina, 2015-2017
In addition to the thematic appearance I dealt with discrimination and how that can that work through the application of expression, deformation and in production and hybrids-mythical creatures. It all starts with society and how it reacts to any kind of difference. Anything the society does not know and differs from what they already know, tends todtions, models, defenses, bulling and other ways to process the unknown-different. For example, if someone is considered crazy, society creates psychiatric clinics to absorb him.
There is a tendency for society to believe that the different belongs nowhere, there is no place for
the differents and so they’re placed on the sidelines, whatever we choose to call it.
Using mythical creatures or hybrids, words used as refined terms of the word "monsters" for those who don’t or can’t understand them, I tried to show the difference at the end through a series of statuettes that was my Final Thesis.
As in mythology, "monsters" were the fear and terror for humans as they were usually hybrids of various animals. But there may be an untold side to these old myths. Maybe the monsters didn’t teased anyone to be attacked by all those who feared them only by their appearance, they may never have tried to see how these creatures would react if humans used a different approach than violence. In the modern world these myths change forms and treatment. They have the form of people with deformities in the face or the body, with cerebral or physical disabilities, with their physique of weight or height, with their performance in a collective venture and unfortunately society remains largely harsh with the different. They criticizes them, mocks them and isolate them. Even those who choose to be different in any way, those who will choose a look more intense than what is considered by common standards to be "normal" or "acceptable". If someone chooses to "crumple" their image, use plastic surgery to change something on his face or body or wear earrings in different places those that are not considered "ordinary". If someone is gay and decides to look like the gender they would like to be really either with the clothes or with the wearer or his way of life. In mathematics the definition of a line is that joins two points. But the question is: does this line join these two points, or does it separate them? What happens when the associations do not do they function as compounds, but as distances? Because in the end the exact definition says "The line that connects two points, defines the distance between them. " it is ultimately up to each person to choose for himself how to do it.
Passage - Movement
Photography
BA in Visual Arts, University of Ioannina, 2016-2017
The passage as the time that passes us by and keeps moving,as people and situations do. How time affects people and situations, how situations change and what they bring about, how a word can be interpreted differently depending on each point of view.
The word "passage" for me triggered a metaphorical aspect of it, in the sense of "pass" and I used time, people and situations because I think they all have one thing in common. They create, actions and reactions that affect perhaps everything in the world. The following Photographic works show the time's passing and its effect on humans. It's a thought on its effects on the appearance of a person and consequently on the wisdom and all the knowledge and experience he has collect during its passage.
I observed daily life and rhythms working on the passing and movement of people, whether it is from the lives of other people, as beings who influence those around them, teach them and learn from those, either as spectral creatures that go unnoticed and without interacting.
With these thoughts I placed myself in various narrow "passages" that lead to the main streets of Athens and I photographed the movement in them. People who pass by without giving any importance to those around them, without caring abou the people who pass. Spectral beings, overcrowding and haste.
But later, with the outbreak of the pandemic, everyone was forced to lock themselves in homes with families and their loved ones. For most of them was a form of prison, which resulted in all being emptied outdoor passages, every narrow, every road.
All those alleys that were full of people who moved in them without paying attention to the others, emptied them and imprisoned them in places that have not choice to look at the others around them this time and go deeper and become the first type of beings, the ones who interacts with others, the ones who teaches and is taught.
