4 November 2011 – 24 February 2012 / Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki

The Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki and the 52nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival co-organize the exhibition “A World without Margins. Spyros Staveris”.
This exhibition is a retrospective on the work of Spyros Staveris, which proves that this is not limited to photos which have been published in the press. Covering the work of thirty years, the exhibition shows street scenes, urban living, portraits of celebrities and unknowns, snapshots of events of all kinds – from local festivals to low brow scenes, much like the photographer’s own travels: a world without margins.

Curation: Vangelis Ioakimidis

The series of the exhibition are: “The beginning”, “The search”, “The spectacle”, “The actors”, “Backstage”, “Fête”. Part of the works is presented in a slideshow.

During the exhibition a film dedicated to the work and career of the artist will also be screened (Director: Panos Thomaidis).
A monograph entitled “A World without Margins. Spyros Staveris” is also published by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and the Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki.

Exhibition planning and organization: Alexandra Athanasiadou, Thanos Stavropoulos
Production management: Anna Milosi
Museum exhibition series: Photography and Film

Some works might be offensive to certain members of the public. Minors must be accompanied by an adult.

“Spyros Staveris is known to the general public from his photographs which have been published in magazines since the nineties. This exhibition, which is a retrospective of his work, reveals that the range of his interests and his style are not limited to that era or to those photographs. It is not only the “girls” on Athinas Street, the seedy music joints, the lumpen side of Athens, the city’s nightlife and its “cult” figures that the artist focuses on. He photographs the urban landscape, the Dionysian aspect of the islands’ religious festivals, people from Greece and abroad (anonymous faces as well as celebrities), demonstrations and street events, everyday life. And of course, he travels, which was in fact how his career as a photographer began: on a trip he took to Turkey in 1987. Spyros Staveris describes himself as a “photographer without qualities”. Just like Musil’s hero, Staveris clearly wishes to break with convention, to infiltrate the complex fabric of everyday life and take photographs. Constantly. His love for the image began with cinema, while his most dominant memories are of a circus. The “spectacle”. That’s how he started out as a self-taught photographer and that’s how he continued for the next thirty years. Meanwhile, the meaning of “the spectacle” became broader and its meaning was ultimately reversed. Images which were trapped in the “society of the spectacle” are given new meaning by the artist and take on depth, before they are offered again to that same public, but this time shaped by his sideways glance”.
Vangelis Ioakimidis

Co-organization:

The exhibition is subsidized by the European Union – European Regional Development Fund, as part of the Regional Operational Programme for Central Macedonia 2007-2013.