ARCHIVE / PARTICIPATIONS

Urban Layers: “Identity Flows” at TMP

fata-morgana alessia rollo_-1

*Photo: Alessia Rollo (IT, 1982) – Urban Layers/Open Call

This July, the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography is involved in a photographic crossroad of cultures at a crucial moment in the European Union’s course, which approaches the historical interactions between the people of the Mediterranean and raises the question of the concept of identity. The project Urban Layers – New Paths in Photograhy is held due to the cooperation of six Mediterranean partners: the Department of History, Society & Human Studies of the University of Salento (Lecce, IΤ) as Lead Partner, the Institute of High Culture Orestiadi Foundation (Gibellina – Trapani, IΤ), the Museum of Contemporary Photography (Cinisello Balsamo – Milan, IΤ), GACMA Arte Contemporanea (Málaga, ΕS), the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (Thessaloniki, GR) and the Institute of Mediterranean Cultures of the Province of Lecce with the collaboration of Association Positivo Diretto (Lecce, IΤ), under the Creative Europe Programme (Sub Culture, smaller cooperation projects co-financed by the European Union).

The result of the collaboration of Italian, Spanish and Greek institutions reflected in the Urban Layers project’s activities, approaching the meeting of different cultures and languages using as a vehicle three different dimensions: Urban Layers / Residency Program, Urban Layers / Open Call Exhibition and video installation of Adrian Paci. The theme running through all artistic activities of Urban Layers is the concept of Identity Flows, in the double sense of “flows of identity” and “the identity flows”. The task of the artists who participated in the Urban Layers project was to explore variously the dynamic nature of the aforesaid identity and to represent it back to the general public through the urban festivals in the cities of Malaga, Lecce and Thessaloniki.

The project started its journey with an artistic residence (residency) implemented in Gibellina, Sicily, an island which lies on the southern border of Europe and has become a symbol of mass migration flows affecting the whole of the Mediterranean. The result was Residency, an exhibition that includes works of seven artists, among which the Greek photographer Stratis Vogiatzis. Federica Bardelli & Alex Piacentini (IT), Claudio Beorchia (IT), Angélica Dass (BR / ES), Simone Sapienza (IT), Zamir Suleymanov (AZ) and Stratis Vogiatzis (GR) were selected by a scientific committee in which all institutions engaged in the program were participating, following an international call, which received 118 proposals from 31 countries. Once the production completed, in collaboration with the Fondazione Orestiadi, the exhibition was presented in Malaga, Spain. In Thessaloniki, Residency Exhibition takes place in the space of Pier A of the Thessaloniki Port Authority, between June 30 and July 17, 2016.

The Open Call Exhibition presents the work of ten photographers, following an international call, and illustrating that creation of identity is a fluid, ongoing process. The works of Carlos Alba (ES, 1984), Fabrizio Albertini (IT, 1984), Dario Bosio (IT, 1988), Giorgio Di Noto (IT, 1990), Anne Euler (DE, 1985), Jorge Fuembuena (ES), Gloria Oyarzabal (UK, 1971), Alessia Rollo (IT, 1982), Ekaterina Vasilyeva (RU, 1977), Fabrizio Vatieri (IT, 1982) are being hosted at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, between July 1st and July 30, 2016, during museum’s operating hours.

In the project, also includes the famous artist Adrian Paci with a video installation that completes the artistic activities of Urban Layers. Adrian Paci reflects upon the existential conditions of dislocation, loss and the rediscovery of one’s origins with a sense of immediacy and irony by using media such as video, installation, painting and photography. Throughout his career he has held numerous solo shows in international institutions such as MAC, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (2014) and MoMA PS1, New York (2006) and won first prize in the 15th Quadriennale di Roma (2008). Adrian Paci’s video installation, “Britma”, is being hosted at the Old Pump House in Pier A, between July 1st and July 17, 2016 and will be open to the public between 14:00 and 21:00.

The flows of identities of the Urban Layers project meet refugees’ flows of the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography photo exhibition “Another Life: Human flows / Unknown Odysseys”, which illuminates unseen aspects of the refugee crisis. The exhibition, curated by TMP Director Hercules Papaioannou and Penelope Petsini, presents more than 160 works of 26 photographers, most of them active photojournalists, who illustrated from their point of view the dramatic human adventure started in the troubled land of other countries to be transposed into Greek territory.

Urban Layers – New Paths of Photography
Urban Layers / Residency Exhibition
30/6 – 17/7/2016
Pier A, Thessaloniki Port Authority
Urban Layers / Open Call Exhibition
1/7 – 30/7/2016
Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art
Thursday 10:00-22:00, Friday 10:00-19:00 Saturday 10:00-18:00, Sunday 10:00-15:00
Video installation “Britma” by Adrian Paci
1/7 – 17/7/2016
Old Pump House, Pier A, Thessaloniki Port Authority
Operating hours 14:00-21:00
Photo exhibition “Another life: Human flows / Unknown Odysseys”
31/5 – 15/11/2016
Thessaloniki Museum of Photography
Tuesday-Thursday, Saturday- Sunday 11:00-19:00 Friday 11:00-22:00