PRESS RELEASE
60th THESSALONIKI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL || 31/10-10/11/2019
“Overview Effect – Encountering the Cosmos” Exhibition Opening
The 14 films of the International Competition section of the anniversary 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival inspired the exhibition “Overview Effect - Encountering the Cosmos”. The opening took place on Saturday, November 1st, 2019, at MOMus – Experimental Center for the Arts (Warehouse B1 – Thessaloniki Pier).
The director of the Experimental Center for the Arts Ms. Syrago Tsiara addressed a brief greeting, during which she mentioned that this exhibition is yet another collaboration with Orestis Andreadakis, the Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki Film Festival, who has assumed the curation. “This year marks the 60th year of the Festival, and the Festival decided to take some ‘distance’; Orestis will talk about this – I just want to say that I am blown away by the works in the exhibition, I just tasted one of them, and I invite you to taste it too. This is a very fruitful coming together of visual artists and filmmakers”, she noted, giving the floor to Mr. Andreadakis.
“Beginning the adventure of this conversation between moving and still images, every year we choose young Greek artists to whom we assign a film of the IC section, inciting them to comment on it as freely as they can, to detect things not visible at first sight, to highlight hidden secrets and interpret in their own way the particular theme of each year”, the Artistic Director of the Festival noted. Mr. Andreadakis then referred briefly to the central idea of the exhibition, the phenomenon of the “Overview Effect”, that makes astronauts look upon the Earth as a totality without borders, a common space with no differentiations, without racism, discrimination or injustice. “When astronauts return to Earth, they experience a need to set everything right, which is unfeasible. They then experience a second frustration”, he emphasized.
The 14 films of the International Competition section were assigned to young Greek artists, with each one taking on a film to be commented upon along with the creation of an original work in complete freedom, with no restrictions regarding materials, style or approach. The only guideline given by the Festival was to study the “Overview Effect” and watch the films through its prism, thus activating the process of highlighting the non-visible.
Mr. Andreadakis thanked all the participants in this visual adventure: The Museum’s crew, Syrago Tsiara and Maria Tsatsanoglou, the president of the administrative board Mr. Andreas Takis, Pericles Galanos, Kostas Kosmidis, all the workers that took care of the works’ presentation, but also Thanos Stavropoulos who coordinated the production of the exhibition.
The artists participating in the exhibition are:
Alexis Vassilikos, Giorgos Gerontidis, Christos delidimos, Marianna Ignataki, Manolis Lemos, Virginia Mastroyannaki, Ilias Mamaliogkas, Antigoni Tsagaropoulou, Pavlos Tsakonas, Kalos-Klio, Irini Karayannopoulou, Panos Compis, Constantinos Patsios, Despoina Flessa, Zoi Hadjiyannaki.
Curated by: Orestis Andreadakis // Production & coordination: Thanos Stavropoulos
