Is That All There Is: Photo Exhibition, Book Presentation & Discussion

Hyper Hypo invites you to the presentation of the photobook Is That All There Is by Christos Sotiropoulos. On the occasion of the presentation, there will be a show of selected photos from the book, curated by Eleni Mouzakitis. The show will be accompanied on the evening by a talk from Kostas Ioannidis (Professor of Art Theory and Criticism – ASFA), who will analyze the way in which the landscape of the Greek countryside is depicted in photography and a talk by Nikos Papachristopoulos (psychologist-psychoanalyst), who will focus on the basic psychographic characteristics of people living in the countryside and those living in urban centers.

The photographer explains the idea behind Is That All There Is:

“Like many who were born at the height of urbanization (1980s), I left my village to create my own life and family in an urban center. As years went by, I became more and more detached from the relationships and memories I had created in the place of my birth.

After the birth of my child, my weekend trips were mostly organized nature activities (e.g., ranches, zoos and botanical gardens, organized camping and walks). The enthusiasm and imagination my son drew upon to interact with nature activated my own memories. He did the same things I did as a kid. The difference was that for me at the time it was part of my everyday life while for him it was part of a culture to be consumed. I noticed the same was true for parents who, unlike me, had grown up in cities.

I realized that a part of me was always committed to the place where I grew up, the Greek countryside. My body remembered walking along inaccessible paths, smelling the dampness of the soil planted with olive trees and weeds, breathing in the hot air of summer afternoons, filtered by maple leaves. I realized that I had learned to speak and to understand the attitudes of people in a very different way from those who I encountered on my daily routine in the city; people whose imagination and personality had been shaped by the place itself.

I decided to turn my respect for the Greek countryside into a photographic book that avoids stereotypical representations and tries to highlight the complexity and peculiarities of people’s symbiosis with nature. Because for me provincial Greece is not just the place where I grew up: It is the place where I matured and learned how to live as an adult.”

Τhe presentation will be held in Greek.

Christos Sotiropoulos lives and works in Patras. He has been involved in photography since 1999. He has participated in collective and solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad. He is a founding member of the photographic collective The Provinces. He has published two photographic books: How Kate Bush didn’t save me from anything and Is that all there is?

Kostas Ioannidis is an associate professor of art theory and criticism at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He has published studies on the historiography and criticism of visual arts and photography in edited volumes and journals. He has also written the books Contemporary Greek Photography: A Century in Thirty Years(futura, 2008) and, with Emmanouela Kantzia, Three on the Road (MIET, 2018). His most recent book, entitled A “Superfluous Art”: Poetics of Photography. Late 19th-early 20th Century (futura, 2019) won (unanimously) the State Literature Prize in the category “Essay-Criticism”. He has been a fellow of the ICF, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Clark Art Institute (USA). He has curated visual arts and photography exhibitions, written numerous texts for exhibition catalogues, and has been a scholar-in-residence for various research projects.

Nikos Papachristopoulos is a psychologist-psychoanalyst. He studied Psychology (Panteion University), Philosophy (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Athens), and Sociology (Panteion University). He has done postgraduate studies in psychoanalysis (Paris VIII-Saint Denis), psychopathology (Paris VII-Denis Diderot), semiotics and literary theory (Paris VII-Denis Diderot), and history (Paris I-Pantheon-Sorbonne). He has written, translated and edited texts on psychoanalysis. He teaches at the University of Patras and Panteion University. He works as a psychoanalyst in Patras and Athens.