Life of Limassol on display at photography festival

The 1st Limassol Photography Festival opens on October 20 and will run until November 12, presented by BPRArts Cultural Management. Supported by the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture, the festival aspires to establish itself as an important annual event that will significantly contribute to the presentation, development and evolution of photography. Its primary aim is to promote photographic creativity as an outstanding form of visual expression, both on the national and international levels.

As part of the modern photographic landscape, the Limassol Photography Festival aims to function as a means of recording contemporary social life in the various visual styles and perspectives of the photographers/creative artists, which project, suggest and sometimes enrich the photographic vocabulary. This year’s festival is dedicated to the late participating photographer George Pantazis, who died on October 4.

The theme chosen for 2023 is Place or Landscape. The artists participating in the open-air exhibition at the Molos Seaside Park of Limassol, namely Antigone Solomonidou Droussiotou, Nicholas Constantinou, George Pantazis, Mo Khatib and Max Zhiltsov, infiltrate the city and through their pictures convey its daily life and identity. The experiences and techniques of the artists converse with the current image of Limassol and interact with it. The composition of diverse elements in their photographs gives rise to the question of whether this is a Place that has become a Landscape or a Landscape that has become a Place.

In a second photographic exhibition titled Greece is Ordinary II: Triptychs, curated by Konstantinos Argianas, which is presented at the 6×6 Centre for Photography, the participating Greek photographers Marilia Photopoulou, Costas Kapsianis and Marinos Tsangarakis, although setting out from different starting points with their own particular objectives, all indulge in a sarcastic yet highly critical commentary on various aspects of modern Greek culture, its underlying causes and their material traces. The work may be described as an alternative visual anthropology of modern Greek culture.

While the two exhibitions run, several events will take place around Limassol. On October 22 and 29, photographer German Moiseev will take pictures with a 20th-century large-format analogue camera, and provide a demonstration of the analogue printing process. The event at Molos will be open to the public between 3pm and 6pm.

Discussions and presentations are scheduled to take place on October 22 and 29 by participating photographers Solomonidou Droussiotou, Zhiltsov and Khatib at the 6×6 Centre for Photography. On October 21 a street photography workshop with Stefanos Kouratzis will take place from 9am to 12pm, starting from the 6×6 Centre for Photography and concluding at Molos.

The events are free of charge and the festival opens on October 20, at 7pm at the 6×6 Centre for Photography in the context of the launch of the Limassol Art Walks.

1st Limassol Photography Festival

1^st edition of photography festival. October 20-November 12. Limassol. www.Liphofe.com