Stratis Vogiatzis. Suspended memories

The annual photo exhibition of the Galleria Pirra, this year organized in collaboration with Aphrodite Oikonomidou, is a personal exhibition of the Greek Stratis Vogiatzis and will stage 26 photographs from the collection Inner World, a project completed in 2007-2010 on the island of Chios.
Stratis Vogiatzis is a dreamer and enthusiast artist, devoted to his art and at the same time determined and combative for the preservation of the values in which he firmly believes. After working in various countries around the world, in this project the photographer returns to his beloved island and pays visit to the places of his childhood. With his camera he captures a piece of the Aegean folk culture, he discovers and reveals to us the hidden world of the Mastic Villages. These Medieval villages of Chios became rich and famous thanks to the cultivation of a small tree that “sheds a tear”, a fragrant resin which was widely used since the 14th century. In recent years this commerce lost its importance, so entire villages have been abandoned.
Houses, local cafes, grocery shops, cellars, schools: forgotten sites of a collective popular culture, which lost the battle of time. Stratis uses his talent and sensitivity to penetrate the private places, to catch the soul of the people who lived there, to get the meaning of their lives. The human figure is completely absent in the shots, but behind this absence we find evident traces of everyday life, habits and traditions. Interior landscapes and scenarios in the limit between memory and reality, become a historical document that reflects the people’s stories. The images are humble, unpretentious, like folk paintings, with dramatic colors and amazing details that create an emotional atmosphere.   

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