honorable mention
Ioanna Sakellaraki belgium
title
Balkans Revisited
My initial interest in memory and territory dates back to my homeland Greece and me growing up in the transition of a new economy and social change. I never experienced war but I have been part of a nation surviving transition. And what remains behind and within it. Contested landscapes appearing peaceful but carrying so much tragedy in them. That is what makes them vulnerable in my eyes.
What I seek to do in this work is explore the relationship between fragility and dominance, sameness and otherness, the past and the present while building a step by step sincere identity of the Balkans in transition and more specifically a nation which survived transition. Revisiting Balkans is about bonding the existing landscape with its contemporary identity in progress.
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entry description
This project seeks to take a closer look in the Balkan region and build a narrative around memory and territory. I use the symbolic monumental relics of ex-Yugoslavia as cultural markers of the territory within which I work. By following the forgotten structures, I reconstruct the 'skeleton' of a lost nation. I focus on what lays beneath the surface and underneath the skin of these monuments; the untold versus the dominant. Where time stands still, I let the atmosphere replace the narrative. I backtrack evidence of the idyllic dream of a collectivist utopian society and I recollect signs of an unrealized future aiming at revisiting the contemporary Balkan identity.My initial interest in memory and territory dates back to my homeland Greece and me growing up in the transition of a new economy and social change. I never experienced war but I have been part of a nation surviving transition. And what remains behind and within it. Contested landscapes appearing peaceful but carrying so much tragedy in them. That is what makes them vulnerable in my eyes.
What I seek to do in this work is explore the relationship between fragility and dominance, sameness and otherness, the past and the present while building a step by step sincere identity of the Balkans in transition and more specifically a nation which survived transition. Revisiting Balkans is about bonding the existing landscape with its contemporary identity in progress.
about the photographer
I am a curious global citizen, visual storyteller and exploration photographer.My educational background and professional experience on journalism and urban culture in combination with my firing passion for photography and travelling have formed today’s projects. I document urban decay and lost architectural ruins and I focus part of my work on memory and territory. I hold a BA in Communication and Mass Media and a Master of Arts in European Urban Cultures. I currently live and work in Brussels completing a Graduate Diploma in Photography in Ecole de photographie et de techniques visuelles Agnès Varda. In the past, I have collaborated with Caters News Agency and I am currently a Contributor for Barcroft Media providing photography content to major global media such as The Guardian, CNN, The Telegraph, Dailymail, Getty Images and others. I have worked for NGO and non-for-profit European networks in the fields of human rights, youth, conflict and culture with a special focus on grassroots campaigns and strategic communications in Belgium and Georgia.back to gallery