Photography and text by Yiorgis Yerolymbos
The African dust arriving from the south covers the city of Athens, once again. Every few years the phenomenon recurs, hiding the city from the face of the earth and leaving behind a sense of uneasiness, as if we have lost our way, our sense of direction.
It so happens that, for long time now, this is exactly how we have been feeling: lost.
For many years anger has alternated with grief, shame with fear, while the horror of imminent disaster leaves us empty, staring into a void. For quite some time now our lives have been regulated according to financial terminology: recession, inflation, IMF, sustainable economic growth, spreads… Each and every one of us watches events unfold, silently, in front of the TV screen, or loudly, in the streets outside.
Yet there comes a moment when one wonders: how did we come to this? How were we so mistaken in thinking that our future could be better, that our children would have the same opportunities we had and live a better life than their parents? It appears that this is not the case anymore. Obvious as it may seem now, we were caught off guard and life changed on us while we were not paying any attention.
Located between east and west, literally as well as metaphorically, we permitted our cities to expand in order to accommodate people coming from all over the country to seek a better future in the capital. Nearly half the population gradually gathered in Athens, forcing the city to spread in all directions. We each created a private home with little regard for public space. We silently accepted illicit construction only because it was deemed “democratic”. We bent the rules, took certain liberties and once the final outcome was there for us to grasp, we remained in awe of how chaotic it really looked.
The photographs shown here are from my Athens Nowhere series, which looks at the face of this ancient, and at the same time contemporary, city in an attempt neither to beautify nor to cover any of its shortcomings but to narrate its story as it unfolds. From a critical distance it takes the cityscape for what it really is: the cause of actions and their effect.
When uncube approached Greek photographer Yiorgis Yerolymbos about contributing to our issue, he responded by sending not only this quietly arresting series of images‚ Athens Nowhere‚ that present his home city in a state of ambiguity, but also his own reflections, ruminations and regrets on the current situation of his native country and its capital.
Yiorgis Yerolymbos was born in Paris, France in 1973 and studied photography in Athens and Paris and architecture in Thessaloniki. He holds an MA in Image and Communication from Goldsmiths College, University of London (1998) and a PhD in Art and Design from University of Derby (2007). He has presented five solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows in Greece and abroad. His work has also appeared in a number of books on art and architecture. Between 2008 and 2001 he taught photography at the School of Architecture, University of Thessaly from 2008 to 2011.
His works include a two-month project in the United States, for which he drove from coast to coast supported by a Fulbright scholarship in 2008. Between 2000 and 2004, he photographed the construction of the Egnatia motorway at its full length of 680km, in Northern Greece. He also worked on the construction of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) that includes the New National Library of Greece, the Greek National Opera and the Stavros Niarchos Park in Athens, designed by Renzo Piano.
The cityscapes shrouded in heavy dust presented in the portfolio are portraits of a country under constant stress, facing both financial and moral collapse. At the same time, they represent a return to the basic qualities that make this country what it is, a land that extends hospitality and solidarity to all those in need of a helping hand and a safe refuge. They are my day and night, the reality I experience and the dream I hope for.
They are the country I, too, helped to bring to its knees – and the country I, too, need to rebuild from scratch. This is my country. I intend to stay. I
To see more work from Yiorgis Yerolymbos, see our interview on the uncube blog.
PRODUCT GROUP
MANUFACTURER
New and existing Tumblr users can connect with uncube and share our visual diary.
Uncube is brandnew and wants to look good.
For best performance please update your browser.
Mozilla Firefox,
Internet Explorer 10 (or higher),
Safari,
Chrome,
Opera