A country in constant pain
Live to live, live to die.
Leave to love, love to leave behind.
Oh my sweet Cecropia: the city of dreams that always fades. The city I was born in, the city I hate.
The place that will always have my heart.
As Cecrops is still the King, we still are his people. Lizards between humans, kisses between fears, looking for exits to give us new tears.
Photography can create different landscapes, give new dimensions, and portray alternative spaces. Photography can be an art of escape. It can challenge the certainties of the current main narratives and create a more liberating form of expression. It is the medium, for me, that can help me speak without pressure.
We are all strangers.
These photos were taken after my breakup last December. They were like a diary for me, like a small house on an island that I could hide in.
At that period, I was going out every night, seven times a week, walking from a spot to a spot, meeting new people, new places, always thirsty to meet more, learn more, find more. It was the only process I could do to not stay alone with my thoughts and fears.
All of the pictures were taken by my point-and-shoot camera I had in my pockets all the time. It was a strange period because I wanted to be present but at the same time a ghost. Like a spectator whose presence is absent, like an existence that doesn’t matter any more. I wanted to feel distant, but at the same time, I wanted to feel that I had the freedom to be part of all of this, that loneliness was a matter of choice, and that pain was just a condition and nothing more. As I was going out, day after day, night after night, I started discovering a city within my city.
I named it CECROPIA.
I chose to name my project Cecropia after the king "Cecrops”, who was the first king of Athens, half-human, half-lizard. According to Greek mythology, Cecrops and his people chose Athena over Poseidon as the divine protector of his city. Cecropia became Athens, named after the victor. It is a way for me to describe my inner Athens, a city I have been living in since I was born: a city in decay without any purpose or use. A city where I felt I was swimming in uncertainty, where it was difficult to find a decent job, and where most of my friends were moving out of its space.
A small extra detail for the photobook:
Within my photobook "Cecropia" (which will be published in collaboration with Zoetrope, Athens), there are some coordinations of real places that played a certain role during this "broke up" period. The coordinations create, at the end of my project, a new city map within the Athens area, which is named Cecropia.
