Video Art Miden is ready to present in Kalamata a dynamic program of video art screenings from Greece and around the world, once again tracing the contemporary ideas, forms and trends in international video art. At the same time, this year’s edition turns its focus to the past, highlighting the history of Greek video art through a major special tribute. This year, Video Art Miden celebrates 22 years of continuous international activity, starting in Kalamata in 2005 and gradually forming an important meeting point for video artists from across the globe.

This year’s program in Kalamata consists of two parts:

– Morning screening events: The Archaeological Museum of Messenia will host a major historical tribute to the first generation of artists who began experimenting with video art in Greece, entitled “Replay–Pause–Rewind: Greek video art in the ‘80s and early ‘90s”. The aim of the tribute is to bring together and showcase the work of the pioneering Greek artists who incorporated video into their artistic practice, shedding light on the development of video art in Greece during its formative years. This period of Greek video art has rarely been represented in exhibitions and remains largely unknown to the wider public. Participating artists are: Nikos Giannopoulos, Marianna Theodoridou, Alexandra Katsivelaki, Ayis Kelpekis, Vangelis Moladakis, Tassos Boulmetis, Margarita Ovadia, Giorgos Papakonstantinou, Leda Papaconstantinou, Manthos Santorineos, Marianne Strapatsakis, Costas Stratoudakis, Thanasis Chondros & Alexandra Katsiani. 

The pioneering artists of this generation come from diverse artistic backgrounds, including visual arts and mixed media, cinema, television, architecture, electronic music, the broader field of art and technology, as well as other interdisciplinary practices. Beyond its artistic and aesthetic significance, the tribute also has a strong historical dimension, as it is the outcome of long-term, systematic research into the emergence and development of video art in Greece, conducted by Video Art Miden’s Artistic Director, Gioula Papadopoulou. It constitutes an important first attempt to reconnect the distinctive aesthetics of video from the electronic era with today’s digital age, while also highlighting the importance of preserving the historical memory of the evolution of video art in Greece. 

The tribute will be presented at the Archaeological Museum of Messenia (10–12 July, 11:00–16:30), co-organised with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia. It will open on Friday, 10 July (11:00), with an introductory lecture on the history of Greek video art by the program’s curator, Gioula Papadopoulou, followed by a discussion with participating artists from the tribute.

– Evening screening events: The evening program will present an international selection of contemporary video art, featuring a total of 82 works by artists from around the world. Among them are distinguished Greek artists working in the audiovisual arts, including Vouvoula Skoura (who was honoured this year with the Golden Alexander Award for her overall contribution at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival), Babis Venetopoulos, Katerina Athanasopoulou, Vasilios Papaioiannu, Fenia Kotsopoulou, and others. The program also includes internationally acclaimed and award-winning video artists such as Hiroya Sakurai, Guli Silberstein, Mohamed Thara, Sandrine Deumier, among others, alongside many outstanding artists of the younger generation.

The evening screenings will take place in alternative venues across the city. At Bandapart Studio, audiences will experience a Video Art Marathon featuring approximately five hours of continuous screenings (Friday, 10 July, 19:00–00:15). A second program will be presented at Re:Think / FarmaFifa Permaculture, where an outdoor screening will take place under the night sky in a unique and beautiful natural setting on the outskirts of the city (Saturday, 11 July, starting at 21:30).

The evening screenings are organized into thematic sections curated by the Video Art Miden team. Each section explores a different set of ideas and concerns, transforming and reimagining human experience, memory, the body, movement, desire, dreams, and the -often harsh and threatening- realities of contemporary life through the language of video art:

Martha Zoupa curates the thematic section “Hide and Seek”, bringing together works that explore visibility and disappearance, exposure and concealment, transformation and illusion, as well as the boundaries between the real and the imaginary. Sofia Grigoriadou curates “Extract Produce Perform 1”, a showcase that investigates places and concepts situated between extraction zones and construction sites, colonial monuments and cruise ships, where relentless productivity intersects with forms of ecological erasure. Margarita Stavraki curates the videodance program “Dancing”, exploring the fundamental human need for movement and connection through dance. In the program “Moments”, Nikos Podias gathers works that move between landscape and personal space, between nature and human presence. Danny Kargas curates “Plastic Flesh”, bringing together bodies and no-bodies dressed in plastic/non-plastic, in digital/real, in conceptual flesh. Olga Papadopoulou takes audiences into unusual inner dreamscapes with the program “Once upon a dream”, while bringing together messages, reflections and concerns that resonate with contemporary life in the program “Message in a Bottle”. Together with Gioula Papadopoulou, she also co-curates the surrealistic program “Aller-retour” and a program featuring works that explore parallel realities through the use of artificial intelligence, entitled “Decoding the Codes”.