The Benaki Museum presents the exhibition «Athina Thea / Athens Views. Ianna Andreadis» at the Pireos St Annexe, which will be on view until January 29th, 2016.
The participatory photographic project Athina Thea / Athens Views, by Ianna Andreadis, presents an unpublished and yet familiar view of Athens from the windows and the gaze of its inhabitants. It reveals the particular and complex character of the city composing a collective image beyond the expected clichés.
The project began in January 2013 through a facebook invitation for Athenians to photograph the view from their window. The basic preconditions of the project were that at least part of the window should be in the frame, thereby revealing the relationship between internal and external space, the emphasis being on the connection between the private and the public.
The area covered by ATHINA THEA includes all the vicinities of central Athens which are confined by the mountains of Aigaleo, Parnitha, Penteli, Ymitos and the Saronic gulf. Each personal view is a unique representation, and expresses the relationship of the individual to the city. Exhibiting these new and unexpected views creates a new ‘cartographic’ recording of the city, contributing to an endless mosaic in which we become simultaneously co creator and audience.
After the exhibition at Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris, the Benaki museum in Athens presents an exhibition of 110 photographs and the projection of 400 images from 500 contributors which express the visual wealth and poetry of Athens.
The exhibition is accompanied by the bookAthina Thea / Fenêtres sur Athènesby Agra Publications, including 180 photographs and texts by Jean-Christophe Bailly, Aude Mathe, Yannis Tsiomis and Denys Zacharopoulos.
Ianna Andreadis was born in Athens in 1960 and lives in France since 1978. Her work includes painting, drawing, photography, books and collaborative projects.
She has created many books, published in France and Mexico, as well as international projects with worldwide participation. In 2004, she coordinated a digital photo project called The World Around a Flame/Olympic Truce 2004 that was exhibited in Athens during the Olympic Games that year.
