/Two-channel video, The Symptom Projects, the symptom 8 (curated by Elpida Karampa and Glykeria Stathopoulou), Tourism, Amfissa Old Hospital, Amfissa, Greece

The videos “at the Beach 2” were shot during my summer holidays in Crete and Athens. Composed of interviews by three LGBTQI parents and a video shot by five-year-old German tourist Sophie Stapels, the work refers to notions of parenthood and childhood, family configurations and relational politics. 

The starting point of the work is the question of how and where does a LGBTQI parent spend their holidays with their children. The answers and the questions further risen revolve around the prevailing conceptualizations of motherhood and fatherhood, society’s exclusion and inclusion mechanisms and the family structures -biological or not- of LGBTQI couples in a social and legal context. Considering tourism as a normative factor of summer holidays, I create a frame for rethinking “different parenthood” as a matrix where roles and identities become subjects of open and constant negotiation.

The idea for the second video of the installation, shot in its entirety by a five-year-old child, came about when I started filming a German family on holidays in the beach of Sougia in Crete, while I was there on vacation myself. Having already filmed children for that same work in various tourist destinations, I decided to give my camera over Sophie. In the context of a conceptual research and process of experimentation regarding the ambiguous power structures of the camera as a recording mechanism, and the respective positions of the observed and the observer, I attempt to indicate the shift taking place when a child stops being the “object” of filming and becomes the observer operating a camera.


at the Beach 2

/Performance, FERRY HOUSE, 2017, atelier cycladon 8, Athens, Greece

Conquian* was played with an indomitable devotion every Sunday at our home by my grandmother and her friends. It was a ritualistic gathering of women defined by interpersonal relationships, the exchange of information and the x-factor, a decisive parameter of both relations and card games.

On the round table there was always a green felt. Initially one of the players would deal to the others five cards in counterclockwise motion. After that, she would place an open card on the middle of the table and the game would begin.

Each information that “falls” on the table is a card possessing a setting of symbolisms, whilst determinining a relativity, a relationship policy. Therefore, any new information for its recipients is a sort of an unknown x-factor redefining the terms of the game.

Setting this card game condition into a distinct sequence of events and time, a hostess around another table recounted me once in Maroussi the story of a maquette sculpture depicting a woman and an infant breastfeeding her.

By transferring the small scale sculpture of Ioanna Spiteri into the house that once was her actual studio, I attempt to reconstruct it in the terrace of the same building through performative methods. I recreate a sculpture in the image and in the likeness of Spiteri’s original template, while observing a breastfeeding mother.

Using the original sculpture as idol and mirror reflection, I reproduce the creation of an artist, in order to comment on maternity and to reconstruct a narration linking three “players” of a paradox artistic process.

* Conquian is a rummy style card game

Untitled

/Performance/participatory action, 2017, in the context of Open form (curated and organised by Denise Araouzou), Syntagma Square, Athens, Greece

Eva Giannakopoulou returned to Syntagma Square, a sociopolitical landmark and microcosm of Athens that has served as an integral part of her artistic practice and research for years. Through her performance and engagement with regular visitors of the square, curious passerby, as well as an open call to anyone who wished to commonly formulate the action, she aimed to activate the intersections between the public, the political, the personal and the collective, whilst filming how these spheres are shifting within a square that is constantly changing.

Text by Denise Arasouzou

 Open Call: Square

στην Πλαζ/ at The Beach


/Video, 3'31'', 2016, Ithaca, Greece

I am at the beach of an island dressed with liturgical orthodox vestments, hugging my son and a video camera.
Approaching the mother-son relationship as a necessary and ambiguous -yet implicit- erotic conjunction, I explore the limits between acceptable and unacceptable through “orthodox” formulations and audio stimulations. 
With a “self managed” camera, in a deserted beach of an island, I attempt to question the sacredness-mother(ness) binary, making use of deviation and divergence tactics, whilst adopting a motherhood ambivalent model under the light and the heat of the summer sun.


στην Πλαζ/ at The Beach

Doureio Yffos


Genderizing fictional topological inquiries; an introduction to island genealogies

/Road trip video essay, 2016, realised and presented in the context of "The island-resignified" residency, Neion, Lefkada, Greece

Two interconnected road trip videos, presenting one fictional character -Hildegard von Bingen*- and me, in search of our personal geographic standpoints through displacement in between two islands. 
Two women; I am behind the camera in Ithaca, whilst she is in Lefkada, emerged in a lake reading Wilhelm Dörpfeld with singing birds. 
When I initiated my transition from Ithaca to Lefkada driving my mother’s motorbike, I left my son behind considering the caesarean section as a sharp incision of Ulysses's existance. Attempting to verbalise my trip, I depicted interviews with locals of the two islands related to Homer’s Ithaca location; a matter that has been highly debated, due to the persistent existence of ardent topological theories evolving around Ulisses's "real" homeland. 
Supposing that travelling allows for a relativist assumption of an island's location, my aim is to explore the form of a spatial, sea and flowing personal margin, arising throughout the coincidence of two women standing behind and in front of a camera with sarcastic mood. 
A combination of performances and interviews, a coexistence of poetic and realistic elements, poor images and assumptions, observations and interviews, constitute the core of my attempt to resignify two islands and myself.

*Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath.

Special Thanks to the director of "The island-resignified" Dimitra Kondylatou as well as to Nikos Kondylatos, Andromachi Kondylatou, Dimitris Tseres, Fontas Douvitsas, Eleftheria Manolitsi, Spiros Arsenis, Athina Arseni, Amalia Pastra, Tilemachos Vlassopoulos, Nikos Lourantos, and to all those who participated in the film

Camera: Eva Giannakopoulou and Dimitra Kondylatou


Doureio Yffos

Nick Boricua Coat of Arms


/Sculpture, 2016, in the context of Puerto Rico (curated by Alexis Fidetzis, Panos Sklavenitis and Kostis Stafylakis), part of the Athens Biennale 2015-2017 OMONOIA, Athens, Greece

This Coat of Arms was exhibited at the opening of The Nick Boricua Museum; an institution dedicated to the emblematic figure of Nick Boricua (Nikias Fokas in gr.), a Greek diplomat, intellectual, and revolutionary, born in the island of Ithaca (GR). 
The object was donated by the Greek Education Centre of Unorthodox Warfare (KEAΠ) to the Ithacan Folklore Museum on the 21st of May 2014, day of the Ionian Islands Unification with Greece. 
It is worth mentioning the engraved passionate text decorating part of this unique emblem: ΔΟΞΑ ΚΑΙ ΤΙΜΗ ΣΤΟΝ ΝΙΚΙΑ ΦΩΚΑ, ΓΝΗΣΙΟ ΤΕΚΝΟ ΤΗΣ ΙΘΑΚΗΣ, ΠΡΟΠΑΤΟΡΑ ΤΩΝ ΑΝΑ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΡΑΪΒΙΚΗΣ ΘΑΛΑΣΣΗΣ ΕΝΔΟΞΩΝ ΕΠΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΕΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΥΠΟΚΙΝΗΤΗ ΤΗΣ ΠΟΡΤΟΡΙΚΑΝΙΚΗΣ ΕΘΝΙΚΗΣ ΠΑΛΙΓΓΕΝΕΣΙΑΣ. 
After the kind invitation of the Puerto Rico curators, the director of the Ithacan museum decided to concede the emblem to the Nick Boricua Museum; a space of memory dedicated to the glorious and distinguished, yet unknown in Greece, heroe of the Carribean.

Photo credits: Rilène Markopoulou


Nick Boricua Coat of Arms

Mire falemndërit Enver Hoxca// Good, thank you Enver Hocxa


A tribute to west balkan socialism, Greece as a utopian destination and the archetypical paradise

/Performance, 2016, 2nd ASFA BBQ: Celebrating 500 years of radical thinking, ASFA, Athens, Greece.
Organised by Vassilis Vlastaras, Fotini Kalle, Georgios Papadopoulos and Eva Vaslamatzi

In this performance I started eating an apple through a microphone whilst being invisible. Hidden in the dark side of an amphitheatre, I was simultaneously projecting on the wall two you tube videos; Enver Hohxa venerated, while visiting Gjirokastra and the 2004 Athens violent riots between Albanians and Greeks, due to the victory of the Albanian national football team against the Greek one. 
As the audience was accommodated in the stage, a snake trainer appeared with a python wrapped around his neck. He performed a speech on pythons geographic range, diet, habitats, thermoregulation and reproduction.
He initiated his narration by mentioning that:
"Most members of this family are ambush predators, in that they typically remain motionless in a camouflaged position, and then strike suddenly at passing prey. They will generally not attack humans unless startled or provoked, although females protecting their eggs can be aggressive. Reports of attacks on human beings were once more common in South and Southeast Asia, but are now quite rare".
Short after the trainer’s explanatory talk, there was a discussion with the audience resulting into a tactile and tender approach between the reptile and the spectators. 


Special thanks to the snake trainer Kostas Dimpelas for his essential participation in the performance


Photo and video credits: Rilène Markopoulou

Mire falemndërit Enver Hoxca

Maltepe Gelinler// The brides of Maltepe


/A video art series in unconsecutive episodes by Eva Giannakopoulou and Persefoni Myrtsou, 2015-ongoing, "The Equilibrists" (curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari and Helga Christoffersen with Massimiliano Gioni), organized by the DESTE Foundation and the New Museum, New York in collaboration with the Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece

The Brides of Maltepe seek to explore verbal transcriptions of relationships and confessions evolving around four families in Greece, Turkey and Germany. Using vigorous methods in a genealogically tense Greek-Turkish environment, Eva and Persefoni share their lives between three countries, and as observers and circumstantial protagonists they attempt an introspective process, examining stereotypical and prevailing structures of transnational love and maverick forms of partnership.

Being inspired by Greek and Turkish reality shows and soap operas, the two women are in a constant process of filming their personal lives along with those of their partners and family, exposing with sarcastic moods their attitudes on nationalism, sexuality, feminism and conventional symbolisms. The Brides of Maltepe choose for their episodes a wide range of scenery including churches, family homes, national or private celebrations, one-night-stand hotels, their bedrooms, the streets, or even Skype. In an attempt to challenge their personal limits, the Brides confess their intimate thoughts trying to create links between body and social politics, private life and exposure. 


Maltepe Gelinler// The brides of Maltepe

Omonoia Erotics


A collaboration between Eva Giannakopoulou and Maria Nikiforaki

/Performance, 2016, in the context of GOMENES I by Netting The Work (curated by Eva Giannakopoulou and Rilène Markopoulou), part of the Athens Biennale 2015-2017 OMONOIA, Athens, Greece

Dogs, megaphones and women. Stray dogs of Athens and “skiladika”*, animal rights, women versus political correctness and social pretentiousness, stand as a trigger to initiate a discussion about females, nature and politics.

Five erotic terrorism proclamations are thrown at the centre of Omonoia Square for the passersby who have been used to glimpse at porn stars’ big posters placed on the cinema facades. Texts printed on the female body dictating the “urban soundscape”, personal narratives imposed on the public territory, political narratives written on the private body.

Sexual desire, love stories, the birth of a national bank and that of a breastfeeding child, juxtaposed as regulating flows towards the female body, in an attempt to exorcise monogamy, body politics and sustainability in an Athenian landscape heavily charged with symbolisms of the binary; routine - eccentricity.

*Skiladiko is a derogatory term to describe a genre of Modern Greek music and particular nightclubs in Greece in which a form of popular music culture is performed. It also refers to the so-called "decadent" type of popular songs. Derives from the Greek word ‘dog’ (σκύλος, skilos), meaning "doggish" or "doghouse".

Photo credits: Nikos Stathopoulos, Alexandros Kaklamanos and Yiannis Pappas

Omonoia Erotics

Buy Buy Berlin

/Performance, 2016, in the context of the APAB performance series #0, Grüntaler 9, Berlin, Germany

Espionage, Sabotage, Infiltration, Guerilla Warfare. I would like to be a Ninja for combating against my frustration of being a Greek in Berlin. My weapon is a bottle of ouzo for speeting on the mistakes of my wall-manifesto.

February 2015 Yanis meets Scäuble in Berlin. "We didn't reach an agreement, we didn't even agree to disagree", he says
March 2015 Tsipras meets Merkel in Berlin while Germans and Greeks exchange passionate kisses during a demonstration
June 2015 Greek bailout Referendum, NO 61,31 %, YES 38,69 %
January 2015 -ONE YEAR AGO- Syriza wins the elections promising to abolish the Memorandum and the austerity measures. Yanis Varoufakis is appointed as Minister of Finances
Orgies of privatisations

Photo and video credits by Athanasios Kanakis



Buy Buy Berlin!

Germany Loves Greece Greece Loves Germany
(the camera, passionate performer)

/Video, 6' 40'', 2015, Video Loops/Video Performance, ASFA BBQ, Athens, Greece

I was there when Prime Minister Tsipras met Chancellor Merkel in Berlin on the 23rd of March 2015. Behind the camera my body was squeezed by the demonstrators and journalists who were present right outside the Chancellor’s building. Germans and Greeks exchanged passionate kisses and hugs, singing and dancing, shaking hands and delivering messages against European Austerity measures. My hand was shaking carrying the camera, political tears of Love.


Germany Loves Greece Greece Loves Germany

Square

A reconstruction of the experience of space, or in other words: how to redefine and reconstruct the living parts of the square, and the psychological spaces of a body 

/Mixed media installation, 2012, ASFA, Athens, Greece////////Film, 23' 6'', 2012, Action Field Kodra , What we want, Thessaloniki, Greece. Curated by Vasilis Zografos

The project "Square" is the result of a ten-month fieldwork I completed in Syntagma Square at the centre of Athens, and of my personal engagement with the area and its people. The work consists of audiovisual material which I collected primarily from interviews with acquaintances or strangers, regulars of Syntagma Square or passersby, while I was posing them a constant and repetitive question: why they were in the square at the time. 
Having a video camera as an extension of my hand and my senses, I attempted to approach different stories of social, political and personal paradoxes, using methods of provocation in a provocative and tense environment. 
With this film, I intend to approach the various dimensions and parameters of a Space “in crisis” taking into account my personal position in a constantly re-defined Public Sphere. In this case, the role of the camera as a medium, was catalytic. It enforced the terms of an endless repetition, a repeated viewing of an event that made “fluid” my physical presence in the square. Have I ever been there?

Add

Eva Giannakopoulou