Bio

Dimitris Kechris is a photographer, curator and essayist based in Athens. He studied Physics at the University of Athens and Digital Arts at the Athens School of Fine Arts. In his practice, he looks for mnemic traces that underlie the formal historical narratives of modern European cities. He focuses on the relationship between technical images and the discourses which contextualise them, and he also explores the concept of the archive, perceived as a reconstruction of the past in service of a promise for the future. His photographic work has been exhibited at the Benaki Museum, the Byzantine Museum, the Greek Film Archive, the Athens Municipality Arts Gallery, the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, the Athens University History Museum and Galeria Hexagono in Barcelona. He is the co-founder of ALDEBARAN, a platform for photography theory, and a curator for MedPhoto Festival. His writings on photography and cinema have appeared in edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals and featured in the national press. He is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece.

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CV

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Education

2023-present PhD candidate in Film History and Theory, Ionian University

2022 MA in Digital Arts, Athens School of Fine Arts

2011 BSc in Physics, Department of Physics, University of Athens

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Exhibitions and Screenings

2023 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, John Cassavetes Hall, Thessaloniki

2023 Drama International Short Film Festival in Athens, Greek Film Archive, Athens

2023 46th Drama International Short Film Festival, Olympia Hall, Drama

2023 Month of Visual Arts Practices, Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece, Athens Municipal Art Gallery, Athens

2022 FutuRetro, Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens

2021 Open Studios, Platforms Project, Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens

2018 New Greek Photographers, Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens

2018 In Girum Imus Nocte-Tears and Parades, Galeria Hexagono, Barcelona

2018 Dust Breeding-The Crop, Grace, Athens

2017 2017 on 1917, Athens Municipality Arts Center, Athens

2015 The Secret Rooms of Mind, Katakouzenos Foundation, Athens

2014 DIA+, Byzantine Museum, Athens

2013 Greek Fairy Tales, Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, Athens

2012 Solidarity Between Generations, Greek Film Archive, Athens

2012 The Athenian Underground Scene (1984-2012), C.A.M.P., Athens

2010 Students’ Cultural Association, Athens University History Museum, Athens

 

Awards

2023 Documentary Award, National Student Competition, 46th Drama International Short Film Festival

2022 Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS

 

Participation in Workshops

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Media References

“An Unconscious Archive”, Phases Magazine, 17.05.2022

“La insurrección es un…”, The Greek Foundation, 28.03.2020

Interview to Ilias Lois, “Commenting on the discursive meanings of photography”, Velvet Eyes, 27.10.2019

Interview to Evi Kafiri, “Uncertainty is the necessary condition for freedom”, Photologio, 18.06.2019

Vanessa Graell, “Miradas Griegas Y Nueva Fotografía”, El Mundo, 03.05.2018

Natàlia Farré, “Así se ve Grecia en blanco y negro”, El Periódico, 13.04.2018

Roberta Bosco, “Joven arte griego, para una nueva galería de fotografía”, El País, 08.04.2018

Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret, “Un Lynch européen”, Carnet d’ Art, 19.02.2018

Joséphine Faisant, “The Dark and Pervasive Wanderings of Dimitris Kechris”, The Eye of Photography, 02.02.2018

“In Girum Imus Nocte”, Musée Magazine, 04.01.2018

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Curatorial Work

2021 Co-curator (with Pasqua Vorgia) of the exhibition CRITICAL ARCHIVES V: The Future Is Unwritten, MedPhoto Festival, Contemporary Art Museum of Crete

2019 Co-curator (with Pavlos Fysakis and Maria Maragkou) of the exhibition CRITICAL ARCHIVES IV: Documents, MedPhoto Festival, Contemporary Art Museum of Crete

2018 Co-curator (with Pasqua Vorgia and Apostolos Zerdevas) of the exhibition You refuse to understand, you don’t say anything, watching me die, Co-organisation: MedPhoto Festival, Athens Photo Festival, Thessaloniki Photobiennale, ROMANTSO, Athens

2018 Co-curator (with Pavlos Fysakis, Maria Maragkou and Yorgos Karailias) of the exhibition CRITICAL ARCHIVES III: Identities, MedPhoto Festival, Contemporary Art Museum of Crete

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Writings

1. Books

Dimitris Kechris, Το φιλμ–δοκίμιο και οι πολιτικές αισθητικές του [The Essay-film and its Political Aesthetics], Athens, Egokeros Publications, 2023

Pavlos Fysakis and Dimitris Kechris eds., Archive: Between the Public and The Private, Athens, KOLEKTIV8, 2022

Pavlos Fysakis and Dimitris Kechris eds., Europe: The Faces and the Territory, Athens, KOLEKTIV8, 2019

2. Articles in Academic Journals

Dimitris Kechris, “MedPhoto Festival: The case of a socially engaged lens-based artistic initiative at the southernmost edge of Europe”, in Penelope Petsini ed. Special Issue Narratives of Crisis: Representing Capitalist Realism, DESIGN | ARTS | CULTURE, 2024, Accepted for publication

Dimitris Kechris, “Allan Sekula: Μηχανισμοί σημασιοδότησης της τεχνικής εικόνας και κριτικός ρεαλισμός” [Allan Sekula: Mechanisms of Signification of the Technical Image and Critical Realism], ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΤΕΧΝΗΣ, 2023, Accepted for publication

Dimitris Kechris, “Forensic Architecture, Η Δολοφονία του Παύλου Φύσσα. Μέσο, συγκείμενο, αισθητική” [Forensic Architecture, The Murder of Pavlos Fyssas. Medium, Context, Aesthetics], ΚΡΙΣΗ, 2023, Accepted for publication

Dimitris Kechris, “Bertolt Brecht vs. Walter Benjamin, 2017: Μια συνάντηση της σύγχρονης τέχνης με την επαναστατική θεωρία στο έργο των Broomberg & Chanarin” [Bertolt Brecht vs. Walter Benjamin, 2017: An Encounter of Contemporary Art with Revolutionary Theory in the Work of Broomberg & Chanarin], ΟΥΤΟΠΙΑ, 138, Autumn 2021

Dimitris Κechris, “Σημαίνοντα της υστερίας, σύγκρουση Λόγων και πολιτικές συνδηλώσεις στο Possession (1981) του Andrzej Zulawski” [Signifiers of Hysteria, Conflicts in Lacan’s Discourses, and Political Connotations in Andrej Zulawski’s Possession (1981)], Filmicon – Journal of Greek Film Studies, November 2021

3. Book Chapters

Dimitris Kechris, “Ευρυδίκη Β.Α. 2037 (1975), του Νίκου Νικολαΐδη. Ο μύθος και η απομυθοποίηση” [Euridice BA 2037 by Nikos Nikolaidis. Myth and Demythologisation], in Christos Skyllakos ed., Ελληνική κριτική και ελληνικός κινηματογράφος. Τόμος Α’  [Greek Film Criticism and Greek Cinema. Vol. 1], Athens, Greek Association of Film Critics and Egokeros Publications, 2022

Dimitris Kechris, “Reconstructing the Past as a Promise for the Future”, in Pavlos Fysakis and Dimitris Kechris eds. Archive: Between The Public and The Private, Athens, KOLEKTIV8, 2022

Dimitris Kechris, “Europe – Medieval, Grotesque, Monstrous: a Symphony in B-mol.”, in Pavlos Fysakis and Dimitris Kechris eds. Europe: the Faces and the Territory, Athens, KOLEKTIV8, 2019

Dimitris Kechris, “Πέφτουν οι σφαίρες σαν το χαλάζι και ο τραυματισμένος καλλιτέχνης αναστενάζει” [A Hail of Bullets], in Penelope Petsini and Dimitris Christopoulos eds. Λεξικό Λογοκρισίας στην Ελλάδα [Lexicon of Censorship in Greece], Athens, Kastaniotis Publishing House, 2018

4. Non-academic Articles

Dimitris Kechris, “Black Audio Film Collective: Η πόλη ως πεδίο πολιτικής αντιπαράθεσης” [Black Audio Film Collective: The City as a Field of Political Antagonism], Marginalia, 25.05.2023

Dimitris Kechris, “Πολιτικά συμβάντα μεγάλης κλίμακας σε μια έκθεση” [An Exhibition on Large Scale Political Events], TVXS, 02.12.2019

Dimitris Kechris, “Sebastião Salgado. Μια εποχή στην Κόλαση” [Sebastião Salgado. A Season in Hell], Marginalia, 04.10.2018

Dimitris Kechris, “Προς μια πολυκειμενική ανάγνωση της φωτογραφίας” [Towards a Multi-textual Approach to Reading Images], Photographos Magazine, 01.02.2018

Dimitris Kechris, “Documenta 14. Allan Sekula: Το σχολείο είναι εργοστάσιο” [Documenta 14. Allan Sekula: School is a Factory], ALDEBARAN, 16.05.2017

5. Book Reviews

Dimitris Kechris, “Χώρα, σε βλέπω: Ο εικοστός αιώνας του ελληνικού σινεμά” [Motherland I see you: The 20th century of Greek Cinema], Filmicon – Journal of Greek Film Studies, 8, September 2023

 

Conference Presentations

Dimitris Kechris, “History, Subjectivity and the Public Sphere in Two Greek Essay-films by Tonia Marketaki and Eva Stefani”, International Conference: Personal Perspective and Essayistic Form in Nonfiction Film and Art, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vilnius, 22-23 September 2023

Dimitris Kechris, “Political Aesthetics of the Technical Image: Reflections on War”, Historical Materialism Conference, Panteion University, Athens, 20-23 April 2023

 

Editorial and Educational Work

2021 Co-editor (with Pavlos Fysakis) of the photobook Spyros Staveris, Chambres de Voyageurs, Athens, KOLEKTIV8, 2021

2018-present Coordinator of the Nomadic Library Project, the first travelling collection of photobooks in Greece

2011 Tutor in History of Photography, Cultural Association, University of Athens

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