KOLEKTIV8 – MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART OF CRETE
MED PHOTO FESTIVAL “BORDERS | CROSSROADS”

Medphoto, the inaugural Mediterranean Photography Festival, took place in the Summer of 2016 in Rethymno, on the island of Crete, Greece.
Medphoto extends an invitation to the global photographic community to participate in this dynamic artistic project, designed to be an annual lens-based arts celebration. By bringing together multiple cultural partners across Europe and the Mediterranean region, we hope to foster and sustain a vivid community of artists and to promote meaningful social dialogue.
Crete is located at a crossroads of major geopolitical importance. At the center of the Mediterranean region, the island constitutes a gateway to the three continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. Upholding the status of the periphery, the island of Crete also highlights the meaning of geographical and cultural borders, a focal point of the festival’s sensibility and exploration. In addition, the current refugee crisis has pushed the meaning of identity and dislocation to the forefront. As a reaction to the dire reality of our times, the festival’s theme this year will be “Borders / Crossroads.”  
MedPhoto also explored the situation in crisis-stricken Greece, as well as present more symbolic, subjective and existential ideas of boundaries.
Medphoto hosted and organised exhibitions, presentations, workshops, publications, open discussions, an international photography prize (in effect for the first time in Greece) and various other events engaging the local community as well as international audiences.
Medphoto is a joint initiative of NGO KOLEKTIV8 and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete.


PROGRAMME of MedPhoto Festival
Exhibition in 4 spaces in the city of Rethymnon:
1.
“Critical Archives I: Ruins”
Curators: Maria Marangou, Pasqua Vorgia, Pavlos Fysakis
Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, Messolloghiou 32, old Town Rethymno
Duration: 11 June – 30 August 2016

ODYSSEIA
Antoine D’Agata
Personal odyssey is the focus of this body of photographic and video works by Antoine D’Agata. The raw French photographer sought out migrants in Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia in order to experience, document and understand the often harsh reality of their journeys. In a desperate quest to reach a better life in Europe, many migrants inhabit deteriorating urban landscapes, endure detention centres and slip past ports and borders undetected, fully aware of the danger and illegality of their situation, and nameless to the world. Includes striking photos and images from videos, statistical data and texts by Bruno Le Dantec and Rafael Garido. When I was on the ground, I constantly questioned the usefulness of my presence. I photographed people dying, to show them to those who let them die.

HOMESICK
Hrair Sarkissian
In “Homesick” (2014) Hrair Sarkissian recreated and destroyed an architecturally exact scaled model of the apartment building in Damascus where his parents are still living. Like many of their generation, they have until now refused to leave Syria. Sarkissian grew up in this building, and lived there until he left Syria in 2008. It represents more than just a house. In addition to providing shelter to his parents, it is the place where he belongs, a container for his memories, and a place for his family’s collective identity.
Through “Homesick” Sarkissian constructs a story that, considering the current political situation and the ongoing destruction in his home country, could very well take place in the near future. What would be the consequences? What is it to expect the worst? Can we fast-forward the present and acknowledge loss and begin reshaping a collapsed history before the event? At the same time, by taking fate into his own hands, he is trying to regain some control over the situation and to tear down an unreal imagination.

EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED, HAPPENED HERE FIRST, IN REHEARSAL
Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin
The invasion of Beirut, the first and the second Intifada, the Gaza withdrawal, the Battle of Falluja; almost each and every one of Israel’s major military tactics in the Middle East over the past three decades was performed in advance here in Chicago, an artificial but realistic Arab town built by the Israeli Defence Force for urban combat training.

ABBANDONI
Davide Monteleone / Francesco Zizola

DEPRESSION ERA, group exhibition
Zoe Hatziyannaki, Kostas Kapsianis, Dimitris Michalakis, Dimitris Rapakousis, Spyros Staveris, Yiannis Theodoropoulos, Lukas Vasilikos, Pasqua Vorgia

LIFE NARRATIVE / screening
Nikos Markou

THE ZONE / screening
18ANO photographic team

2.
CROSSINGS, group exhibition
Curators: Giorgos Moutafis, Pavlos Fysakis
Old Commercial Bank (Old Town)
Duration: 9 June – 15 July 2016
Artists
Sokratis Baltagiannis, Alfredo D’Amato, Dimitris Michalakis, Giorgos Moutafis, Myrto Papadopoulou, Alessandro Penso, Giulio Piscitelli/Contrasto, Jerome Sessini/Magnum, Aggelos Tzortzinis, Emilien Urbano, Achilleas Zavallis.

3.
ALIEN TERRITORY, group exhibition
Curators: Yorgos Prinos, Pavlos Fysakis
Twin Building inside the Fortezza Castle
Duration: 10 June – 10 July 2016
Artists:
George Awde, Konstantinos Doumpenidis, Antonis Damolis, Petros Efstathiadis, Giorgos Gavrilakis, Olga Gortsa, Yorgos Karailias, Giannis Karpouzis, Marily Konstantinopoulou, Charalampos Kydonakis, Randa Mirza, Marita Pappa, Georges Salameh, Orestis Seferoglou, Kosmas Stathopoulos, Eliza Tamo, Vaggelis Tatsis, Serkan Taycan, Antonis Theodoridis, Marinos Tsagkarakis, Nikolas Ventourakis.

4.
“Critical Archives II: Testimonies”
Curators: Maria Maragkou, Pavlos Fysakis
STATE / screening, Apostolos Zerdevas
MY ARAB WORLD / screening, Giorgos Moutafis
9 Days – From my window in Aleppo / screening, Issa Touma
Kara Moussa Pasha Mosque, Arcadiou & Hugo V. St. Rethymno
Duration: 9 June – 10 July 2016


SIDE EVENTS:
Workshop for kids at Episkopi village / 9-12 May 2016
with Takis and Apostolos Zerdevas (FOCUS School of Art)

Workshop with Oliver Chanarin at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete
“Everything that happened, happened here first, in rehearsal”, 6-8 June 2016
As part of Medphoto Festival 2016, artists Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin have created a three-day workshop designed to explore participants’ understanding of their immediate surroundings; their physical, social, and political environment. Over the course of the first two days participants will receive a new commission every hour: to photograph a magical object, a nude, to create a portrait, a still life, and so forth. Individuals will shoot on their own digital camera, any format. On the final day, the group will work together with the artist on the design and layout of a collaborative publication, using the images made during the workshop to create a book dummy.
Adam Broomberg (B. 1970, Johannesburg, South Africa) and Oliver Chanarin (B. 1971, London, UK) are artists living and working in London. Together they have had numerous solo exhibitions and International Group Shows. Their work is held in major public and Private Collections Including Tate, MoMA, Stedelijk, The V&A, The International Center of Photography, Musée De L’Élysée, The Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Cleveland Museum Of Art. Major Awards include the ICP Infinity Award (2014) for Holy Bible, and the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2013) for War Primer 2.
The Workshop will be open to a limited number of participants
Sumbission at: submission@medphoto.gr

FETART / 10 June 2016
Open exhibition with photographs placed on the walls of central spots of the Old Town on Rethymno curated by Marion Hislen (Festival Circulations, 10 June 2016)

ANTOINE D’AGATA LECTURE / 30 June 2016
in the Cultural Centre of Rethymno (Old Town)

OPEN DISCUSSION and PHOTOGRAPHIC SCREENINGS
with the public and the artists

PORTFOLIO REVIEW and EXHIBITION / 25 July 2016
of the work of the festival’s volunteers in Iliaki Gallery (Old Town)

Last but not least, for the first time in Greece, Medphoto Festival award the Medphoto Award, offering a 5000 euro grant to one outstanding photographic documentary project.
The jury consisted of: Heracles Papaioannou, Director of Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Aliki Tsirgialou, Director of the Photographic Archive of Benaki Museum, Riza Erdegirmenci, Director of the International Photography Festival Fotoinstabul, Laura Serani, Curator, Nikandri Koukoulioti,Advertising Director, Magnum Photos, Davide Monteleone, Photographer, tree times winner of the Word Press Photo award, Giorgos Prinos, Photographer.

The planning and execution of the organization of the Festival has been supported and aided by important cultural institutions, both Greek and European such as the Contemporary Art Museum of Crete, the Benaki Museum, the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, the Athens School of Fine Arts, the Ragusa Festival in Sicily and Circulations Festival in Paris.

Of fundamental importance has been the support of the Grand Sponsor, MOTOR OIL.

Important and effective aid has been received from the sponsors:
The cultural institution NEON, the Municipality of Rethymnon and the Region of Crete, ANEK Lines, Lens Culture, Focus Photography School, Kailatzaki Publishers, Cretan Review, Kaloteraki Furniture Company, Daskaladonakis Hotels, as well as the hotels:Mythos Suites Hotel, Pepi’s Studios, Theartemis Palace, Hotel Ideon, Brascos Hotel, Atrium Hotel, Mythos Suites Hotel along with our communication sponsors Kathimerini newspaper, Huffington Post, www.allaboutfestivals.gr, www.pttl.gr, ERT and LIFO.

For  more information:  www.medphoto.gr