The Provinces was founded in 2018.
The platform is run on a voluntary basis by its members Kostas Ioannidis, Eleni Mouzakiti, Christos Rontogiannis, Christos Sotiropoulos, and Tasos Zoidis.
The platform hosts photography series that deal with the Greek periphery.
The Provinces’ vision is to provide a space for the ongoing redefinition of the term “provinces” – “provincial”, providing the basis for a dialogue between the centre and the periphery that is free of stereotypical prejudices and to facilitate as many people as possible to have access to the tools needed to speak through the photographic language about their lives and their natural and cultural environment.
The aims of The Provinces are:
To collect photographic projects that capture – interpret the Greek periphery (provinces) and document its natural and cultural environment and highlight its cultural and social characteristics.
To (gradually) create an archive (with documentary material) that could support in the future the visual anthropology of a geographical and cultural entity.
To promote the photographic works online through The Provinces website, social media, through exhibitions (in museums, international photo festivals, etc.) and publications.
To support and enhance the production of photographic projects by photographers working and residing mainly in the Greek periphery through educational activities and art residencies programs.
To contribute to the communication and networking of photographers (centre – periphery).
Finally, note the following: we avoid the usual euphemisms for the out-of-centre areas of the country and consciously speak of “province” or even “provinces”, aiming through the very use of the word “province” in public debate to make it as neutral as possible, free of its negative connotations (e.g provincialism). In the search for convergences and divergences between the centre and the “province”, or between the provinces themselves, we proceed on the assumption that the essence of ‘provinciality – provincialism’ or of the province does not exist.
With a starting point in the assumption that no such thing as an essence of ‘provincialism’ exists, the collective venture The Provinces attempts to thematize the following issues: How does administrative subsumption give rise to the notion of cultural subordination? How is subjugation reinforced through the construction of the (usually exoticized) singularity of the provincial and the aestheticization of abandonment? Why after decades of reconciliation a new gap seems to yawn between centres and peripheries as recent developments throughout the world attest? Knowingly avoiding euphemistic terms for the peripheral regions we use the terms province and provinces aiming to discharge them from negative connotations in the public discourse. In searching for similarities and divergences between centres and provinces and among the provinces themselves the above preliminary inquiries are going to be reshaped.
We invite photographers to submit work to our platform.
In the section SUBMIT you can find info regarding the photographic series we would like to collect and showcase.
The Provinces platform was launched alongside with its first exhibition that took place at The Art Foundation (TAF) in Athens, in April 2019. Participating artists: Dimitris Barounis, Panos Charalampidis & Mary Chairetaki, Eleni Mouzakiti, Christos Rontogiannis, Photini Papahatzi, Christos Sotiropoulos, Nikos Zoakis, Tasos Zoidis.
For further information and collaborations, feel free to contact us. We will be happy to hear from you!
Contact us at:
the.provinces.platform[@]gmail.com
The sole responsibility of the photographs and the supporting texts of the photographic projects is of the photographers, unless explicitly stated otherwise. “The Provinces platform” and its members cannot be held accountable for any errors or inaccuracies provided by the supporting texts or for the texts’ content in general.