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ARRIVAL THES-PRES with passengers a group of young people and luggage full of ‘fermentations’

“A team, a thousand moments, different characters but all one body, one heart, and the same goal for one art, for a project born from 13 people,” with these words Alexandra Boula described her experience from participating in THES-PRES, the artistic journey of young people inspired by artistic walking tours in the urban and mountainous landscape of northern Greece. The journey started from Thessaloniki on June 25 and ended in Prespa on July 3, 2019. “The journey was an unknown path that I would take a thousand times over!” says Anastasia Bakali, another ‘passenger’ of THES-PRES. Upon their arrival in Prespa, the participants had the opportunity to meet and discuss with artists from 25 different countries at the 1st International Conference titled: Walking Practices / Walking Art / Walking Bodies. “I held the world in my hands,” as Georgia Tsitseris told us, describing the overall experience.

“A group of young people exploring yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” was how Alexandros Kapetanou described THES-PRES. The reality is that the young participants toured Thessaloniki, Veria, Florina, and Prespa in an artistic manner, with walking practices as their reference point. They visited significant historical monuments and contemporary cultural points of interest, attempting a multifaceted observation through the lens of historical, social, cultural, and artistic perspectives. “And I think again that a journey is the people, but more so, it is the passion to share the road,” quoting Arthur Rimbaud, Kostas Papadopoulos chose these words to describe his journey with THES-PRES. “Ride the ‘wave’ to escape” (Lyrics: Smooth – Iio), was how Dorothea Siafla described the journey. It was a ‘fermentation’ of people, impressions, landscapes, history, images, and sensations that culminated in the literal creation of a modern mosaic/installation made from clay and objects, exhibited at the Byzantine Collection building in Prespa from July 6 to July 21, 2019. The ‘clay’ units, the individual efforts of the participants, composed the final work, “I believe we kneaded ourselves just as we kneaded our clay,” said Veronika Konstantinou.

THES-PRES was organized within the framework of the POLIPRESPA program, implemented with a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), in collaboration with the Department of Visual and Applied Arts of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Western Macedonia. The scientific supervisor was Yannis Ziogas, painter and Associate Professor at TEET/UWM. Their companions and guides on this journey were two visual artists/instructors from the Department of Visual and Applied Arts at the University of Western Macedonia (TEET), Cynthia Gerothanasiou (EEP) and Rania Schoretsaniti, and museologist Stella Sylaiou, instructor at the Department of Visual and Applied Arts at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The passengers of THES-PRES were: Alexandros Kapetanou, Dimitris Kapetanou, Anastasia Bakali, Kostas Papadopoulos, Antonia Poukamisa, Dorothea Siafla, Veronika Konstantinou, Rafaela Aroutzidou, Alexandra Boula, Eleni Bourlia, Georgia Tsitseris, Katerina Zyrpiadou, Konstantina Lazaridou. “Those who embraced and will forever remain THES-PRESpiotes,” said Antonia Poukamisa.