Meaning “troop” in greek, Petros Efstathiadis‘ new series Lohos is a reaction to the troubles and trials in modern day Greece, specifically those of the middle class finding themselves in the role of protester and, in some eyes, terrorists.
This is a post-card leporello from the small publishing imprint of Ghost, a Portuguese publisher run by the photographer Patricia Almeida dn teh french editor/curator David-Alexander Guénio.
Petros, who just won the Heyres Festival, lives in a small island village in Greece where he has dressed up his neighbors, friends and family in make-shift costumes, uniforms in which to go out and take on the world. They are both funny and disturbing and frightening and pathetic at the same time.
It has been a turbulent time for Greece. In 2010, as politicians discussed austerity measures with EU officials, the televisions showed scenes of rioting in the streets of Athens. Suddenly university students were being labeled as terrorists, as many were seen in YouTube videos hurling Molotov cocktails. Greece was a spectacle for the medias around the world: petrol bombs everywhere, Athens was on fire.
Reacting to those images, Petros Efstathiadis sets up a parallel and ironical universe made of that sudden “peur du Grec”. In the series ‘Lohos’ (Troop), he styles models as rebels impersonated by local inhabitants of his small hometown. They are rebels without a name or face, performing potential heroes or unknown soldiers who haven’t chosen their side, like a small troop in the middle of the battlefield. (Ghost)
Petros is a fellow POC. The first printing is of 400 copies so try to get one here.