NIKOS KOKKAS
NIKOS KOKKAS

LOCKED DOWN - Nikos Kokkas’ Quarantine Diary

Photography

NIKOS KOKKAS

LOCKED DOWN - Nikos Kokkas’ Quarantine Diary

Photography

Old Fortress - Prisons

  • 22 Oct 2022 09:00
  • 23 Oct 2022 09:00
  • 24 Oct 2022 09:00
  • 25 Oct 2022 09:00
  • 26 Oct 2022 09:00
  • 27 Oct 2022 09:00
  • 28 Oct 2022 09:00
  • 29 Oct 2022 21:00
  • 30 Oct 2022 09:00
  • 31 Oct 2022 09:00

FREE ENTRANCE
Opening hours: MON-SUN 09:00-18:00

How the multiple, fulfilled and unfulfilled,
of an Athenian photographer
crowded into a room in Castella
at the time of his compulsory confinement.

The public will have the opportunity to see a special exhibition of photography at the Corfu International Festival from 22 to 31 October in the imposing Prison area of the Old Fortress.

The exhibition "Quarantine's Diary", by Nikos Kokkas, a surrealistic daily collage of dreams, emotions and parallel selves - fulfilled or... unfulfilled - had no guide or navigator, but was created day by day. The project began timidly but with absolute honesty on 19.03.2020 on Nikos Kokkas' personal Instagram account. The response of the "guests" there, and their encouragement, were the motivation and strength to continue the project until the last day on 03.05.2020.

Photographer and journalist, active as a freelancer since 1996, based in Athens, Nikos Kokkas thought, as soon as the lockdown started, that his apartment was not suitable for gatherings, but also that no one would object to open the door of imagination, instead of the doorstep of his house, to a special "cast" of guests.  

"I let every fear, every repression in my life so far, every 'forbidden' thought and every sense of seriousness rule my time of confinement." 

Almost every day, depending on the inspiration and the moment, the characters of the creator's imagination began to "arrive" one by one at Castella's small house, in a "fairy-tale" cohabitation: Through a "crescendo" of costuming, self-sarcasm, humour, objects - flying and non-flying - to assuage guilt, sunsets from a balcony corner, and dreams for the next day, Bon Viveur, the Juggler, the Tennis Player, the Beachcomber, the Touriste, the Card Player, the Rock Star, the Boxer, the Film Noir hero, the DJ, were all invited to this paradoxical "liberation of limits", in the heart of their legal confinement.

"An original idea born out of the absolute lockdown of the city after the pandemic: 
A dialogue with myself, a conflict, a confrontation. I accepted my fears and insecurities and tried to express unfulfilled wishes and desires, recording the mood of the mind and soul, every day that passed while I stayed at home with no way out. With exaggeration, surrealism and a dose of theatricality, I tried to be honest and authentic, without thinking about who is watching me, how I am "revealing myself".

A condition we all experienced. Each in our own way. An exhibition that deals with just that. But might there be more in common among us than we thought?

Nikos Kokkas - Locked Down. Let's see it... from the outside.
 

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