ΝΕΤΤΕ: a kinesic experiment

Open presentation: 22 October 2022 at 20:00
Akropoditi Dance and Performing Arts Centre

In 2019, Artemis Pyrpilis went for the first time to the house where her grandmother was born and spent her childhood, 7 years after her passing. Searching through the rooms, drawers and boxes, she discovered the young girl she was in the 40s. A dancer, a gymnast, a restless girl whom her closed ones called Nette.
Who was really Nette and what was her connection to her? The shared silence, from the inevitability of her death, slowly became an reason to find their common voice for all that she didn’t know united them.
This is how the NETTE photo book came about.
The project “ΝΕΤΤΕ: a kinesic experiment” is an attempt to record a kinetic improvisation with a starting point and in interaction with archival images of Nette, in motion. The kinetic expression will be structured in the natural landscape of Syros (in coherence with nature as a background in the archival images) allowing any result that can arise through this internal “fermentation” of experimentation/improvisation based on the interaction with the kinetic expression of her grandmother.
The aim is to further connect the personal relationship between granddaughter and grandmother, but also to explore the broader connection between photography and dance.
The final result will be a video that includes both the archival images and the recording of the kinetic experimentation as through this it will apprehend the expression and physicality of Nette while exploring the movement through its recording.

Workshop with the photographer Artemis Pyrpili
Archival and contemporary images in the narration of a photographic work

Artemis Pyrpilis (1987) is a French-Greek photographer.
She studied photography in Paris and after working as a photographer in France, the UK, Germany and the United States she decided to return to Greece in 2013.
She has participated in various group exhibitions, at C / O Berlin in Germany, at the State Museum of Contemporary Art and at the Photobiennale in Thessaloniki, but also at the Host Gallery in London.
She has also presented her work in 2 solo exhibitions in Greece.
In September 2021, her first photo book “NETTE” was published by punto e basta editions and launched at the Polka Factory in Paris.
Today she lives in Thessaloniki where she teaches at the Stereosis School of Photography and at the MOMus-Museum of Photography of Thessaloniki while at the same time working on personal projects experimenting with various artistic fields.
www.artemispyrpilis.com

In 2019, seven years after my grandmother’s passing, Ι went for the first time to the house where she was born and spent her childhood.
Searching through the rooms, drawers and boxes I discovered previously unseen pictures of her when she was a young girl in the 40s.
A dancer, a gymnast, a restless girl whom her closed ones called Nette.
In the midst of the pandemic I got my hands on the archival images I retrieved from that house looking to find who Nette really was and what my own connection to her is.
The shared silence, from the inevitability of her death, slowly became a reason to find our common voice through all of the things that united us without knowing it.
This is how the NETTE photobook was born, published in September 2021.
Wanting to continue the work I’ve made the past few years on the connection with my grandmother, on memory and time,
I chose to explore the wider connection of photography-dance/image-movement by applying to the artistic residency of Akropoditi.
Akropoditi welcomes creators from various artistic scopes and is receptive to the combination of creative fields.
This was an important reason to apply for the residency as it gave me the freedom to explore how I could combine photography, movement and video with an experimental intention.
In October 2022, at Akropoditi’s artistic residency, I recorded a kinetic improvisation starting from and in interaction with archival images of my grandmother, Nette, in motion.
Keeping the element of nature, which appears as a background in the archival material,
I accordingly structured my kinetic expression against the background of the natural landscape of Syros which simultaneously functioned as an important stimulus.
This was the starting point that I had consciously set in the context of the creative process and resulted in a short dance film, a sensorial journey powered by the inner need for constant movement.
I had the luck and the opportunity to create a project that means a lot to me in a highly inspiring environment like Akropoditi.
NETTE-A-Kinesic-Experiment