Reshaping The Human Body

28/03/2018

17/01/2018

Τη Δευτέρα 22 Ιανουαρίου 2018 το Φωτογραφικό Κέντρο Θεσσαλονίκης υποδέχεται τον φωτογράφο Πέτρο Μήτκα στο νέο πολιτιστικό χώρο στο κέντρο της Θεσσαλονίκης, τη Λέσχη �...

01/04/2017

Reshaping the Human Body

16/10/2015

PETROS MITKAS



Studies



1974 Graduation from the high-school of Strymoniko, Serres

1974-75 Swedish language courses at Kursverksamheten, Uppsala

1976 Mathematics at the University of Uppsala

1976-77 Modern and Ancient Greek at the University of Uppsala

1977-78 Music theory, guitar, piano, clarinet, flute and rythm at
Kursverksamheten, Uppsala

1978-79 Music at the University of Uppsala

1979-80 History at the University of Uppsala

1980-81 History at the University of Uppsala

1981-82 English language at the University of Brighton

1982-84 Photography at Linne Fotoskola, Uppsala

1985-88 Photography at the Nordens Fotoskola, Biskops Arno



Professional Experience



1989-92 Supervisor of the Photography Laboratory of Serres

1990-92 Supervisor of the Photography Laboratory of Stavroupoli, Thessaloniki

1991-95 Director of Camera Axis (studio of professional photography)

1993-98 Director of the School of Photography of Stavroupoli, Thessaloniki

Director of the Photography Laboratory of Stavroupoli, Thessaloniki

1995-98 Member of the Supervising Committee and Secretary of the Museum
of Photography (Organization for the Cultural Capital of Europe,
Thessaloniki 1997)

1997-11 Director of the Laboratory of Kalamaria, Thessaloniki

2012-14 Director of New Ethical Photography School.



Solo exhibitions



1984 Svettis (Gymnastics Hall, University of Uppsala,Sweden)

1990 Greek Gypsies (Open-air exhibition, White Tower of Thessaloniki)

1991 Greek Gypsies (Museum of Art, Uppsala,Sweden)

1992 Colored Series (Armos Gallery, Serres)

1993 Reflected Landscapes (Relics Gallery, Thessaloniki)

1997 Bar-Gallery Utopia (Hortiatis, Thessaloniki)

2000 Milos, (Art House, Thessaloniki)

2003 Bar-Gallery Utopia, Thessaloniki

2006 First Images, (Yeni Mosque, Thessaloniki)

2007 First Images, (Fotografevi Koc Allianz Galerisi, Istambul)

2013 Reshaping all my Images (DoDo Gallery, Thessaloniki)




Group exhibitions



1991 New photographers from Thessaloniki (Port Authority of Thessaloniki)

1991 Photographers from Thessaloniki (Yeni Mosque, Thessaloniki)

1991 Photographers from Serres (Bar Princess, Serres)

1993 Mug, Landscape, Touch and Onions (Amalgama, Thessaloniki)

1995 Praxis, photographers’ initiative (Yeni Mosque, Thessaloniki)

1997 Modern Diversities (Architects’ building, Municipality of
Thessaloniki)

June 2000 Transphotometafores (Macedonian Museum of Modern Art,
Thessaloniki)

October 2000 Transphotometafores (Macedonian Museum of Modern Art, Florina)

July 2001 Transphotometafores (Municipal Gallery of Montpellier, France)

August 2002 Transphotometafores (Photography Center of Almeria, Spain)

February 2003 Transphotometafores (Apollonia Exhibition Room, Strasbourg)

16/10/2015

December 2013

16/10/2015

December 2013

16/10/2015

Reshaping the Human Body

Creativity is the process through which something new is born.
It is a continuing, dialectic engagement between the world around us and our inner self.
It is a struggle with the gods, directly linked to human mortality.
And at the same time, it is an attempt to forge a human creative awareness.
The process requires strength and courage, enabling you to overcome despair and keep going.
By descending deep into the subconscious, I managed to retrieve archetypal, primeval images. And at other times, to give shape to new images, with the unerring doubt of the creator.
Whenever such an image rose to the surface, I stored it in my historical memory, reshaped it and incorporated it into a new human becoming.
One form gave life to the next, with the certainty of the random, and with knowledge of the infinite.
Embryonic forms – incomplete, uterine, prehistoric, Cycladic, Hindu, and others unknown – all arose from this attempt at reshaping the human body.
Childhood and Taoism went hand in hand, while Egyptian sculpture found contemporary echoes in the work of Moore and Brancusi.
New Hindu gods completed the pantheon of the old, and new Cycladic figures, now coloured, were sculpted anew using contemporary tools, on the anvil of James Joyce.
‘Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race’.

Petros Mitkas

16/10/2015