Christina Tsantekidou
My practice explores how we relate to and internalise the geo-political shifts that occur within our lifetimes and those we carry with us from past generations.The socially and politically charged subjects employ a wide range of mediums to address global issues surrounding immigration and cultural identity .I use biographical stories as a vehicle for navigating through political history and collective memory. I explore the nature of our existence, where reflections on circumstances of the past bring an awareness of the present. In many works, I explore historical narratives of which little may be known or where facts are opaque, misconstrued, or disputed. As these stories can frequently be lost to time, giving voice to the often-unheard protagonists, and sheds light on accepted truths and denied positions present in these particular conditions. Whether autobiographical, collected from firsthand accounts, or originating through research, my works find continuity between these diverse themes and subjects, allowing for the consideration of our complex, intertwined histories.
Born in 1987 in Yekaterinburg, Russia and grew up in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Living and working in Berlin, Greece and São Paulo.
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“Be Prepared To go Home”
Video, single channel Duration 3 minutes - loop contact me if you would like to watch the video In the work “Be Prepared To Go Home”, I have chosen to reinterpret a scene from the movie “Zorba The Greek”, a film released in 1964. In this scene a dance called Sirtaki is performed, with dialogue referring to both personal and general notions of integration. Through my interpretation this struggleå plays out time and again in a looping sequence, suggesting an ongoing desire to connect to a history that may no longer exist as thought, and where the protagonist is nevertheless determined to continue his battle. the question and meaning then become focused not only on the political and social turmoil contained within, but the deeply personal feelings of being an unwanted outsider, an eternal foreigner in a place you can never truly call your own. |
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“Insist To Exist”
Single Video Channel Duration 3min and 47 sec. Contact me if you would like to watch the video The Video “Insist To Exist”, is inspired by the book “Not even my name”, by Thea Halo. The daughter of a woman who survived the Turkish genocide of Armenians and Pontic Greeks during the World War I recalls her mother`s extraordinary story of survival. |
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“For Those Who Never Left” Wool, beans on canvas. These works are based on direct, personal stories from World War I and World World II, stories that are told from people that experienced difficult or life-changing situations during these times. For me, it is critical that the stories of these circumstances are originating directly from personal experience, feeling and point of view, and reflect the memories of the individuals directly. I am collecting these stories from short interviews, and transforming them into objects, photographs and video installations. My main interest here is the focus on the Pontic genocide, which affected a great number of people, among them Armenian's and Assyrian's. The political, social and ethnic details concerning this genocide is not well known, and as such, my research is based on both broad and specific events of this time. Since I began my research and production, the work has taken on a new and very important meaning for me, as I have since discovered many things regarding my family and previous generations who lived through this period of conflict. My goal is to create mosaics in various sizes and forms from materials that are connected with the stories of war. I am using beans, where the world itself has its origin from the word Fasulo which meant the false in Latin. Pythagoras believed that you should never eat bean because they give you gas and expelling gas took the “breath of life”.At the same time he claimed beans contained the souls of the dead. |
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