CULTURE

Patras show at old paper mill

Artists are always drawn to old industrial buildings which have a lot to tell us and reflect a special atmosphere due to the many memories and experiences lived amid their walls. Artist Vouvoula Skoura, who has been involved in graphic design, photography and video art for many years, is currently presenting a very interesting project on the old Ladopoulos paper factory in Patras. The «Thread of Paper» exhibition is part of the series of events celebrating Patras as Cultural Capital of Europe 2006 and opened recently at an exhibition hall inside the factory itself. The tribute consists of 150 photographs, an art video and a new guidebook. «This adventure started in 2002, when I randomly visited the factory with my artist friend Cleopatra Diga,» said Skoura to Kathimerini. «I was quite taken by some of the large machines which no longer exist because they have been made obsolete by new technologies. The place was deserted, but you could feel the past presence of the workers and imagine their daily routine. All the objects I encountered were a starting point for thought, inspiration and, mostly, recording: a pair of shoes, an empty desk, files and documents about the people who worked there,» she added. Over the next four years, Skoura visited the factory to take photographs. Part of that work was made into an in-house publication titled «Photogramma.» Today, Skoura has gathered a great amount of material and has also made a video about the evolution of paper, «the non-realistic search of the history of paper and writing,» as she put it. Vouvoula Skoura was born in Thessaloniki and studied graphic design at the Technological Institute of Athens. During the seven-year dictatorship, she lived and worked in London. In 1974 she became one of the founding members of Athens’s Art Center. She got involved in various experimental techniques in photography, which she used in her prints and her film. Movies and videos of hers have been screened in more than 50 cities around the world. Her films «Esoteriki Metanastefsi» and «Skoria Fotos» were distinguished with a special prize at the Short Film Festival in Drama and her video «Mavro Feggari» won first prize at the 1998 video art competition in Athens. She has worked with the Athens Concert Hall, the Regional Municipal Theater of Patras, the Brussels-based Theatre Royal de la Monnaie, the Greek National Theater’s Summer Theater Academy, the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, the Arts Center Vooruit and other cultural organizations.

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