Dimitris Michalakis, "NATO Avenue" | 11-25.11.2010 - cheapart

LIGHTROOM Projects presents the exhibition of photographer Dimitris Michalakis entitled “NATO Avenue”.

A work that began in the summer of 2004 and lasted five years, is the first comprehensive project of the photographer. A section of it will be exhibited at the Cheap Art from 11 to 25 November 2010.

He "borrowed" the title from the name of the street leading to the old NATO camp in Aspropyrgos, which in 2003 was renamed Avenue of Peace. But in the minds of the people of this large industrial area stretching from Ano Liosia to Eleusis, it never changed.

The camp was deserted and the fields are converted to unregulated industrial plants. To the three languages that could be heard there, up to 20 years ago (Greek-Arvanitic-Romany) those of thousands of economic migrants were added and repatriated refugees and the "Attiki Odos" highway became the boundary with the rest of the world giddily running on it. Even a shift of gaze to the world of NATO Avenue, is risky...

In this world Dimitris Michalakis attempts to dive once again in the summer of 2004, his most "adult" visit. «I was born in Eleusis. In this place the grandmother of my neighbor started taking us for a trip. I was 7 years old and was scared, scared by it's wilderness».

And almost like that he returns along with his camera, the battery of which he charged several times with the power that Nonta's family "stole" from the wires of the PPC (Public Power Corporation). The gypsy paterfamilias hosted Dimitris many nights in the five years he worked in the area. «It's very easy to cause emotion showing such images. But that does not concern me. For me it is important to give a vivid sense, not to describe but to whisper», the photographer explains and so chooses to present more suggestive images.«What we easily call "tent" is someone's home, it's their own home and like everyone else, they love it. They will build it using rusty nails, "dress" it with nylon and then put more on top to protect it. And in there they settle their family, their children, they cook, they sleep...»

Dimitris Michalakis was born in 1977 in Eleusis. In 2005 he graduated from the School of Photography «Focus». While in the summer of 2004 he had already started his first photo album titled "NATO Avenue", after attending photography seminars. On graduation from the School he started his cooperation with the newspaper "Kathimerini" and the Sunday supplement magazine "K". Since May 2009 he has been also working with the supplement magazine "E" of the newspaper "Eleftherotypia".  

Alongside his professional activities in Greece, he has traveled to countries such as Russia, Albania, Scopia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Abkhazia, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Turkey, Egypt and Uganda. His work is on his website www.dimitrismichalakis.com

In 2003 he participated in the exhibition entitled "Close" in the European Parliament in Brussels. In 2005 he made his first solo exhibition in the "Month of Photography" of Biennale in Athens. In 2008 the work he created in Kosovo called «Old School», was chosen by the international agency «Gamma» to be exhibited in the Cultural Olympics in China Shen Yang.  

LIGHTROOM Projects is a mobile photographic gallery that forms the new action vehicle of Greek photography as contemporary art in Greece.
 Comprising a continuously evolving proposal within the ground of domestic photography, each time it chooses the appropriate space for the best possible promotion of the themes it focuses on, bringing out the artistic act of photography. 


LIGHTROOM Projects set off in October 2009, realising successfully many solo and group exhibitions.

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