Nikos Markou

Nikos Markous’ portraits of the river Kifissos are on display at three of the biennial’s venues. They are picturesque photographs of dim unpopulated landscapes, with the water’s silver glimmer as their protagonist. Markou, whose background is in mathematics, uses photography to enter into a negotiation with the Greek landscape. Kifissos runs through all of Athens, springing from the Penteli and Parnitha mountains, it is the city’s longest body of water. During the Roman era, aqueducts were constructed across the banks of the river, and over time Kifissos became a natural way of draining rain water from the city. In the middle of the 20th Century, as Athens was expanding, the river transformed drastically, invaded by motorways, sewer systems, and industries constructed at its banks without permission. Today, the river runs underneath, or adjacent to, all of the city’s major motorways, hidden and repressed by layers of concrete. But to the north of Athens it bursts back into view; here, the landscape appears again pristine, unchanged by the passing of time.

Nikos Markou (b. 1959) is an artist based in Athens.

Work

From the series Kifissos River, 2018

Location

Luleå konsthall
17.11.2018–17.2.2018

Work

From the series Kifissos River, 2018

Location

Ájtte - Swedish Mountain- and Sami Museum, Jokkmokk
30.10.2018–17.02.2019