at the Beach

I am at the beach of an island dressed with liturgical orthodox vestments, hugging my son and a video camera.
Approaching the mother-son relationship as a necessary and ambiguous -yet implicit- erotic conjunction, I explore the limits between acceptable and unacceptable through “orthodox” formulations and audio stimulations.
With a “self managed” camera, in a deserted beach of an island, I attempt to question the sacredness-mother(ness) binary, making use of deviation and divergence tactics, whilst adopting a motherhood ambivalent model under the light and the heat of the summer sun.

  • Eva Giannakopoulou
    Director
  • Eva Giannakopoulou
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 36 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    August 31, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    227 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Greece
  • Country of Filming:
    Greece
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 1920×1080 px
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Thank You for Believing in Me, Material Art Fair, Mexico City
    Mexico City
    Mexico
    February 18, 2017
    South American Premiere
  • The Same River Twice, Benaki Museum
    Athens
    Greece
    June 20, 2019
    European Premiere
Director Biography - Eva Giannakopoulou

Eva Giannakopoulou, grew up in Ithaca, Greece and she is currently residing in Athens where she works. In the past she has lived in Naples, Barcelona, Istanbul, Berlin and in other places depending on the circumstances.
She has performed and exhibited in museums, institutions, galleries, festivals, impromptu stages and other public or unconventional sites in Greece, Mexico, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey and Serbia including Material Art Fair (Mexico City, 2017), Benaki Museum, Athens (The Same River Twice, 2019 and The Equilibrists, 2016, organised by the New Museum, New York and the DESTE Foundation), Athens Biennale 2018: ANTI and Athens Biennale 2015-2017 OMONOIA (2016), Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin (solo show, 2015), MPA-B, Berlin (2015 and 2014), Excentricités 3 and 6 Performance Festival, Besançon (2015 and 2012), Action Field KODRA, Thessaloniki (2012), 3rd Art Biennale MIET, Thessaloniki (2011).
She has studied History of Art in Italy, Fine Arts in Greece and was recipient of IKY (State Scholarships Foundation) and Vikatos scholarships for her Masters "Space Strategies" at the Art Academy Weiβensee, Berlin, graduating in 2015 with honours under A. Creischer, A. Siekmann and K. Wildner.
She has co-curated and co-organised art projects and performative events, while in 2013-2014, she was a co-labourer of the MPA-B (Month of Performance Art, Berlin).
Eva was member of TWIXTlab, a space operating in-between, art, anthropology and the everyday.
In January 2019 she co-founds Most Mechanics Are Crooks, an artistic and curatorial band that aims to reclaim insincerity as a tool of progressive discourse.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Using the camera as a bodily extended observational tool, I have experimented with different artistic practices as performances, installations, films, participatory acts and projects. With my work, I seek to explore and capture the complexities and subtleties of the “visual ethics”, whilst reflecting upon notions of gazing, observation, participation and instincts.
Being driven by my interest in social anthropology and politics, I have carried out fieldworks focusing on female, queer and motherhood representations, in relation to radical ideologies, observational methods and tactics. This dimension many times led me to a symmetrical reversal of questions aimed at my position on this, but also to experiential and transgressive participatory forms during the fieldwork.
My research based performances and projects include interventions in intercultural frameworks, public spaces, and secluded communities. In such context, I often explore what happens when particular groups of affinity or persons with unusual interests, vocations and hobbies, are displaced or de-contextualized in institutional or cultural events.