Photography as Relational Practice

In the context of the laboratory, relation is understood as:
A crossing toward the other A voluntary act of stepping into interdisciplinary spaces of exchange and empathy among individuals and communities, where mindfulness and implication are essential. Drawing on Chantal Mouffe’s notion of dissensus, the laboratory understands artistic practice as a way of making visible what dominant narratives tend to hide or exclude.
A risk of openness A willingness to relinquish control and expose one’s work to re-readings, reinterpretations, and unforeseen transitions, rather than offering a single, fixed answer.
Unexpected connections An urge to “connect what cannot be—or is not expected to be—connected,” paraphrasing Hal Foster.
Errantry Following Édouard Glissant, relation is approached as an errant mode of thinking and making—one that shapes, questions, and problematizes diverse experiences rather than resolving them.
Embodied attention An openness to different audiences and media, as well as to a more somatic mode of experience which, as Alexandra Pirici suggests, “leaves space for listening, embodied attention, rhythmic sensibility, and feeling—space, time, life, and movement.”

By self-referencing our shared encounter in Athens, we will explore the common ground, limits, and potential of our collaboration in order to:
Unlearn and re-conceive our individual projects and creative vocabularies, introducing new concepts and forms of theorization.
Address, challenge, imagine, and reenact how our projects can engage with communities and the world beyond themselves.
Invent new modes of project development, collaboration, and audience engagement.
Foreground new systems of activation and purpose for photography today—beyond the boundaries of the photographic community—questioning what is commonly taken for granted as a completed photographic project circulating solely within the photography world.

The laboratory is open to Greek and international artists and photographers with an ongoing project at a mature stage, who are open to rethinking their practice and interested in working with communities. It also welcomes visual artists, practitioners, scholars, and educators working in lens-based culture who share similar interests.
While participants may bring existing projects, the laboratory is not project-driven; it focuses instead on questions surrounding photographic practice, the medium itself, and its modes of engagement with the world.
Language: English.

The program takes place annually during the Athens Photo Festival in June. Schedule: 10:00–20:00
Duration: 4 days
Location: Athens

Apply through the online entry form.
The lab is open to a maximum of 15 participants and places will be allocated based on the quality of submitted projects.
Learn more and apply here.

The laboratory laboratory is curated by Natasha Christia and organised by Athens Photo Festival and the Hellenic Center of Photography.

Natasha Christia (*1976, Greece) is a curator, writer and educator based in Barcelona. She holds a BA in archaeology and art history from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, an MA in modern art and film from the University of Essex and a postgraduate diploma in publishing from the University of Barcelona. Ηer curatorial research focuses on both the complicity and potential role of the photographic document in the revision of dominant historical narratives and ideological myths. She has curated various exhibitions, among them, AMORE: An Unfinished Trilogy by Valentina Abenavoli (Void/Athens Photo Festival, 2017), Dragana Jurisic: My Own Unknown (Centre Culturel Irlandais, Photo Sant Germain, 2017), Reversiones (Centro de la Imagen, Mexico DF, 2017), Lukas Birk: Travelogue Sammlung (Galerie Lustenau, Austria 2018) and You Are What You Eat (Krakow Photomonth 2019), ACTS I-VII by Oculi, (PHOTO 2022 Ιnternational Festival of Photography-Benalla Gallery, Australia), Kate Nolan: Lacuna (Centre Culturel Irlandais, Photo Sant Germain, 2023. Since 2021, she has been developing thematic areas based on photobooks: Closed Circle-Lived Relation (Panoramic Festival, Barcelona, 2021); War at a Distance (SCAN Festival 2022); and This Story Will Never Get Finished (SCAN Festival 2023). Natasha Christia regularly contributes essays on photography criticism for international publications and for artists. In 2019, she edited with Lukas Birk (Fraglich Publishing) “Gülistan” (winner of the PHotoEspaña Best Photobook Award 2019, International Category). She has been jury members of Unseen Dummy Award, Kassel Dummy Award 2021 and Concurso Fotocanal 2020.