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Dafni Melidou

video , sociaal-maatschappelijk , Lichaam , fotografie , Experimenteel , Educatie , Ecologie , Community , Artistiek onderzoek , Archieven

I'm a Greek-born research-based artist currently based in Rotterdam. My practice intertwines the visual and olfactive fields, drawing from my background in both photography and perfumery. With a Master's degree in Photography, my work expands beyond traditional photographic practice, often exploring the materiality of the image and the layering of information through video constellations. Additionally, my training as a technical perfumer allows me to approach scent from an artistic perspective. The significance of the olfactory sense in my artistic practice helps me to open up an embodied way of knowledge and understanding of complex social and ecological subjects. In my role as an educator at the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, I also introduce students to olfactory art, encouraging them to develop sensory awareness and use this medium.

A Study on Media Cannibalism (2022) – single-channel video 4’40” - This desktop documentary is part of the research project "The Trauma of Looking: Readings and Counter-readings of the representation of femicides in the Greek mainstream media." It is a work that aims to decode the narrative strategies used by the Greek mainstream media to report sensitive topics related to gender inequalities and gender-based violence. In this work I explore the tropes and the effects of media cannibalism through the lens of intimate femicides - a phenomenon which has recently entered the wider public discourse in Greece.
Counter-readings of femicidal media imagery (2022) – mixed media installation - The installation is part of the research project "The Trauma of Looking: Readings and Counter-readings of the representation of femicides in the Greek mainstream media." The pile is composed by images circulated in the Greek mainstream media for the reporting of femicides in 2021. It is inaccessible, making visible at the same time the amount of imagery available in the media and invisible their sensationalized and unethical content. The collective trauma depicted in the images needs to be openly discussed, mourned and potentially resolved. Thus the pile is destroyed, turned into a paper pulp where knowledge can come through olfactive communication, which contributes to the photographic meaning, creating an environment for the affective experience of images. Finally, from the paper pulp emerges new paper where new histories (and images) can be written. The question of course remains, by whom and for whom? This symbolic gesture is not erasing the violence of complicity, but rather uncovers and brings to light the suppressed narratives concealed within the original images.
Failed Border: Living in the East (2022) – single channel video - The project revolves around the recent history of Germany's reunification and explores the inconsistencies between dominant historical narratives and personal memory. It entangles different memories of people who lived in the GDR (East Germany), echoed by younger Germans, thus detaching the emotionality from the memory itself. Although it takes place in an area that does not exist anymore, a non-place - the inner border of GDR - it shows a perpetual struggle of escaping and seeking new opportunities. * Project supported by HALLE14 in Leipzig and Goethe-Institute Thessaloniki **Part of the project takes place in the online computer game 1378(km)
The fossils, the ashes and other remains of existence (2021) - A photographic work visualizing the complexity and the many different stages of experiencing loss. It aims to open up an unusual ontological dimension of the way we understand death through our connections to physical objects and the active involvement in the photographic event. The project emerged from a personal trauma - the loss of my father, and my urgency to accept the incompleteness a death brings. Arriving back home several days after his death due to COVID-19 restrictions, I decided to spend several days in his house as his presence still felt very strong. By using only what was available to me in his 64m2 apartment I started creating surreal situations that would serve later as our last (prosthetic) memories together. Through this active engagement in the process, photography became a tool for post-traumatic healing. The outcome is a posthumous exploration together with an incorporeal protagonist that signifies at the same time presence and absence.
Future Relics (2021) - A collaborative project together with artist Ben Yau, realized during our wanderings in the Wadden Sea islands. After our encounters with the locals and the stories they shared with us regarding marine pollution, the changes of the sea-life and the fishing in the area, we decided to experience ourselves the effects of climate crisis on the island. By using walking on the beach, microcosmic looking and collecting as our main research method, we soon came to realize that in a closer look on this sand lied our fossilized future. Embedded within the present moment were relics of the past that act as forecasts of the future. Future Relics goes beyond what is visible operating into the potential realm of future ecologies.

Smell coLAB

Datum:
Locatie: The Royal Academy of Art
In samenwerking met: The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK)

"Smell coLAB" was a workshop that I designed for the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK). The scope of the workshop was to envision an olfactory archive of the future—a collection of smells and memories that might alter or vanish due to the ongoing climate crisis. The students were invited to envision our shared future through a sensory exploration. "Smell coLAB" was an extension of my semester-long course "Smell LAB"

Failed Borders: The case of Pylos shipwreck

Datum:
Locatie: New Toni
In samenwerking met: Philipp Schwalb

Presentation of my ongoing research during MA-LÄB (#26) organized by Philipp Schwalb and generously hosted and supported by New Toni in Berlin. My Artist-Panel, a video-constellation, reflected on the notions of borders, xenophobia, and Europe's hypocrisy by interweaving narratives of crimes against migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, Coast Guard atrocities, my personal experience as an "expat," and my family's migration history.

Smell LAB

Datum:
Locatie: The Royal Academy of Art
In samenwerking met: The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK)

"Smell LAB" is a semester-long elective course that I designed for and taught at The Royal Academy of Art (KABK). The students explored the potential of smells and the crucial role of olfaction in designing transformative experiences. Under my guidance they were encouraged to expand their creative boundaries. By incorporating olfaction into their artistic practice they were able to intensify the emotional impact of their work and add layers of depth and meaning to their artistic narratives.

Artist-in-residence

Datum:
Locatie: Goethe-Instituut
In samenwerking met: Goethe-Instituut Niederlande

"Investigating E/Iconomic Sediments" was a series of four monthly discursive events, that I hosted together with my collaborator Philipp Schwalb at Goethe-Institute Rotterdam during our joint residency. The events were dedicated to image-constellations and they touched upon a different topic that was investigated in and through images together with a community of artists and art workers.

Artist-in-residence

Datum:
Locatie: Goethe-Instituut
In samenwerking met: Goethe-Instituut Niederlande

During this residency at Goethe-Instituut Rotterdam I had the chance to continue with my research related to migration, "Failed Borders," and develop the second chapter. At the same time I explore a new methodology of creating a narrative based on the concept of image-constellations.

Future Transformations

Datum:
Locatie: The Royal Academy of Art
In samenwerking met: The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK)

"Future Transformations" was a workshop where the students reflected on our shared future and imagined the post-anthropocene. They started their exploration outside the Academy (eg park, beach, city) and by using walking, microscopic looking and non-extractive collecting they collaboratively compiled an Archive of Future Artefacts and Ecofacts (eg a video-message from the future, a smell from the future, etc.)

(Un)documented Migration

Datum:
Locatie: Amare Kunstenplein

My video work "Failed Borders: Living in the East" was part of the group exhibition "(Un)documented Migration" at Amare Kunstenplein, along with artists from MA Photography & Society, the collective Now You See Me Moria, Jason de Leon's participatory project "Hostile Terrain '94" and photographer Nathaniel White -Steele. The exhibition offered the opportunity to think about the ways in which the contexts and conditions in which migration takes place are available through mediation.

Artist-in-residence

Datum:
Locatie: Spinnerei (Cotton Factory)
In samenwerking met: HALLE 14 Center for Contemporary Art and Goethe-Institute Thessaloniki

"Failed Borders: Living in the East" is a research that I started in July 2022 during my 2-month residency in Leipzig at HALLE 14 - Center for Contemporary Art. It revolves around the recent history of Germany's reunification and the intergenerational trauma of East Germans.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ChpfC5PDHlU/
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