Serpentine Cinema presents a special selection of Menelaos Karamaghiolis’ short films from 1986 to today.
In addition to feature-length documentary and fiction, Karamaghiolis’ practice encompasses artist films that often foreground stories of invisible, everyday heroes, located within the ongoing crises that define the social fabric of Greece. Serpentine Cinema: Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Shorts weaves together an underground, alternative narrative of the country’s history, told through unpredictable testimonies and apocalyptic images of a land in which the past and the present are perpetually clashing.
Films:
– Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Mrs Dankbar speaks through me, 16 mm film, 1986 – 2023, 4’ 43’’
– Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Reminiscences of an Unprocessed Leather Technician, video, 16’. Part of Why Look at Animals. AGRIMIKÁ, Maria Papadimitriou’s Greek Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2015.
– Menelaos Karamaghiolis, NO ONE WILL KILL YOU, ANYMORE THAN IF YOU WERE A CORPSE, video, 2019, 14’
– Menelaos Karamaghiolis, #noborders, video, 2019, 3’ 14’’
– Menelaos Karamaghiolis, MY HOME (UNDER THE BRIDGE), video, 2012, 4’ 52’’
– Døcumatism – the Afro-Greeks – Menelaos Karamaghiolis, the AfroGreeks – prologue, video installation 2015-2023, 14’
– Døcumatism – the Afro-Greeks – Menelaos Karamaghiolis, the AfroGreeks – Mykel, video installation 2020, 7’ 6’’
Presented in collaboration with Close-Up.
Supported by Rodeo, London/Piraeus.
Curated by
Kostas Stasinopoulos, Curator, Live Programmes
Curatorial Assistant
Eva Speight
Production Coordinator
Bea Redweik
- Artist Bio
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Menelaos Karamaghiolis is a filmmaker who works in Athens, producing feature films, documentaries, artist films, installations and radio-movies which star real-life neglected heroes and transcend frontiers and stereotypes to serve as an essential tool for dialogue and social change. His films have been screened globally and won many awards internationally: Karamaghiolis’ feature documentary ROM (1989) was called “a turning point for Greek documentary films” and “a masterpiece that must become a classic of the history of cinema.” His fiction film BLACK OUT (p.s. RED OUT) (1998) was hailed as “the first post-modern Greek film” while J.A.C.E. – Just Another Confused Elephant (2012) was included in 52 international festivals and received eleven awards.
Karamaghiolis pioneered the first Greek interactive documentaries, MEETING WITH REMARKABLE PEOPLE (12 feature films, 180 short films). He is the founder of Døcumatism, a group of artists, educators, researchers, and filmmakers who aim to find solutions and raise awareness about crucial social issues through the power of cinematography. Døcumatism is based in the neighbourhood of Kypseli in Athens, a formerly upper-class neighbourhood that has been home to migrant communities for the past twenty years. The artistic initiatives taken by Døcumatism have transformed this neighbourhood into an experimental cultural hotspot. Karamaghiolis is currently working on film installations and live events for the ongoing collective community projects the AfroGreeks and Greekies. His work has been shown at international institutions such as the National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens, the Venice Biennale, Rodeo, Haus N Athen, and the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, among others.
