Return2Ithaca

IMAGE NATION

25 AUGUST - 10 SEPTEMBER

15-DAYS CURATORS
AND ARTISTS RESIDENCY
IN ITHACA.

IMAGE NATION

THE RESIDENCY

An international Artist in Residency Program in Ithaca that results in the production of original work regarding the island and its history. 

10 international Artists will meet in Ithaca, will work on the meanings of Odyssey, will be curated by 4 international Curators, will exhibit their work on Return2Ithaca 2023.


2023 Theme
Home(r) keeps me alive 

Our program embraces the concept of hope for return that Home(r) mentions in many ways in the Odyssey.

Here Home and can be expressed through a critical and contemporary point of view concerning political, social, (displacement, economic migration, war trauma) racial and environmental issues (natural catastrophes, devaluation of living surrounding).

The participating artists connect intimate experience of the returning subject to multiple locations, historical experiences, inter-subjective relations, and cultural interactions. Through the wide variety of multiple photographic narratives of the artists the program raises questions about the need to return as a journey to untouched roots and Home that the ethnic subject left behind. 

Their diacritical approach combines, on the one hand, a sensitivity to the context and structural elements of modern diaspora and wandering and on the other, an analysis of the individual psychological processes inherent to the experience of displacement and return such as nostalgia, memory and belonging.

Exposing the realities of this modern-day odyssey as well as the moral shortcomings evident in our own indifference, the program is a critical call for participation and an unprecedented exploration of a world we often choose not to know. 

Home(r) explores the human Odyssey
not only in the past or present but in eternity.

Selection Process
The selection of the participant artists 2023 has been completed.

Participants
They will present their work, design and propose installations, set up exhibitions and screenings. They will discuss contemporary reflections on the artistic practices they follow. They will donate part of their produced work to a permanent collection of the Municipality of Ithaca.

Residency Venue
The renovated Environmental Education Centre in Vathi looking at the sea, will be the ideal host center for artists. The Program covers accommodation for 15 days with breakfast.

The founders of the R2I Program, Dr. Nina Kassianou (Curator and Historian of Photography) and Costas Ordolis (Photographer) will be your fellow-voyagers on this journey.

residency residency residency

THE CURATORS

WE HANDPICK OUR CURATORS. BE CURATED FROM THE BESTS.

Katharina Manojlovic

Katharina Manojlovic

Cultural Scientist, Curator and Author

Vienna, Austria

Katharina Manojlovic is a cultural scientist, curator and author in the fields of literature and contemporary art with a special focus on the extended medium of photography, transmedial art and time-based media. She also works as a photographer and artist. She studied German and English Literature at the University of Vienna and at University College London (UK) as well as Image Science at Danube University Krems (AT). Graduate of the Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography, Vienna.


2008–2012: Visiting lecturer at the Department of German Studies,University of Zadar, Croatia.
Since 2015: Research assistant and curator at the Literature Museum of the Austrian National Library; freelance author and curator for Fotogalerie Wien and Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography, Vienna, among others. Co-editor and author of several publications on Austrian literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, exhibition catalogs and artists’ books. Numerous contributions, essays and reviews on literature, art and photography, among others for EIKON – International Magazine for Photography and Media Art and Camera Austria. 

Paco Marco Viciano

Paco Marco Viciano

Philosophy Professor

Castellon, Spain

Paco Marco is a retired Professor of Philosophy of the University of Jaume I in Castellon, Spain. During his tenure in the University, he served as its Secretary General, Head of the Department of Education and established links with Universities in Greece, UK, Austria, Finland and Germany under the umbrella of Erasmus. Since his retirement, he has co-funded and is co-editor of kult-ur, a University Jaume I research publication, and a plural, transversal and interdisciplinary platform that invites debate on how human beings think about the “City”. He has also helped establish an active cross cultural and intersectional academic exchange on Complex Thinking between the Jaume I and teaching Universities in Argentina and Mexico. He forms part of the Jaume I Programa de Extensión Universitaria (PEU) which aims to make the university present in its region and instrumentalises culture as a vehicle of communication to participate in the progress and
development of society. 

Paco Marco is also an artist who has worked in the field of photography since the 1970’s. He has a unique style which captures the mundane, ordinary, and quotidian suggesting the artists point of view but forcing the viewer to question and determine what it is s/he sees. Marco has exhibited extensively in his native Spain over the past three decades both individually and collectively. His work is large scale and installational and has been featured in architectural magazines, and private homes and collections in Europe and North and South America. As a long-time jazz aficionado, he is regularly invited to provide artwork for album covers and
sleeves. Paco Marco has a lifelong interest in cross cultural learning having participated as a teenager in a yearlong AFS exchange student to upstate New York. He later served as President of the Board of Directors of Intercultura, the national organisation representing AFS and the European Federation for Intercultural Learning (EFIL) in Spain.

Arianna Rinaldo

Arianna Rinaldo

Independent curator, Photography Consultant, Freelance photo editor

Barcelona, Spain

Arianna Rinaldo, a freelance professional in the world of photography, has made significant contributions to the field. As the former artistic director of Cortona On The Move, an international festival of visual narrative, she played a vital role from 2012 to 2021. Since 2016, Arianna has been the photography curator at PhEST, a festival showcasing contemporary photography and arts in Puglia.

Arianna's journey in photography began in 1998 as the archive director at Magnum Photos in New York. She later served as a photo editor for Colors magazine in Italy, further deepening her understanding of visual storytelling. During her time in Milan from 2004 to 2011, Arianna worked as a freelance curator and photo consultant, including a remarkable four years at D, the weekend supplement of La Repubblica (2008-2011). Additionally, she held the position of editorial director for eight years at OjodePez, a bilingual documentary photo magazine published by La Fabrica in Madrid.

Since relocating to Barcelona in 2012, Arianna has continued to engage in photography projects on an international scale. Alongside her curatorial work, she dedicates herself to leading workshops, masterclasses, and private mentorship sessions. Arianna's expertise is highly valued, and she serves on the selection committees of esteemed institutions such as the Leica Oskar Barnack Award, the British Journal of Photography's "Ones to Watch," and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. Arianna Rinaldo is a sought-after speaker and portfolio reviewer, frequently invited to significant photo events worldwide. Some notable appearances include Houston Fotofest in the USA, Photolucida in Portland, USA, Format Festival in Derby, UK, Daegu Photo Biennale in Korea, and Paris Photo Lensculture Meeting Place in France, among others. She regularly participates in esteemed jury panels, including World Press Photo (2009), Hamburg Portfolio Review, Czech Press Photo, FNAC Talento Fotografico, PHMuseum Grant, Lensculture Awards, Photolucida Critical Mass, and 6 Mois International Photojournalism Prize, among many others.

Nina Kassianou

Nina Kassianou

Historian, Curator of Photography

R2I, Athens, Greece

Dr. Nina Kassianou holds a PhD in History and Theory of Photography from Panteion University of Athens and gained a scholarship from Princeton University in the USA, to research photographic archives relating to the Greek Civil War and the Greek Resistance against Nazi.

She has worked for a decade as a photo book critic for the Sunday edition of the prestigious Greek newspaper "To Vima" . She has participated as a portfolio reviewer in many important festivals in Europe.

She has curated more than 100 exhibitions of renowned artists in Greece and abroad and edited a significant number of photo book publications. She has collaborated with the Photographic Center of Skopelos, the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (for more than 10 years). She was the artistic director of the M55projects gallery in Athens, a space aiming in inviting photographers and curators from all over Europe to exchange works and ideas with Greek Artists.

She has collaborated with various galleries based in Athens. She has authored numerous academic essays, and articles on the Greek and European Photography History as well as contributed to Cyclopedia “The History of European Photography 1900-2000” by writing the Greek History of Photography from 1900-1969.
The last four years she is the Photography Director at DL Gallery in Piraeus Greece, having curated international group and solo exhibitions.

She is the founder of R2I Curating Art & Artists Cultural Program, held every summer in her home island Ithaca. 

Alejandro Castellote

Alejandro Castellote

Independent Curator

Madrid, Spain

In 1982 he began working as photography curator. From 1985 through 1996 he was director of the Photography Department at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, where he organized the photo-festival FOCO (1985 to 1989). He has been founder and initial artistic director of PHotoEspaña, Madrid (1998 to 2000). In 2003 he curated the project –touring exhibition and book– MAPAS ABIERTOS. Fotografía Latinoamericana 1991-2002

He has curated many solo and group exhibitions in 25 countries, among others: curator for the X Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2006; Getxophoto, Bilbao (2007 through 2009); the Latin American section of the Biennale Photoquai (Museum Quai de Branly) 2007-2009, Paris; Seoul Photo Fair 2010, Korea and the Singapore International Photography Festival 2012 and curated in 2013 the exhibition and book Spain throughout Photography, 1839-2010, at MAPFRE Foundation, Madrid. He was the curator of the Daegu Photo Biennale 2014, Korea, guest curator of the ChangJiang International Photography & Video Biennale, Chongqing, the Guangzhou Image Triennial 2017, at the Guangdong Art Museum, China, and Imago Lisboa 2019. 

In 2010, he participated as lecturer and mentor in the Joop Swart Masterclass 2010 at the Foundation World Press Photo in Amsterdam. He was Series Editor of the Biblioteca de Fotógrafos Latinoamericanos, PHotoBolsillo, La Fábrica Editorial, Madrid (2010-2012). In 2006 he was awarded with the PHotoEspaña Prize Bartolomé Ros for the best professional track record in photography in Spain. From 2014 through 2016 he has been director of the Latin American Master of Photography and Visual Arts at the Centro de la Imagen of Lima, Peru. 

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