There, where the beloved died a sudden death. Usually on a turn, on the edge, sometimes even in the middle of the road. A memorial to the dead, a heartbreaking promise to keep the memory (alive), a request for repose, a consolation for the family. A simple or elaborate construction, more or less religious, worn by time that cancels out or intensifies the original intention. Scattered all over the country, they have become a cultural element of it. The iconostases have even become an alarm signal, a useful warning for a dangerous turn. Marilia Fotopoulou records, studies and interprets these special, architectural constructions, which are interwoven with death and with faith, or perhaps with hope, with salvation. And in spite, or because of the chosen distance the photographer keeps, the awe of death, the crush and the despair emerge through the correlation with the surrounding environment and the often unexpected, natural and cultural encounters. Realism, unwittingly, becomes magical. The iconostases reflect, in small scale, the constitution of the people and of the culture that created them. They do so together with the yards, the dry grass, the washed-out walls, the parked cars, the rubbish and the unfitting backdrop that often surrounds the iconostasis itself, the icons inside of them, the photograph of the deceased, the candle lit or not, the rough, self-made and often comically tragic solutions to practical needs. These images are a first sample of a research that began recently and will continue, as it shows to be culturally useful and photographically enjoyable.
Panos Kokkinias.