Installation | Photography | Video-Performance [11:35] | Sounds: fragments of byzantine ecclesiastic hymns with violent protest noises
©Maria Paschalidou 2014

Sound mix: Vassilis Theodorou

Biography of the Bread creates a ritualistic space for exposing iconic obsession with the bread imposed by its fundamentality as the necessity of living, and the political games of lacking or being granted the right to it. In this context, in September 2014, I realized a performance in which bread has been visualized as the battlefield of exercising power and of contradicting political, cultural and/or religious ideologies. Out of this performance I created a fabricated photographic image and a performed video, which I then combined to formulate the video installation. 
The audio of the video consists of sounds of political street protests in combination with byzantine ecclesiastic hymns. 
The protest sounds were collected from various electronic sources during the years of 2008-2015. These sounds are resonances of disobedience mingling sounds of spraying chemical gases and attacking with rhythmic protest slogans where the word ‘bread’ is repeated. For example, “Bread and Dignity”, Egypt revolution, 2011, “Bread-Education-Freedom”, Greek protests, 1973 and 2010.

VIDEO PERFORMANCE SOUNDS:

1. Protests in:

Athens, Greece (17/11/1973 – 30/05/2011)

Tahrir, Turkey (26/11/2011)

Lisbon, Portugal (14/11/2012 – 06/03/2014)

Rome, Italy (14/12/2010 - 12/04/2014)

Cairo, Egypt (25/01/2011)

Buenos Aires, Argentine (06/12/2011)

London, UK (20/10/2012)

Madrid, Spain (16/04/2014)

Manama, Bahrain (05/08/2011 - 14/02/2013)

Melbourne, Sydney, Australia (30/05/2009 - 21/05/2014)


2. Byzantine ecclesiastic hymns


EXHIBITIONS / PRESENTATIONS:

NICE! Municipality of Nikaia Cultural Centre "Manos Loizos". Nikaia, Piraeus, 16 March – 4 April 2016. Curators: Yannis Grigoriadis and Yannis Isidorou. Production: Lo&Behold with the support of NEON Organization for Culture and Development and in cooperation with the Municipality of Nikaia - Agios Ioannis Rentis

BreadMatters IV, “BreadMatters - Crossing Boundaries Intersecting the Grain”. ARTos Cultural and Research Foundation. Nicosia, Cyprus, 12 – 29 November, 2014. Curator: Ines Rolo Amado


PUBLICATIONS:

Maria Paschalidou, Biography of the Bread at Read S. and Simmons, M. (2017) Photographers and Research: The role of research in contemporary photographic practice. New York: Routledge, pp.182-83, 196-203, 262.