Press Release
“Bodies in Flow” — Solo Photography Exhibition by Anthi Kollia
iFocus Photo Gallery is pleased to present the solo photography exhibition of Anthi Kollia, titled “Bodies in Flow”, running from May 17 to May 23, 2025.
In her latest photographic work, Anthi Kollia captures the encounter between the human body and water, in an exploration that borders on poetry. The human form loses its identity and individuality, transformed within the aquatic flow -a flow that functions not only as a setting but as a co-creator of meaning and imagery.
As exhibition curator Dora Lavazou notes, the photographer uses light, movement, and fluidity to construct a universe that is at once real and suggestive. These images do not describe but evoke; they do not depict but recall. The underwater landscape becomes a space of liberation, contemplation, and a return to the primordial essence of existence.
“Bodies in Flow” invites the audience into a multisensory and existential experience. What does the body reveal when freed from its weight? How is our relationship with ourselves and others redefined when we immerse – both literally and symbolically – into the water?
Info
Title: “Bodies in Flow” – Solo Photography Exhibition by Anthi Kollia
Curator: Dora Lavazou
Dates: May 17 – 23, 2025
Venue: iFocus Photo Gallery
Opening Night: Saturday, May 17, 19:30 – 23:00
Opening Hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 17:30 – 20:30
Wednesday, Friday: 15:00 – 18:00
Sunday: 18:00 – 21:00
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday: 17:30 – 20:30
Wednesday, Friday: 15:00 – 18:00
Sunday: 18:00 – 21:00
Admission: Free
For more information and press materials, please contact iFocus Photo Gallery or visit www.ifocus.gr
Accompanying Essays
Critical Essay Dr. Vasileios Kantas – Visual Communication theorist, Existential philosophy & expressive arts researcher
This body of work captures swimmers just off the shore, suspended in the sea, quietly surrendering to the liquid element that envelopes them, as well as to the diver-photographer who selects moments of stillness out of their fleeting presence. Neither place nor time ask to be defined here, mirroring the sensation of release, of drifting away from burdens, that immersion in water offers.
The sea’s transformative touch alters postures and gestures, sculpting strange and graceful poses, while lending to skin a slightly different texture — one no longer quite of the land. The bathers’ heads remain outside the frame, not to ensure anonymity, but because the artist is uninterested in capturing specific identity. The body — incomplete in its outline, like so many ancient statues — appears autonomous, self-contained. It yields gently to the struggle between gravity and buoyancy, tracing out small volitional shapes, like spontaneous dances attuned to the rhythm of the space it moves in.
Those emotionally close to the baptized child never ask for shots inside the font. Those close to the rapt lover focus, again, on the face. However, the body knows. Especially when it is not summoned to be seen and judged.
The artist’s own body simply dances upon the same underwater stage, among other bodies that have found themselves there — comfortable, quiet — seeking a pace with which to enter their dance. “Let the dance go on,” these portraits seem to echo, like the murmuring of a shell held close to the ear. Portraits without a head, without need for reason or identity. The viewers are gently invited to shed their swimsuit, remembering the sensation of their own gestation — and to try flying, without a flight plan.
Dr Vasileios Kantas
(Photography workshops Facilitator, Visual Communication theorist, Existensial philosophy, Expressive arts researcher)
Curatorial Essay, Dora Lavazou – Curator of the exhibition
The photographic album Bodies in Flow by Anthi Kollia represents the distilled essence of her first photography exhibition at iFocus Photo Gallery. With this publication, Anthi completes a cycle of images that explore the relationship between people and the sea, capturing the moment when the body surrenders to the flow of water.
The sea, long known as a remedy for both physical and mental ailments, represents a safe and protective haven for many. There, we all become equal, and the noise of everyday life is transformed into infinite serenity. “The sea is the language of the soul of the world,” as Khalil Gibran says. In the ceaseless flow of water, people dive, lose their sense of time, and surrender both body and mind to the natural current of existence.
When I look at Kollia’s photographs, I feel drawn in, submerged, and made part of a whole. I feel as though I’m freed from the burdens of earthly life and transported to another world. Anthi’s world, to me, is a world of euphoria. That’s how I experience it. With its endless flow, the sea seems to become the point of return and purification. Like a siren, it calls us to leave behind on the shore whatever weighs us down.
Movement of the body in the aquatic world is not merely a physical process but a continuous flow, a transformation. In the sea, bodies no longer belong to a fixed state—they become part of the eternal motion, of a pulsating current that carries and purifies, releasing the body from all burdens, the soul from all limitations.
Anthi reconstructs the underwater environment not merely as a setting, but as an active element of the composition. The bodies, anonymous and faceless, gain a collective dimension, losing their individuality as they become immersed in a flow that surpasses realistic depiction. Light, the movement of the bodies, and the photographer’s penetrating gaze create poetic images—more mysterious than descriptive.
The album Flowing Bodies is not confined to a simple visual experience; it evokes existential questions, such as: What does the body reveal when freed from weight? How is our sense of self and of the “other” transformed within the flow of water? Through this series of photographs, the viewer is invited to turn the pages, to observe, to dive in, and to reflect on the relationship between “human – body – sea.”
Dora Lavazou
Photographs
Press Coverage