ARIS GEORGIOU, Montpellier: Five minutes pause

ARIS GEORGIOU
Montpellier: Five minutes pause
Retour à Montpellier/1971-2000

CYCLADIC ART MUSEUM | 2009

Roland Laboye, Montpellier, Montpellier, Five minutes pause

Out of a secret wish, and clearly to avoid a path that had been laid out for him by his parents, Aris decided in 1917 to leave his birthplace, Thessaloniki, and study in France: in the south of France, so that he could retain his Mediterranean ties with his homeland. On his journey, he travelled by a form of transport appropriate to his financial status: the train. The train of a not-too-distant age, when white steam and black smoke imprinted on his experiences shades of the images that paraded before him on his journey, during which the Spartan comfort of his economy carriage improved as he crossed different countries: Yugoslavia, Italy.
So, all his senses on the alert as a result of his thirst for discovery (Greece was under the colonels’ regime), Aris approached the coast of France, not by way of a harbour quay, but via the Montpellier station; where a reception committee of Mediterranean rain was waiting to welcome him, as though cleansing him of the traces of his journey and preparing him, through this baptism, to become one of us…

It was not Aris’s intention to become involved with images. His contact with Montpellier kindled in him an unquenchable desire to discover the space of the city, to write his story in his new life, to make his presence felt. He could have started a diary and set out his impressions and discoveries in writing . . . but his direction as a student of architecture turned him to one of the most important means of expression: the image.
It was through taking his first photographs that he recorded his journey and established his view, a view of his new experiences. Today, as we look at this group of photographs, we realise his interest in his relation with space, volumes, the context of life, urban and human elements – an interest that is accompanied by his dedication to the details that reveal the city. His personal history with the city of Montpellier has today become a reference point. Through his visual expression, he creates and provides a diary and at the same time a piece of the history of Montpellier, grounded in the silver minerals of the photograph.

 

Roland Laboye
Artist Director of the 
Galerie Photographique
Municipality of Montpellier

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