The photographic exhibition “Transforming the invisible: from archaeological photomicrography to digital art" is an artistic bridge between the "visible", tangible world and the "invisible" microcosm.
Photomicrographs that depict samples of deposits from prehistoric settlements in Western (Avgi Kastorias, Kleitos Kozanis, Archontiko Giannitson) and Central Macedonia (Thessaloniki Toumba), Greece, become the source of artistic inspiration. Basic lines, abstract and fluent shapes, visible only under the microscope, from the material reality of prehistoric settlements are subject of special micromorphological analysis, to reconstruct the varied activities in their spaces. Images that add magic to the already fascinating work of the archaeologist, and which, as they meet the eye of the artist, are transformed. Through the digital transformation of these photomicrographs, an entire microcosm comes to life, and a narrative emerges through time. Figures of people, animals, and landscapes, revealed as ‘post-cards’, are hidden within the minute structure of finds. Micro-scale meets the large-scale, abstract outlines come to shape, and nature creates forms.
The exhibition presents 46 digital paintings together with their corresponding photomicrographs. In this dialogue between science and art, the viewer is called upon to conceptually add her/his own version, beyond the view of the artist. The exhibition is the result of the collaboration of the artist Aggeliki Kourmoulaki and the archaeologist Dr Stella Kyrillidou.
Aggeliki Kourmoulaki was born and lives in Thessaloniki. She studied at the Department of Early Childhood Education of the University of the Aegean. She did many years of private studies in the visual arts and continues with constant personal research. Among other things, she was systematically involved in the teaching of visual arts and scenography and has presented her work in 9 individual and 23 group exhibitions of paintings, art masks and constructions. She is a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece.
Stella Kyrillidou studied Archeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She holds her doctorate from the University of Reading in Great Britain. She works as a micromorphologist in prehistoric excavations of the Archaeological Service in Macedonia, Greece. She is a research associate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a research fellow of the European Programme EXPLO-Dispilio.