Yorgos Psailas - A portrait of the British Cemetery caretaker

A short documentary, based on the theory of Observational Cinema. It is the portrait of the caretaker of the British Cemetery in the island of Corfu, Greece, Mr. Yorgos Psailas. The documentary deals with his daily life in the cemetery. Mr. Psailas also recounts the most important moments of his life as well as his thoughts about life and death.
Direction / Photography / Sound / Editing: Mixing: Andreas Vouliakis Translation from Italian: Athanasia Liatsi Ionian University Faculty of Music and Audiovisual Arts – Department of Audiovisual Arts Supervisor: Maria Chalkou
Related Works
The subject of Charis Myrsilidi’s thesis concerns the transfer of literary text to image. The excerpts of the selected texts are stories from the Grimm brothers' fairy tales and the connecting link is the pattern of transformation (metamorphosis). The presentation of the practical part of the thesis concerns an installation with clay sculptures, sound track and lighting. The sculptural space is formed by Charis Myrsilidi, a student of the Department of Audio Visual Arts and the sound by the composer Ioannis Konsolakis.
Presentation of 3d projection mapping, on Church of Panagia ton Xenon, Kyra - Faneromeni (Old Town, Corfu, Greece), October 2, 2020 at 10:00.
In the dissertation, following the strategy of deliberate ambiguity and crossing different eras, we go through a path of images and information, which express hope and fear in various fields and they characterize every culture and every society.
At the same time, moving from formalism to realism, it emerges that the Aristotelian definition of the representational unity of space-time-action is no longer valid in art. Undoubtedly, the formalist movement has shown that planes are understood not only as sequences of logical units, but also as theoretical or ideological conceptions, where their connection is not legitimized on the basis of the principle of space-time unit, but by some abstract theoretical model, such as is the model of metaphor, the path through contradictions, symbolism and anything else that enhances the removal of the theoretical model. But also internal realism, which is not a theory of truth, highlights the convergence of two seemingly incompatible ideas.
The narration of the basic changes in the life of an everyday man during 2020. The deprivations, the adjustments, but also the losses he suffered during such a strange period of time. All this through the perspective of his daily activities within a single day.
Multiple distance sensors trigger sound events ας people move around and get close to the grid with the srceens.
A freediver transforms into water while he dives beneath the surface, connects with nature and becomes a part of the underwater environment by hunting like a marine predator.
The mesmerizing underwater world is accessible to those who overcome fear and dare to push their human limits a little further in order to explore it. The passion with the serene world beneath the surface becomes a lifestyle for those who surrender themselves to negative buoyancy.
BRAINRINTH is a multi-channel video installation. The work attempts – through technology – to approach brain-related functions of memory, drawing on material from personal experience of the body in crisis. The title BRAINRINTH –from the words Brain and Labyrinth – is a play on the intractable riddle of an archetypal Greek structure (the labyrinth) and the labyrinthine processes of the human brain. The BRAINRINTH installation seeks a poetic mapping of the human brain.
Due to the shock of trauma, our understanding of the functioning of the body, and of nature itself –which we are trying to dominate – seems desperate and full of anxiety. Taking this into account, if we adopt a position in which we keep a distance of aesthetic neutrality, perhaps this reality begins to look less frightening.
The compositional method is based on the incorporation of sound material of cultural background into an electroacoustic piece. By drawing a linear narration, my aim was to demonstrate a unity, an imaginary community, which characterizes the Romani culture, despite the hybridic, complicated and diverse traditions deriving from the various European and Asian countries its people live in. A central question behind the making of this piece is what kind of role can a civilization have today, when the concept of space is eliminated by time- a key element in the dynamics of capitalism. What are the cultural consequences of the so-called annihilation of time and space, as materialized and tangible dimensions of social life? Are historical tradition and the search for roots promoted and reorganized as simulacra, imitations or/and museum culture, thourgh the demonstration of a partly deceptive past?
Myths are living stories that grow with time, change, adapt, but continue being a source for research, inspiration and creativity. The interactive audiovisual theatrical performance INRIRI questions the adaptation of an archetypal myth at a time of many dimensions and levels with elements from physical theater and embedded interactive technology in the performing space. Parts of the story are a Caribbean myth which transforms the body, a woodpecker and some new experimental technologies. On stage two bodies try to communicate with themselves and the environment around them and to discover anew what a body can be, what the relation and connection with the other body and which are the influences of the surrounding space on them.












