Tobacco Factories, 2007
Enigmas, Order and Emptyness
Enigmas, Order and Emptyness
Curated by Thanassis Moutsopoulos
Abandoned, thrust from the cities’consciousness, forgotten by their inhabitants and ignored by municipality andstate, these industrial buildings now resemble literally ‘non places’. If onewanted to condense everything they represent into a single word, one might saythey displayed all the features of the ‘industrial subconscious’. Which is tosay that, apart from their charged, inert materiality, they also manifest a shiftin their psyche--an imperceptible ‘psychic space’ which expresses a series of shattered impulses of Modernity:all those repulsions, condensations and shifts that have defined ourcontemporary cities.
Extract from Yorgos Tzirtzilakis's, text
Extract from Yorgos Tzirtzilakis's, text
The book
Kastaniotis Editions, 2007
Texts: Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, Thanassis Moutsopoulos, Maria Retentzi, Kamilo Nollas
Greek, English, French
80 pictures
Four-colored
Hard cover
Dim: 30x27cm
220 pages
Price: €55
A selection of pictures
Tsimino factory, Kavala, September 2006
Papapetros factory, Agrinio, October 2003
Perdika Street Municipal Tobacco Warehouse, Drama, September 2006
Austro-Hellenic factory, Drama, September 2006
Austro-Hellenic factory, Drama, September 2006
American Tobacco Company “Kitrini”, Volos, January 2007
Papapetros factory, Agrinio, October 2003
Ottoman Tobacco Monopoly “Π”, Xanthi, October2005
Filippou Street factory, Kavala, December 2006
Filippou Street factory, Kavala, December 2006
Local Union of Communities & Municipalities, Xanthi, October 2005
Ottoman Tobacco Monopoly “Π”, Xanthi, October2005
Papastratos factory, Agrinio, October 2003
Papastratos factory, Agrinio, October 2003
Former Tobacco Workers’ Insurance Organization, Kavala, September 2006
Autoportret, Austro-Hellenic factory, Drama, September 2006
In September 2003, I was invited to photograph Agrinio’s tobacco warehouses by the city’s municipal council. I started out knowing very little about the history of Greek tobacco. The project would later take me to Volos, and from there to Drama, Kavala and Xanthi. Up there in Northern Greece, the locals have their own name for their cigarette factories: ‘kapnomagaza’. My wanderings through those vast, echoing halls that once buzzed with life brought home to me just how important tobacco cultivation and the tobacco trade were for Greece. The sheer size of each new warehouse I entered made a powerful impression on me. These tall buildings with their high-ceilinged continuous spaces, their stairwells and lifts, the endless corridors and silent machinery, pricked my interest. The way the light streamed in through the half-open shutters, the patina on the stone walls, the floors soaked in the liquid scent of tobacco all persuaded me to train my lens on their interiors.
Every time I set off to photograph a new ‘kapnomagazo’ , I felt like a teenager going out on a first date. My heart pounding in my chest, I’d start out exploring the dark spaces with a torch, seeking out the interesting spots. Later, the tumult quietened and my pulse back to normal, I would begin the recording process. There were times when, after a long day marred by poor weather or a warehouse with nothing to especially recommend it, I’d return home exhausted by all the walking and carrying. One day, a rotten floor collapsed beneath me, leaving my lower half kicking in space; on another occasion, the roof collapsed under the weight of the torrential rain.
This was a project that took a long time to complete, but I gave it all the time it needed, using a conventional camera throughout.
Though perishable, with film one click is all it takes to immortalize a subject for all eternity. Unforgiving of technical errors, each shot requires absolute concentration. On those occasions when someone was sent to show me around, I’d often get so absorbed in what I was doing that they’d leave me to it and come back two or three hours later to lock up and see me off.
My organizing principle was the former use and present fate these buildings share; their common fate. While one could draw historical or architectural data from these photographs, this album can never be a scientific study. Rather, it is part of a larger project: to record all of Greece’s ‘kapnomagaza’ on film, and in so doing, to showcase the industrial heritage the tobacco industry left behind and raise awareness of these buildings’ plight. They are an integral part of the economic and cultural history of Greece, and must be preserved before it is too late.
Every time I set off to photograph a new ‘kapnomagazo’ , I felt like a teenager going out on a first date. My heart pounding in my chest, I’d start out exploring the dark spaces with a torch, seeking out the interesting spots. Later, the tumult quietened and my pulse back to normal, I would begin the recording process. There were times when, after a long day marred by poor weather or a warehouse with nothing to especially recommend it, I’d return home exhausted by all the walking and carrying. One day, a rotten floor collapsed beneath me, leaving my lower half kicking in space; on another occasion, the roof collapsed under the weight of the torrential rain.
This was a project that took a long time to complete, but I gave it all the time it needed, using a conventional camera throughout.
Though perishable, with film one click is all it takes to immortalize a subject for all eternity. Unforgiving of technical errors, each shot requires absolute concentration. On those occasions when someone was sent to show me around, I’d often get so absorbed in what I was doing that they’d leave me to it and come back two or three hours later to lock up and see me off.
My organizing principle was the former use and present fate these buildings share; their common fate. While one could draw historical or architectural data from these photographs, this album can never be a scientific study. Rather, it is part of a larger project: to record all of Greece’s ‘kapnomagaza’ on film, and in so doing, to showcase the industrial heritage the tobacco industry left behind and raise awareness of these buildings’ plight. They are an integral part of the economic and cultural history of Greece, and must be preserved before it is too late.
Kamilo Nollas
The journey of the exhibition
Greece
2010 December: Serres Town Hall, Serres
2010 May: Larisa Town Hall, Larisa
2009 February: Cultural Foundation of Ethniki Bank, Patras
2008 April: Foundation of ThracianArts and Tradition, Xanthi
2008 March: Tobacco Factories, Kavala Tobacco Museum, Kavala
2008 February: Agrinio Town Hall, Agrinio
2007 November: Cultural Foundation of Ethniki Bank, Athens
2007 September: Drama Short Film Festival, Drama
2007 April: Thessalonica Museum of Photography,Thessalonica
Abroad
2009 April: Depo, Istanbul
2008 November: Musée du Montparnasse, Mois de la Photo,Paris
2010 May: Larisa Town Hall, Larisa
2009 February: Cultural Foundation of Ethniki Bank, Patras
2008 April: Foundation of ThracianArts and Tradition, Xanthi
2008 March: Tobacco Factories, Kavala Tobacco Museum, Kavala
2008 February: Agrinio Town Hall, Agrinio
2007 November: Cultural Foundation of Ethniki Bank, Athens
2007 September: Drama Short Film Festival, Drama
2007 April: Thessalonica Museum of Photography,Thessalonica
Abroad
2009 April: Depo, Istanbul
2008 November: Musée du Montparnasse, Mois de la Photo,Paris
DEPO Istanbul. April 3 - May 4, 2009
The exhibition is consisted by:
49 Inkjet prints on fine art paper 310gr
Dim: 100x100cm (24), 50x50cm (25)
Wooden frames with glass
Kamilo, presenting Tobacco Factories project, November 2007 (only greek)
