The Master of Research in Hybrid Arts (MARes) at the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University proudly announces that Spirits Unseen, a photographic project by Myrto Papadopoulos (MARes 2024–2025), will be presented at the Silversmithing Museum within the castle of Ioannina, as part of the 17th Photometria International Festival.
Curated by Christoforos Doulgeris, the exhibition is the outcome of Myrto Papadopoulos’s long-term research and photographic engagement with the remote Pomak villages of Thrace. Between 2017 and 2021, she travelled across the mountainous region to interact with the women of the community—those who remain behind to sustain households while many of the men migrate to northern Europe for work.
As the traditional social structure of the Pomak community transforms under contemporary economic pressures, Spirits Unseen explores the shifting gender dynamics and the search for voice and identity within a society balancing between history’s shadows and the codes of tradition.
Papadopoulos’s images move at the threshold between light and darkness, capturing an unseen equilibrium in a landscape where humans, animals, trees, symbols, and soil coexist as part of a collective, ritual process. Her work blurs the line between documentation and mythology—where the natural world and human figures sometimes emerge vividly, and at other times recede like subterranean waters, revealing the invisible rhythms and sensitivities that shape daily life.
Integral to the exhibition is a collection of archival material, interwoven with the photographs as traces of a continuous dialogue between past and present. Through this layered narrative, Spirits Unseen revisits dominant narratives surrounding minority communities while uncovering the social, religious, and cultural dimensions of the multifaceted Pomak identity.
Exhibition Details
Silversmithing Museum, Ioannina
Opening: Saturday, September 27, 2025
Duration: September 27 – November 3, 2025
Free admission
Opening Hours
27.9 – 15.10: Daily except Tuesday, 10:00–18:00
16.10 – 3.11: Daily except Tuesday, 10:00–17:00
Organized by the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP) in collaboration with the 17th Photometria International Festival.
With the financial support and auspices of the Ministry of Culture, the Region of Epirus, and the Municipality of Ioannina.
