Creativity in Dialogue

Margarita Pournara

Summer 2013. A welcoming and warm-hearted house on Aegina. Five friends come together to create a shared artistic project. One composes the music, another writes the lyrics, two work on visual interpretations to accompany the songs, and the fifth cooks for everyone. The new CD by Dimitra Galani, with lyricist Paraskevas Karasoulos and the prophetic title Allios (Otherwise), is not just another album but a manual for existence and action in these challenging times. It transcends the nostalgic 1980s concept of a "crew" popularized by Savvopoulos and embraces the essential "togetherness" needed in a period of collapse and reconstruction, with different raw materials. It demonstrates how collaboration and coordinated effort, by setting aside individual egos, can lead to new ethics, the survival of creativity, and the creativity of survival. Word, music, and image merge seamlessly.

A few days ago, the 13 songs, co-composed by Galani and Chrysostomos Mouratoglou, were presented at Ianos bookstore. At the same time, the bookstore's exhibition space opened a show by painter Andreas Georgiadis and photographer Lila Sotiriou. They jointly created works that visually illustrate the Mikri Arktos edition accompanying the CD. This is not about painted-over photographs but rather a visual dialogue achieved through digital media.

"We’ve been friends with Lila for over 20 years and have closely observed each other's work," Georgiadis explains. "Our perspectives often aligned on the same subjects in almost a metaphysical way. Inspired by Allios, we wanted to collaborate more closely and tried various approaches. All of us gathered in the house on Aegina: Dimitra with her guitar, Paraskevas with his lyrics, and the two of us with our computers. We suddenly discovered that what we were searching for emerged when the paintings and photographic works digitally intertwined, acquiring a new dimension and presence. My landscapes blended with her figures. The lyrics and music helped us find our balance—a frequency of communication. Every time one of us made a step forward, they would call on the others for input. We shared the joy of inspiration and the final production result. It was an unexpected fusion of emotion, flow, and the ‘moisture’ of the songs,” Georgiadis recounts, speaking on behalf of Sotiriou, who is currently at the Sochi Olympics coordinating the thousands of photographers covering the Games.

"I think the harmony came about because each of us stepped into the reservoir of the other's imagery without fear, competition, or boundaries. Her photographs maintain the narrative, but their linearity breaks under the influence of the painting, creating a new perspective on things. This collaboration is, in a way, a positive outcome of the upheavals we've experienced in recent years. Cooperation and collectivity are the only way forward. We’re not living through a bad dream from which we’ll suddenly wake up to find everything as it was before—like sunshine after a storm. Instead, we’re living in a new, harsh reality that can only be confronted if we join forces. This is the spirit of Allios," the painter emphasizes.

The Mikri Arktos edition was curated by graphic designer Stefania Charsoula, who also contributed to the final result.

Copyright © 2025 Andreas Georgiadis