3000 and Some. . . 

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The breath is our only certainty of living beings. Breath is that we offer to the world before leaving.

 

It is estimated that in 2015, 3440 people were killed or disappeared during their crossing of the Mediterranean to escape the war ... (UNHCR Source: United Nations Refugee Agency)

 

Panayis Chrysovergis will photograph 344 dressed models at  7 meters deep in the sea; each portrait will represent one of those refugees whose breath stopped in Mediterranean Sea

 

"By capturing these bodies dressed like on earth, I would like  to show the fragility of our human condition, and how privation can reduce us as dependent beings. Underwater and on land, our life hangs by a breath.

Here, as on earth, as in the open air, one privation can lead us to choke. This causes a look of panic and distress than I was expected  to see on the faces. Underwater, I am the only one who can give air, I'm the one who looks, the one to whom it is hoped.

The air we breathe after having missed is that of liberation, it is one we deprived us but it will never be the one that fills our bodies, that we enjoy full lungs when we are free beings. "

 

"In undertaking this work in immersion, I asked to my models to overcome their, anxieties and smothering fears,   with the idea of ​​not being alive for a while. This moment  for a photo, this exposure  and deprived moment of air reveal on their faces what makes the absence of life and freedom. "

 

 

The idea came in September 2015, in Athens, when Panayis Chrysovergis worked with the creative team of "Drops of Breath",  first underwater  dance performance. He met the two choreographers Apostolia Papadamaki (Quasi Stellar) and Sophie Bulbulyan (DK-BEL) with which he decided to build the beginning of this project submarines portraits. The dancers of "Drops of Breath" were the first models of Panayis but many people, mostly divers,  were excited to make these pictures. Currently there are twenty.

 

 

Each day of this rehearsal period,   the team entered and repeated in the Mediterranean Sea, while news on the issue of survival and become refugees was dire.

 

"I lived this paradox that we brought the Sea: between the creation of a  unique live performance, speaking of Humanity , which, for many of the team members was seen as a rebirth and a real pleasure;

And at the same time, a few hundred kilometers close, the death of so many men, women and children ... For me, it was clear that at the end of this project, my priority will be  to involve myself in what had experienced these families, giving them a voice, bringing together collectively a group of artists in order to give to  this voice the opportunity to be  heard "Sophie Bulbulyan