Thirteen artistic practices, thirteen different narratives, one shared question: how can the image function as a carrier of memory, testimony, and the processing of trauma?

The exhibition is presented within the framework of the Women’s Photo Festival and brings together works by women photographers from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds, who explore trauma both as a personal experience and as a collective historical imprint. Through photographic archives, family images, hybrid narratives, and artistic interventions, the artists approach photography as a field in which memory is reactivated and transformed. Traumatic experience thus appears as a process that continues to shape the present, influencing both personal histories and collective narratives.

From the intergenerational memory of war and the traces of political conflicts to the quieter experiences of loss, illness, neurodivergence, and domestic violence, the works in the exhibition form a polyphonic field of personal and collective experiences. Through different methodologies and aesthetic strategies, the artists transform photography into a tool of memory, visibility, and care, creating a space for collective reflection around what often remains unspoken or difficult to articulate.

Their practices illuminate how trauma is inscribed in the body, in family history, and in collective memory, while also revealing the gendered dimensions of experience, care, and storytelling. Through personal archives, testimonies, and visual reconstructions, memory is mapped in a space where the intimacy of personal experience meets broader historical and social conditions.

Penelope Petsini

Selected Artists: Katerina Angelopoulou (GR), Rosie Barnes (UK), Verónica Borsani (AR), Maro Ellinitaki (GR), Tutu Guo (CN), Abbey Hepner (US), Dora Lionstone (DE), Hannah Grendel (DE), Hélène Mutter (FR), Nastassja Nefjodov (DE/RU), Kate Schultze (DE), Karoline Schneider (DE), Blagovesta Semkova (BG)

Curated by: Penelope Petsini, Eleni Mouzakiti