Parasiticus

Parasiticus is a project i made for the European program "sea beyond" in MoMus Thessaloniki. It is about the complete destruction of the seaside landscape and the rapid illegal development of touristic concrete jungles by people only driven by profit.

My project is called 'parasiticus.'

In modern Greece each year Cement, humans, and their activities, driven primarily by profit, expand parasitically onto whatever virgin land remains. Even the tiniest islands are not spared.

It all began with my visit to Plaka in Naxos. It is a magical place, which is a Natura zone (A zone where practically you are not allowed to build anything), but thousands of unauthorized constructions have been built there.

Over time, these unauthorized structures encroach upon the beach. Every establishment wants its chairs right next to the sea, eager to seize the prime spots. The only thing left untouched is the dirt road, as the area is still considered protected.

Plaka Beach in Naxos has not yet reached its full development. In other parts of Greece, places similar to Plaka ten years ago are now filled with buildings almost touching the sea. It's terrifying.

(For example, Law 4179/2013 allowed large tourist facilities to build within 10 meters of the shoreline under certain conditions, and exceptions to this rule are endless. Previously, no construction was allowed within 25 meters of the shoreline.) Soon, this law will be replaced by another one that further reduces the limit of cement-to-sea distance.

That's why I chose to photograph Katerini Beach in Pieria (although it was initially accidental).

Unfortunately, on the day of the excursion, I suffered food poisoning, so I ended up in Papageorgiou Hospital. Since I had an analog camera and a two-day window for photography, I was eager to be by the sea and capture this ugly and irrational exploitation happening in Greece, particularly in areas of cheap tourism. The bus passing by the hospital happened to be going to KTEL, so when I arrived at the station, I decided to go to Katerini: I remembered the coastal part of Pieria with its large resorts that targeted Balkan tourists since the days when I used to attend the summer camp of the Mathematical Society. When I reached the beach, I saw exactly what I expected.

The interesting thing about this project is the element of nature. As we can see, because the turistic period hasn't started yet, the nature have in a way fight back all this rapid and without a plan development making the scene looks like a post war - apocalyptic landscape. As i believe that beauty can be found everywhere there is a hope in this images that even in the worst developed places the imagination of open spaces and imagination can be found.

The project can be found on : https://backend.momus.gr/sites/default/files/2023-11/catalogue_SEACHANGE_low_1.11.pdf