Artist
Stefania Orfanidou
Stefania Orfanidou was born in 1989. She is a photographer and an architect currently living and working in Athens, Greece. She has lived in Kavala, Thessaloniki, Madrid, Rotterdam, L’Aquila and Chania. In January 2019 she founded the architectural atelier CHORA. In her work, a personal experience or event, real or imaginary, is the starting point for fragments’ stitching and the composition of tales, where the irrational, the reasonable, the uncanny and the secret may coexist harmoniously. Her photographic work has been featured in magazines, galleries and festivals in Greece and abroad. In February 2019 she published the book ‘Pendulum’, a visual recounting of a return journey to the city of L’Aquila in central Italy. In 2020 she received the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS. In 2021 she published the book ‘Cold Turkey’ and she created the art installation ‘Daidala’ at Yali Tzamisi at Chania, Crete.
Cache
Cache in computing refers to the hardware or software component that stores data so that future requests can be served faster. It is a place where memory is kept well-hidden from the eye of the user, yet it is all the time present and ready to be recalled. In Cache, space and chronology are undefined. Fragments of dreams and constructed moments become the ferment of a new memory, without being recollections. On a thin crust of reality, the imaginary world is weaving a new tissue. 'Cache' is a map of that living memory born in the present, functioning for the viewer as a tool of recalling a past memory. Cache oscillates between past and present uncertainty, as an invisible trap, that aims to reach at the most inaccessible data of the mind, at the place where a personal redemption might be hidden.
We first met Greek photographer and architect Stefania Orfanidou at a bookmaking workshop. Her delicate compositions and intriguing images play like music when laid out on pages.
Meanwhile, Ioanna Sakellaraki is another talented Greek artist with whom we’ve been familiar for some time. Her first monograph, The Truth is in the Soil, deals with personal issues, mourning and Greek society: subjects that are close to our hearts.
Another of our nominees is Czech photographer Josef Janošík, whose dark body of work resonates greatly with Void’s aesthetic interests. In his work, Janošík returns to half-forgotten childhood memories, and to the places where his childhood was spent.
Greek artist Dafni Melidou has a similar sense of creativity and experimentation in her work. Though currently unpublished, a number of her series – like The fossils, the ashes and other remains of existence – have the right ingredients for an intriguing photobook.
Beyond our base in Athens, Void also operates a small branch in Reykjavík, Iceland. With this in mind, we were keen to showcase a local artist; Þórsteinn Svanhildarson caught our attention with his touching portraiture of local youths, as well as with his beautiful book production.