
Underlying Papadimitriou’s project is an attempt to understand what pushes travelers forward. Is there a common identity or strain of thought? [...]
In the black and white 1960s film “Mehri to Ploio” (Until the Ship) by the film director Alexis Damianos we follow a man as he leaves a village in the mountains and makes his way to the Port of Piraeus hoping to move to Australia like so many other Greek immigrants. Papadimitriou rearranged a shed like space connected to a service station and transformed it into a makeshift cinema where the film will be shown every night throughout the duration of the exhibition. Modern day travelers speeding down the highway can stop and take a look at a slower pace of travel at a time when moves from place to place could be both emotionally tormenting and alienating.
Papadimitriou’s project “Middle Ground” creates environments which may be makeshift but which embody permanent hopes and dreams, a resting place for travelers where they can commune in new territories and which for a while they can call their own.
Maria-Thalia Carras
Excerpts from “Communities & Territories Common Ground,” in exh. cat. Going Public ’05: Communities and Territories, pp. 40-43.