Korte beschrijving/Annotatie

A poetic photobook following the winterswimmers on the Greek island of Corfu during their daily swims, merging with the elements and ritual celebrations.

Tekst achterflap

Flisvos is a Greek word meaning “the soft sound of a small wave gently hitting the shore”. When visiting the Greek island of Corfu in the winter of 2015, Mergaerts (BE) noticed that, in spite of the cold, many people were swimming at various places along the shoreline. She was impressed that the bathers — all adults, some of them retired — seemed to find peace in the Ionian sea. During the following years, Mergaerts learned more and more about the lives of the winter swimmers. How they survive and about their shared concerns. With sensuous images, she shows the decline and the vitality of nature as well as the bathers. She follows them on their daily swims, their immersion with the elements, and the ritual celebrations of the winter months.

Slogan/Promotie

Flisvos is a Greek word meaning “the soft sound of a small wave gently hitting the shore”. When visiting the Greek island of Corfu in the winter of 2015, Mergaerts (BE) noticed that, in spite of the cold, many people were swimming at various places along the shoreline. She was impressed that the bathers — all adults, some of them retired — seemed to find peace in the Ionian sea. During the following years, Mergaerts learned more and more about the lives of the winter swimmers. How they survive and about their shared concerns. With sensuous images, she shows the decline and the vitality of nature as well as the bathers. She follows them on their daily swims, their immersion with the elements, and the ritual celebrations of the winter months.

Biografie

Bernadette Mergaerts (BE) is a photographer/geographer who successively worked at Apple Computer, at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and as the personal photographer and chief of protocol of former Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo. She is based in Brussels but works half of her time in Greece, Spain and France. Mergaerts combines commissioned visual communication projects with her activities as a visual artist and her work as lecturer. She loves to create in close collaboration with writers, musicians and dancers. She is a ‘walker’ and avoids using cars. Mergaerts exhibited her work in Brussels, Paris, Corfu, Palma de Mallorca, Paxos, Roubaix and Montreuil, and was part of a group exhibition in Arles in 2019.

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