Présentation de l'artiste

Antigoni Papantoni

Antigoni Papantoni (born 1987 in Athens) lives and works between Lausanne (CH) and Athens (GR), and spends several months each year in Amsterdam (NL) and Doha (QA). Having studied computer science, film theory and aesthetics, she graduated from the Photography School of Vevey (CH) in 2014. Since then, she has focused her artistic and professional practices on visual storytelling and personal narratives.

Her work has been featured in multiple group exhibitions, publications, and online platforms internationally. In 2024, she published her first photobook, you can't go home again, in collaboration with Zoetrope, Athens, which was launched during Polycopies. The book was among the finalists of Photo|Frome Festival, shortlisted for the APhF Dummy Award, featuring Witty Books, Athens Photography Festival (GR), and the project was showcased at Radar Photo Festival (IT) and Pure Identities Festival (GR). She is currently developing her second photobook, KAIROS, as part of the Lab for Contemporary Documentary Photography, led by Caimi & Piccini and organized by Yogurt magazine.

In addition to her photography work, she curates and produces independent creative documentaries, works as a film programmer, cultural manager, and consultant for prestigious film festivals and film labs, and engages with collective, self-managed cultural spaces and creative educational workshops.

Artist statement

In you can’t go home again, Antigoni Papantoni reflects on her experiences of the past decade, feeling like a sailor adrift between cultures, gradually losing her sense of belonging. This sense of disorientation inspired her to develop an intuitive, autobiographical photography practice that explores the elusive concepts of home and identity. The work unfolds as a visual road movie, mirroring a journey from unfamiliarity to intimacy. It acts as a navigation guide through the challenging process of seeking a place of refuge – a haven to come home to.

In "you can't go home again" you will find variations of:
Snow falling in landscapes prepared or unprepared
People’s hair blowing in the wind
Dogs stray and owned
Tourists
Flatmates and tenderness
Ruined cars
Basic delicacies
Bellies
Plants touching naked people
Drunkenness
Camping
*Most of the above are somehow touching each other and this book is a record of attempts at care-full symbiosis.