About

VENIVINCE grew out of collaboration between Vincent Guy (theatre director, actor, film maker).and Kalliopi Venieri (ballerina, choreographer, sculptor). Kalliopi has now retired: Vincent goes on working in various artistic fields and with creative friends from many countries.

 The purpose is to create new works from a mix of artistic disciplines.

 Venivince was invited to mount “solo” exhibitions in Athens and at the Archaeological Museum Delphi in 2017. Another was at Contemporary Space Athens.. A poetry performance, “Philhellenes:English poets who loved Greece” we presented at Sikelianos Theatre Delphi and at Theocharakis Foundaton Athens.

Twa ballet films followed: “Life Story”.and “Notturno”. More recently a video of a performance at Somerset House, London, “O Barco” about the Atlantic slave trade. Another, “The Great Seal of Sule Skerrie” visualises an Orkney folk song.

Ever since I was young, I’ve been attracted to what we call in Greek "Αλιλοεπιδραση τον Τεχνον"; in English “Interplay between the Arts”.

On tour as a classical dancer, I spent much of my spare time in the world’s art galleries. Choreography strongly appealed to me too. I then added painting to my creative repertoire with five shows of "Impressions of Flowers & Dancers". Then came sculpture, a new way of expressing the dance that I always carry within me.

Vincent Guy brought the art of photography to the mix, which led to our first joint show as VENIVINCE at the Museum Herakleidon in Athens, curated by Hans Hendricks. It was a privilege to exhibit there; a few years before, it had housed a major exhibition of dance sculptures by Degas. Since then other doors have opened to us to show more of our joint work. 

My road to creative photography has been quite a lengthy one. When I went to Peru as a teenager I took a camera with me – but came back with little more than travel snaps. For years I had no camera at all. When my daughter Zoë was born, a new camera seemed a basic tool of parenting, so as to stick things in the family album.

Only when Kalliopi began producing her first sculptures did something happen.  I took photos of them, quite basic. As time went by, her work advanced and my pictures with them. Discoveries with lighting, shadows, textiles and movement recalled my theatre-directing days. I began processing the photos in the computer, at first just tidying up, eventually manipulating some into exciting new forms. I also take landscapes and portraits, but we live in the era of the smartphone and digital super-camera; many people take pictures in these genres as good as and better than mine. My VENIVINCE photos at their best do, I believe, break new ground.