KATERINA ATHANASOPOULOU
Katerina Athanasopoulou is a Greek artist living in London who creates animated films for cinema and gallery space. She studied Fine Art at Aristotle University in Greece, and graduated with an MA Animation from the Royal College of Art. Her award-winning films have been shown internationally at film festivals and galleries, including Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Tampere Film Festival, Thessaloniki Biennale 3, Holland Animation Film Festival, Zebra Poetry Film Festival, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb. She has created films for Channel 4, London College of Fashion, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and she won the Lumen Prize in 2013 with her short film Apodemy. Katerina is a Tutor (Research) within the MA Animation at the Royal College of Art. Prior to this position she taught extensively within University of the Arts London and Westminster University, and has been a guest lecturer at Kingston University, Middlesex University and Goldsmiths. She completed her doctoral research with Plymouth University, on the intersections of documentary, VR, and AR, through the lens of animation.
A woman under sedation for a lung operation sinks inside her own unconscious. Made for Body Of Songs and Andreya Triana’s Branches Of Life.
Body of Songs brings together major musicians and clinicians to create a remarkable collection of songs, inspired by the body’s organs. Andrea Triana chose the Lungs and was inspired by observing a patient undergoing a bronchoscopy, hoping to breathe in a wide open space again following her impending operation.
Once we started collaborating, I observed a lung operation which took my breath away; I was profoundly moved and fascinated by the team of doctors, anaesthetists and nurses in the process of saving that patient’s life. Inspired by this, and listening closely to Andreya’s lyrics and notes, I decided to turn the patient into a deep-sea diver, sinking in her own body and swimming through the lungs. The hospital comes to life and we discover the Branches of Life, the bronchi.
I used CGI to create the world of the film, aiming to journey through the clinical and the bodily, floating between life and death. The starting point is at that dreamy beginning of anesthesia, where the mind drifts helplessly into the darkness and hopes to see the light once again.
CREDITS
DIRECTOR & ANIMATOR: Katerina Athanasopoulou
WRITERS: Andreya Triana & Hannah V
GUITARS: Ed Hayes
MIXING: Alex ‘Cores’ Hayes at Rooftop Studio, Shoreditch
MASTER: Jeremy Cooper at Soundtrap
REVIEWS