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.
The Violet Hour explores the transformative impact of World War I through the narrative of the tea gown, a garment worn by women whilst receiving their female friends for tea. The title of the film is taken from T.S Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922) and refers to the cusp of morning to evening, known also as the golden hour. Violets are also a symbol of mourning for all the lives lost in the impending war. The film portrays a woman dressed in a tea gown in the drawing room, and also explores a real tea gown from the Brighton Museum.
CREDITS
CURATOR: Amy de la Haye
DIRECTOR: Katerina Athanasopoulou
ORIGINAL SCORE: Jon Opstad Cello: Heidi Parsons
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Katerina Athanasopoulou
ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY: Nadia Papanicolaou
REVIEWS