During August, the Tomato Industrial Museum “D. Nomikos” will host the photographic exhibition “Monolithos 1922” by Christoforos Doulgeris in the warehouses of the old factory.
Christoforos Doulgeris lives and works between Athens and Düsseldorf. He studied sociology at the University of Crete and photography at Camberwell College of Arts, London. For the last five years his visual practice has focused on an investigation of abstraction, innovative media and new technology. Christoforos Doulgeris has participated in more than fifty exhibitions in museums and galleries in Greece and abroad. Collaborations include: Linshui Photography Festival, Linshui, China; State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece; Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, Rethymno, Greece; Biennale of Photography
2010 & 2014 at the National Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece; International Biennale of Photography, Tenerife, Spain; Santorini arts Factory, Santorini Greece etc.
In 1915, Dimitris Nomikos started producing tomato paste in the pre-industrial technology factory in Mesaria, Santorini. In 1922, he built in Monolithos, a factory for the production of canned tomato products, the first in the Balkans, as he proudly emphasized, with the most advanced and modern technology for the time, brought from all over the world. It operated for more than 40 years, until the beginning of the 70s, while it was the basis for the creation of the factory in Vlyhada.
The Monolithos factory defines the transition from the small family tomato paste production industries, where the entire processing was carried out in the traditional way, to the organized factories for the processing and canning of tomato products.
The photos of Christoforos Doulgeris take us to the real factory space, as it is today. They become the time capsule that connects the past time with the authentic moment of now.