ZILOS: an ethnographic series about traditional costumes in Greece.

ZILOS Project is an ethnographic documentary series that follows traditional costumes and rituals throughout Greece. The project blends symbolism, popular culture and folk art. The natural and cultural environment is the background that is associated with the costumes and rituals having the people in the center as the main protagonist.

The project attempts to promote the beauty of Greek folk culture utilizing the art and history behind the clothes.  Multitude of meanings. Social, historical, economic, and cultural context, relationships, struggles, and the construction of identities. In addition, natural spaces and architecture dominate the scenes.

ZILOS is a bit weird. It's weirdness lies in its contemporary view, through the people who have kept their clothes as heirlooms and pass them on from generation to generation, while using them on customary and festive occasions as natural as they wear their everyday clothes.

Threads that binds us with our roots...

ZILOS Project incorporates specific aesthetic forms with the topic of folklore culture, that interest me. It is almost idealistic and tends to idealize the faces. Almost looks like iconography, however it is just an attempt to capture the truth that exists inside every person at the moment of an event. Natural light and unpretentious faces. 

The people who still choose to preserve traditions of the past, wear the local costumes and engage in ancient rituals and evnts, are the subject of ZILOS which deals with Greek folklore and the diversity of  ethno-scapes. The threads that create the clothes, takes us on a journey through space and time. 

A survey on traditional

Greek costumes and rituals

from the 18th century and forth.