The Fumes of Mars: Book discussion with artist and writer Katerina Angelopoulou

The Fumes of Mars: Book discussion with artist and writer Katerina Angelopoulou

Saturday, March 28, 2026
10:00 A.M. Los Angeles / 8:00 P.M. Greece
Via Zoom

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This discussion will be moderated by Professor Sharon Gerstel, Director, UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and Dr. Eirini Kotsovili, Senior Lecturer, Global Humanities, Simon Fraser University.

One of the deadliest wildfires ever recorded took place on July 23, 2018 in Mati, just 30 km from the historical center of Athens. Writer and artist Katerina Angelopoulou survived the fire, and her book, The Fumes of Mars, combines her photographs with personal testimonies from other survivors, timelines, maps, and reports. With these materials, Angelopoulou attempts to weave a collective narrative of the events to better understand the violent disconnect between her own experience and the “official” account of the disaster in which facts were concealed and victims held culpable.

The book opens with black and white photographs showing the aftermath of the fire alongside testimonies of the survivors. These are followed by Angelopoulou’s photographs, taken as the disaster unfolded,overlaid with her timeline of events. Collected evidence on the events follows, including aerial maps, topographical information, lists of the victims with location and cause of death, weather and aircraft reports, CCTV and news coverage images, information from the State Investigator report, and information on the ongoing trial. The final images of the book are of Angelopoulou’s personal artifacts after the fire, such as remnants of jewelry, books, and glasses. This assembled evidence is embedded with importance because after the fire, the truth of the victims and their families was questioned multiple times—in the public narrative, facts were concealed and re-produced with false arguments blaming residents and victims.

Katerina Angelopoulou is a writer and artist based in Athens. The Fumes of Mars won the Format Festival’s Reviewers’ Choice Award 2022, was selected for the COCA Project 2021, shortlisted for the Belfast Dummy Award and Photo Festival in 2022, and exhibited at LCC in London as part of the Common Ground Exhibition. Angelopoulou holds a B.Sc. in Mathematics & Theoretical Physics from Imperial College London, a B.A. in Design for Performance from Central Saint Martins, and an M.A. with Distinction in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from London College of Communication.

This program is made possible thanks to support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.