In 2012, Theodoros Gennitsekis started a creative agency with his brother that focuses on topics of his personal interest in fashion, art, music, and cinema. PRESSURE means living under the pressure of poverty, marginalisation, and the constant striving for something better, something positive. The brothers are always intense and that’s why PRESSURE means truth and a real depiction of a feeling that we tend to forget and distance ourselves from.
Its main objectives are Greek and Mediterranean cultures, with North African influences that originate from the places, and the way Theodoros grew up. It concerns various projects ranging from a magazine, to a clothing brand; including events, a gallery and even the AFOI.M restaurant in Paris. It is about a global production project that creates concepts, casts and graphic designs, all in one. Their clients choose the company because of the clear association with the Mediterranean and its cultural backdrop.
The goal is a different approach to Greek fashion; to show Athens and the north of Greece, the ghettos, the Black Sea: a world that has not been photographed before. Their clothes are worn in Japan, America and Germany, amongst others. PRESSURE’s initiative regarding fashion and art clothes with Arabic logos, are worn all around the world – a mix of fashion and subculture. As a result, the agency’s political character is perhaps the loudest in the brand. It brings transparency to all these social groups that survive and live under pressure. This centres the possibility of creating a project that does not deal with hype, but with its social and cultural responsibility.
Theodoros himself, has been passionate about photography and video for twenty years, with his subject matter constantly changing between socio-political subjects and erotic photography: diversity and keyhole variants. What’s more, he always tries to cooperate with locals, to bring people to Greece and take its people abroad, converging both sides. As proof of this – the clothes are sewn by their parents, who used to be tailors – the unit of the family is very important. It also connects Paris with Athens, its villages and the provinces of the global south. A global concept drawing from the theme of the Black Sea, its existing social pressures and movements.
Between 2014 and 2017, the LGBTQI+ community, as well as the ballroom scene, became the core of his project. He had concerns regarding the decreasing need of showcasing this, due to the multiplicity of outlets and the people engaging with it. Regardless, he recognises with joy and relief the similarity of the things happening in Athens, to the ones that transpired in Paris some years ago.
Since 2004, he has been bringing people to his village, a place that has more space than meets the eye. It is multicultural with residents from all over the Balkans. A place that was unknown to tourists, and that has now become welcoming for a variety of artists.
It all started from the vision of the two brothers who grew up in Paris but did not erase their deeply rooted connection to the Black Sea. Through PRESSURE, they supported and actively engaged with their communities. In designing and circulating their projects, they reflected and celebrated their truth and diverse cultures.
Written by Nefeli Papanastasopoulou
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