Every day, a personality invites herself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Today, the journalist and photographer, Nikos Aliagas. Since February 2, 2023, you can see his exhibition: “Venetian Looks”, at the Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, in the heart of Venice.
Nikos Aliagas is a Franco-Greek journalist, radio and TV host and photographer. He was a columnist for the show Free Union presented by Christine Bravo on France 2, presenter of the television news in Greece or even the morning show of NRJ. For more than 20 years, he has been a presenter on TF1 with programs that have become emblematic such as the Star Academy, The Voice et 50 mn inside. What characterizes him is his good humor, his benevolence and his ability to observe and capture portraits.
His objective, his gaze, ultimately, is also appreciated and acclaimed. His photos are also on display from February 2, 2023, until April 3, in the ground floor and courtyard spaces of the Palazzo Vendramin Grimani, in the heart of Venice in Italy. Venetian glancesis an exhibition bringing together more than 100 black and white photos of the inhabitants of Venice taken in their daily life.
franceinfo: Has photography finally become the closest expression to what you feel, to what suits you?
Nikos Aliagas: In any case, a silence that is necessary. It’s also a way for me to protect myself and get back to where I started. If you forget the source, the reasons why you are trying to do things, you will get lost along the way in the maze. Not from Radio France, I started here more than 35 years ago and so as not to get lost in the corridors, I had a common thread which was that of Ariane, who was the imaginary son of my ancestors, like what my grandfather did during the war. Do not forget.
What is also important is that you actually transpire this heritage that has been passed on to you. I’m thinking of that tailor father who, I have the impression, gave you that taste for a job well done, for rigor. Same for your nursing mother. Is that what they passed on to you first?
Yes. The daily leitmotif was: “We are here to work. We are not here to waste our time. Leisure is not for us“. When my friends went to play sports, ski weekends, my parents did not understand the point. I stayed, I worked with them. So the cult of work, yes, since in any case, my parents worked to help their family who had remained behind and to be able to save a little to have a better life. The day of the great return, it is the eternal return of Ulysses. Finally, no one left, my country, it became France. France welcomed me as one of its children. But work was beyond duty, a conscience. Recognition came through work, not through money.
When did you fall in love with the black box, then?
It takes hold very quickly. From childhood, I take imaginary photos. I realize without knowing it that I have a photographic memory.
“Every morning, when I leave for school, I photograph every corner of the street, I photograph the face of the fishmonger, even sounds! I photograph both the frame, the image and the sound. Everything that I did later, professionally.”
Nikos Aliagasat franceinfo
Exactly, why journalism then? Was it a way of telling stories, your stories?
Certainly ! Because if I had told my parents: I want to be a writer. They would have said to me:Who do you think You Are ?“When I became a journalist, my father began to say that it was not a job, he thought that I was going to sell newspapers in the street. The day I bring him my press card in his sewing workshop, he told me : “What is that ? That’s nothing!” and then, when I’m by, an instinctive choice, in the posture of the guy who says: “Daddy, maybe I’ll go do some entertainment“There, he no longer understands. He is helpless.”That’s it, I lost my son“and my mother, the same.
But afterwards, I think my parents understood that the best thing was to let me be free, to learn, to fall, to go up, to explore. We don’t go into the light by chance, I have often repeated that to young people. We all come into the light to tell stories, but also to repair something in our heritage, conscious or unconscious.
What did you fix?
Certainly the pains of childhood. I was born, I was operated on at birth, finally total galleys. I always saw my parents very sad and worried when they looked at me as a child, and I didn’t want to be responsible for that. I didn’t want them to be sad because of me. So I got up and did everything else to tell them, “Look, everything is fine!“And then I tried to give them joy and a smile.
Very quickly, the French public adopted you. There have been free Union with Christine Bravo. In any case, it’s really there, in France, that we discover you. Before, there was Euronews etc. But France, the French discover you through this round table which talks about the European Union.
When I come to do free UnionI have no certainty, projection or inclination to become an animator.
At the same time, you present the newspaper in Greece.
“I would never have allowed myself the fantasy of saying that one day I would be on TV on TF1 because I was the Greek on duty.”
Nikos Aliagasat franceinfo
In Athens, I am on unpaid leave at Euronews where I am a reporter. That’s my job, so I come to Christine saying: “Wait, this is all great, but what I want is just the experience, I’m not interested“. And TF1 calls me so I’m still in Athens. And that’s fate.
What does this exhibition represent? Venetian glances ? It’s still something extraordinary to be exhibited in Venice until April 2.
That’s crazy ! When Béatrice de Reyniès, the director of the Dell’Albero d’Oro Foundation, called me, I was a little scared. I wondered: will I be up to it? While, casually, in terms of photography, I did about thirty big exhibitions. And when I arrive in Venice, I say to myself: but what will happen? The Venetians in terms of aesthetics, of art history, they are all the same very, very sharp. But I’ll go anyway. In fact, if I had to sum up my life, it would be: “I’ll go anyway“So for me, this exhibition in Venice is a path of encouragement.