Nikos Markou presents "Waiting in the Wings" at CAN Gallery -

CAN Gallery presents Waiting in the Wings, a new solo exhibition by photographer Nikos Markou, opening as part of the Satellite Program of Athens Photo Festival 2026. Installed in the gallery’s underground bunker, the exhibition brings together photography and sound in a sensory environment that invites visitors to slow down, observe and listen more carefully to the world around them.

For the past forty-six years, Markou has approached photography not simply as a medium for recording reality, but as a way of exploring perception itself. While photography remains at the core of his practice, he has frequently incorporated video and sound into his work, investigating different ways in which landscapes, environments and living beings can be experienced. In Waiting in the Wings, his attention turns to birds and their often-overlooked coexistence with human life.

The exhibition title borrows a theatrical expression that refers to the moment of waiting just beyond the audience’s sight before stepping onto the stage. Markou uses this idea as a metaphor for the presence of birds within our everyday environment. They inhabit the same parks, gardens, neighbourhoods and urban spaces as we do, yet often remain unnoticed. Through his photographs, the artist draws attention to these parallel forms of life and the alternative rhythms and temporalities that unfold alongside our own.

The large-scale photographs presented in the exhibition do not offer immediate visual certainty. Birds are often hidden among branches, foliage, blossoms and fragments of sky, requiring viewers to spend time with each image before discovering them. In this way, the works shift the focus from the subject itself to the act of looking. Observation becomes an exercise in patience and attentiveness, encouraging a deeper awareness of what usually escapes immediate perception.

Sound plays an equally important role in the exhibition. Birdsong fills the dark underground space before the images fully reveal themselves, echoing the experience of nature itself, where hearing often precedes seeing. The sound installation extends the photographic works beyond the frame and transforms the bunker into an immersive environment shaped by presence, memory and listening.

The choice of venue adds another layer to the project. Originally constructed as a bunker and operational centre for the British Special Air Service (SAS), the space once functioned as a site of surveillance, coded communication and hidden activity. Detached from its original purpose, it now becomes a place of contemplation and encounter, where visitors are invited to attune themselves to forms of life that often remain beyond the centre of human attention.

Rather than being an exhibition about birds alone, Waiting in the Wings proposes a different way of seeing and listening to the world. Through image, sound and space, Markou reminds us that many of the most significant presences around us remain quietly in the background, waiting to be noticed.

Biography of the artist

Nikos Markou (b. Athens, 1959) graduated from the University of Athens with a B.Sc. in Mathematics. He has been working as a professional photographer since 1980. He has presented his work in sixteen solo exhibitions, including Gasworks (CAN Christina Androulidaki Gallery, Athens, Greece, 2026), Topos (Citronne Gallery, Poros, Greece, 2020), Inner Space (Citronne Gallery, Athens, Greece 2020), The Luleå Biennial: Tidal Ground, curated by Emily Fahlén, Asrin Haidari and Thomas Hämén (Luleå Konsthall, Luleå, SE, 2018), Cycladic Café Art Project, curated by Aphrodite Gonou and Atalanti Martinou, (Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece, 2018), The Future Lies Behind Us. Two New Proposals Beside an Older One (triple solo show with Vlassis Caniaris and Kostis Velonis), AD Gallery, Athens, Greece, 2014), Topos: Nuances of Space (National Museum of Photography, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2010), among others. He has participated in over sixty group exhibitions to date including Why Look at Animals (EMST, Athens, Greece, 2025), Embrace Empathy (Vorres Museum, Athens, Greece, 2024), The Sea Around Us (Tavros, Athens, Greece, 2022), Geometries (Onassis Cultural Centre, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, 2018), Sites of Memory (Athens Photo Festival, Main Program, Benaki Museum, Athens, 2016), Faces. Portrait Photography in Europe since 1990 (PHotoEspaña 2016, CentroCentro Cibeles, Madrid, Spain, 2016), Sense of Place: European Landscape Photography (BOZAR-Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium, 2012) among others. He has published two monographic catalogues, Geometries (Adam publ.) and COSMOS (Tetarto publ.). He is represented by CAN Christina Androulidaki gallery, Athens.