Bernadette Mergaerts, Flisvos, 2021

Flisvos is a Greek word meaning ‘the soft sound of a small wave gently hitting the shore’. Visiting the Greek island of Corfu in the winter of 2015, Bernadette Mergaerts (BE) noticed that, despite the cold weather, many people were bathing in various places along the coast of the capital, Kerkyra. She was struck by the fact that the bathers – all adults, some of them retired – seemed to find peace in the Ionian Sea.

In the years that followed, Mergaerts returned to the island often, sometimes for long periods of time, and learned more and more about the life of winter bathers. How they survive on a green island in a country in crisis. He shared their concerns about pollution, the loss of contact with nature, their health, the lack of social security and the sometimes rigid nature of family ties.

With sensual images, Mergaerts shows the decline of nature but also its vitality, and that of the bathers themselves. He follows them in their daily swims in the sea, how they merge with the elements, and their participation in the ritual celebrations of the winter months. Months that simply have to be endured until the following spring.