The film essay Follow Them (2020) by Evi Kalogiropoulou is a prologue to the [TRYPA]((https://plato-ostrava.cz/cs/Vystavy/2020/Dira) exhibition which has been waiting for its opening since December 2020.

Film about artists and activists is a commission by curator Nadja Argyropoulou to artist Evi Kalogiropoulou for the exhibition TRYPA. Titled after one of Teos’s own phrases – one that encapsulates his belief that we should follow the lead of women, if the world is to have a real chance at survival – this short film was made during the fall of 2020 in Syros and Athens.

Teos Romvos (born 1945) is a writer, translator and activist, well known as a member of the independent, underground scene of Athens and ecological movement. Born in Athens, he went through night school, fights with various power brokers, a number of jobs and vagrancy. He started working in ships in 1961, travelled extensively, lived periodically in Latin America, Japan, the United States and elsewhere: France (1966–1969), Germany (1969–1974 and 1987–1991), Kranidi, Peloponnese (1981–1984), Africa (1984–1985). In-between all these travels, he always returned to Athens, until 1993 when he settled in the area of Apano Chora on the Cycladic island of Syros, together with Chara Pelekanou. Romvos has been a crucial agent for the abolition of outmoded and shortsighted perceptions of progress that lead to the uncontrollable destruction of the unique Aegean ecosystem. While in France, Romvos attended cinematography courses and produced his first experimental films. Later, in Germany, he joined the circles of German writers and produced films that he never completed; he worked for German television, wrote scenarios and made recorded tapes on literature. Upon returning to Athens after the end of the junta and the restoration of democracy (1974), he opened the legendary bookstore “Octopus Press” and worked as a publisher. He is the publisher of Trypa magazine. He has written articles, prose and fiction, and many of his works have been published in magazines and newspapers. He has also translated a number of books. During the last 25 years, while living in Syros, he focused on ecological activism, collaborated with many people from the islands, as well as scientists and various entities from abroad, and participated in the creation of the Aegean Network of Environmental Organizations; he spearheaded the related online publication of the magazine Eyploia and participated in the founding of the Cyclades Geopark and its recognition by UNESCO.

Chara Pelekanou (born 1951) studied History and Archaeology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. During the years of the dictatorship in Greece (1967–1974), she joined the students’ resistance and participated in protests, fights and various public actions for the restoration of democratic governance in the country. Pelekanou has been a crucial agent for the abolition of outmoded and shortsighted perceptions of progress that lead to the uncontrollable destruction of the unique Aegean ecosystem. In 1976, she met Teos Romvos and joined him in publications, activist practices and progressive educational projects in Athens and beyond. She was instrumental in the creation of Trypa magazine and worked as editor for various publishing houses. In 1981 she left Athens, together with Romvos, and moved to the Greek countryside and later to Africa, where she taught at the Greek schools of Congo, and Berlin (1987–1991), where she witnessed the fall of the Berlin wall and subsequent events. Upon her return to Greece Chara Pelekanou moved to Syros, where she has been living ever since with Teos Romvos and collaborating with farmers, activists, educators, artists, scientists from Greece and abroad, towards the creation of the Aegean Network of Environmental Organizations, the related online publication of magazine Eyploia and the founding of the Cyclades Geopark and its recognition by UNESCO. She is a photographer and has made short films about life in Syros and eco-oriented practices.