WOW Festival Athens 2025: The Hope Brigade

The Hope Brigade is a photography series profiling incredible women working at the forefront of their fields in 10 essential areas from conflict to climate justice. Featuring emerging photographers, this exhibition is curated by WOW Festivals across the world, in partnership with

“The sun rises for everyone. Every woman should claim the space she deserves in life—after all, she is the salt of the earth.”

“I recently read that a woman is the ‘shock absorber’ of society— absorbing the jolts at home, at work, in life. I was surprised by how accurately a technical component from my job can describe the daily reality of so many women today.”

“Blood doesn’t matter—heart does.”

“Health is a social good that should be generously offered to all. Access to healthcare services is a fundamental right that all citizens of all countries should enjoy.”

“We are never one face, one story, or one truth. Identity is a collage of everything we’ve been, everything we hide, and everything we dare to become.”

“Our children do not belong to us. When parents and teachers realize this, we will understand that our responsibility towards them is much greater than we thought.”

The social cooperative enterprise Pleteno was founded in 2019 by women from the mountainous region of Xanthi. Its goal is to support their professional growth through handmade crafts, foster new skills, and challenge prejudices and stereotypes about women’s roles.

“Creating safe and sustainable jobs is critical to ending the cycle of vulnerability at the root of the global crisis of poverty. By creating life-giving jobs for the most vulnerable we can make cracks in the cycle and offer freedom and a future instead of exploitation and abuse

“Art alone won’t save us. However, with collectivization and struggles against all forms of oppression it might.”

“I live by a quote from André Breton: ‘Human is the answer, whatever the question is.’”