Flisvos - Bernadette Mergaerts

Flisvos is a Greek word meaning “the soft sound of a small wave gently hitting the shore”. When visiting the Greek island of Corfu in the winter of 2015, Mergaerts (BE) noticed that, in spite of the cold, many people were swimming at various places along the shoreline. She was impressed that the bathers — all adults, some of them retired — seemed to find peace in the Ionian sea. During the following years, Mergaerts learned more and more about the lives of the winter swimmers. How they survive and about their shared concerns. With sensuous images, she shows the decline and the vitality of nature as well as the bathers. She follows them on their daily swims, their immersion with the elements, and the ritual celebrations of the winter months.