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5 Brewer Street
Oxford
OX1 1QN
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​Three Short Films
by Thomas Nicolaou​​
About Thomas Nicolaou:
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Thomas Nicolaou is a British, Oxford based visual artist, graphic designer and tutor. Thomas studied printing, publishing and graphic design and worked for a number of years in publishing as a designer. The first book he made was the artists’ book Pensées with British artist Jeremy Deller. He is a graduate from the MA Photographic Studies (now MA Expanded Photography) course at the University of Westminster (2016). His photography, films and books have been exhibited/screened both in the UK and internationally at exhibitions and festivals, including at Belvedere21 (Austria), VCAS (Austria), Pitt Rivers Museum (UK), Photo Oxford (UK), Modern Art Oxford (UK), Photo Fringe OPEN20 (UK), Printed Matter (US), NIMAC (Cyprus), Whitechapel Gallery (UK), Photo Romania Festival (Romania), Tate Modern (UK), Tate Britain (UK) and Cabinet Gallery (UK).
​About the screenings:
Film 1: Drinking Ceausescu’s Wine [4.55]
A conversation on Romanian everyday life, in what was, the 30th anniversary year of the CeauÈ™escus capture and execution. The setting for the conversation is domestic, over a meal, in an apartment block built during the CeauÈ™escu regime, in a Bucharest suburb. The meal was accompanied by some of CeauÈ™escu’s wine (from his cellar), now in the possession of ‘Lily’ who acquired the wine as a gift from her former boss, a Japanese businessman.
Film 2: Trainscapes and their cities [19.36]
Thomas Nicolaou documents the public space of university cities, their public spaces, and access for citizens. Nicolaou tells us the story behind the work, Trainscapes and their cities (2022), where an international train journey inspired a new perspective on Oxford’s public spaces. “I proposed to travel from Oxford Parkway to Lecce in Italy” Nicolaou says, “My proposal was to carry out ‘city or trainscapes’ documentation … I was curious to see if anything could be borrowed en route from Lyon, Bologna, and Lecce, and perhaps introduced to Oxford. Lockdown forced a change in behaviour and the public’s appetite for outdoor seating. Access to public space has been accommodated in Oxford’s city centre streets, but what more could be done?
The film was accepted via an open call to participate in the two site exhibition ‘Adapt Transform’ (exploring urban design and creativity) at Modern Art Oxford and Oxford Brookes University
 in August 2022.
Film 3: City Break [19.41]
The film is predominantly a meditation on a city that is full of life (both day and night). Through my camera, we glimpse conversations (through friends reuniting) juxtaposed with everyday scenes of café life, musicians busking, people at leisure and protest.
In March 2024, the Greek government’s culture minister Lina Mendoni, made headlines with the announcement that “under draft legislation already put to public consultation, more than 45% of all music heard on local radio or in public spaces will in future have to be Greek”.
Follow Thomas on Instagram @thomas.nicolaou or email thom.nicol7@gmail.com for more information.