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EXHIBITIONS ARCHIVE
2023
Form is isomorphic in visual language with shape and ultimately with the form of the art object. Content is produced by form and vice versa. But what does a shape enclose? The void as a fundamental dimension of its existence. Like Heidegger's vase existing through the void or else the void is the pattern of the vase. Addressing the question of the void in relation to the aesthetic experience of any form, then, involves the characteristics of a dialectic of aesthetics with form and the multiplicity of the produced object, which we call a work of art. From representation to conceptual logic, and through the freedom of the non-universality of aesthetics in the measure of an exhibition containing the contradiction of the above relations, the concept of the void is determined through visual language. The void as the spatiality of empty space, the void as a philosophical vision, the void as a representation of the structural lack of the subject that no object "covers". The empty exhibition space welcomes heteromorphic objects that over-define the void either as inverted versions of the discourse of "flight" as a concept of the intermediate void in William Blake's poetics through the image of the fly as flight-flight (Kontosfaris), the metal drawing of the archetypal cross as another void (Sendzas) and finally in the installation-concept that redefines space as the body of the void (Alexandrou). The "raised fists" in his work as a repetitiveness of a necessary signifier, that of rebellion, create with the barcode they bear and which is at the disposal of the viewer to be led to the "kryptonome", a "blank shape" of the subject who rebels, but at the same time invites us to search for another identity. Γ. G. Mitrou, curator
Form is isomorphic in visual language with shape and ultimately with the form of the art object. Content is produced by form and vice versa. But what does a shape enclose? The void as a fundamental dimension of its existence. Like Heidegger's vase existing through the void or else the void is the pattern of the vase. Addressing the question of the void in relation to the aesthetic experience of any form, then, involves the characteristics of a dialectic of aesthetics with form and the multiplicity of the produced object, which we call a work of art. From representation to conceptual logic, and through the freedom of the non-universality of aesthetics in the measure of an exhibition containing the contradiction of the above relations, the concept of the void is determined through visual language. The void as the spatiality of empty space, the void as a philosophical vision, the void as a representation of the structural lack of the subject that no object "covers". The empty exhibition space welcomes heteromorphic objects that over-define the void either as inverted versions of the discourse of "flight" as a concept of the intermediate void in William Blake's poetics through the image of the fly as flight-flight (Kontosfaris), the metal drawing of the archetypal cross as another void (Sendzas) and finally in the installation-concept that redefines space as the body of the void (Alexandrou). The "raised fists" in his work as a repetitiveness of a necessary signifier, that of rebellion, create with the barcode they bear and which is at the disposal of the viewer to be led to the "kryptonome", a "blank shape" of the subject who rebels, but at the same time invites us to search for another identity. Γ. G. Mitrou, curator
The compositions of Giorgos Michalopoulos, "constructions" in the direction of the poetry of the anti-text, as a projection screen, function as pictorial associations. His visual statement highlights the possibility of composition with fragments of different materials, usually industrial in the logic of ready-mades, as well as ways of organization from a variety of visual genres. Michalopoulos creates assemblages similar to narrative handmade techniques that provide diffusion and concealment of information simultaneously. Signs and symbols give birth to a new visual culture, where fruitful exchanges and interactions shape meaningful de-printing of timeless linguistic codes. Konstantinos Tsakiris' experiments are largely rooted in reflections on the materials used by the artists of arte povera and its descendants in order to emphatically state the direct contact with natural materials, such as wood, earth, stone, etc., as well as the need to express symbolic values far beyond the historical context. The reduction of form mainly to the basic geometric shapes, the circle, the triangle and the square, as well as the intense colour interventions contribute decisively to the sensory experience that the artist can share with the viewer. [Comments by art historian Thalia Stephanidou]
The compositions of Giorgos Michalopoulos, "constructions" in the direction of the poetry of the anti-text, as a projection screen, function as pictorial associations. His visual statement highlights the possibility of composition with fragments of different materials, usually industrial in the logic of ready-mades, as well as ways of organization from a variety of visual genres. Michalopoulos creates assemblages similar to narrative handmade techniques that provide diffusion and concealment of information simultaneously. Signs and symbols give birth to a new visual culture, where fruitful exchanges and interactions shape meaningful de-printing of timeless linguistic codes. Konstantinos Tsakiris' experiments are largely rooted in reflections on the materials used by the artists of arte povera and its descendants in order to emphatically state the direct contact with natural materials, such as wood, earth, stone, etc., as well as the need to express symbolic values far beyond the historical context. The reduction of form mainly to the basic geometric shapes, the circle, the triangle and the square, as well as the intense colour interventions contribute decisively to the sensory experience that the artist can share with the viewer. [Comments by art historian Thalia Stephanidou]
Penelope Akritidou_Vasilis Alexandrou_ Dimitris Ameladiotis_ Fotios Balas_ Olga Bogdanou_ Manolis charos_ Konstantinos Chatzitheodoridis_Kostis Damoulakis_ Athan Dapis_ Dimitris Dimitriadis_Sotiris Fokeas_Giannis Gagrinas_ Aris Georgiou_ Boris Georgitseli_ Melina Georgouda_ Theano Giannezi_Elena Hadjiathanasiou_ Haris Hilitsis_ Ljilja Jaric_Christos Kalfas_Dora Kapetan Labrou_Alexandros Kapetanou_Dimitris Kapetanou_Ellie Katsara_Katerina Katsiura_Peggy Kliafa_Charis Kondosphyris_Kostas Kloumis_ Nikos Kryonidis _ Andreas Laskaris_Stamatis Laskos_Emmanuela Liagou_Thomas Makinatzis_Konstantia Makri_Antigoni Manolidou_Giorgos Michalopoulos_Ioannis Monogios _Dimitris Palantzas_Giorgos Pantazis_Angeliki Papadopoulou_Anna Papavasiliou_ Maria Paschalidou_Sofia Pechlivanidou_Revecca Protopapa_Ion Rudolph_ Vasilis Sentzas_Eleftheria Stoikou_Mari Theofilou_Eleni Theofilktou _ Zefie Tiftiktsoglou_Konstantinos Tsakiris_Mantha Tsialiou_Maria Tsesmeli_ Sofia Vaggeli_George Vavatsis_Anastasios Veloudis_Vasilis Zografos
Penelope Akritidou_Vasilis Alexandrou_ Dimitris Ameladiotis_ Fotios Balas_ Olga Bogdanou_ Manolis charos_ Konstantinos Chatzitheodoridis_Kostis Damoulakis_ Athan Dapis_ Dimitris Dimitriadis_Sotiris Fokeas_Giannis Gagrinas_ Aris Georgiou_ Boris Georgitseli_ Melina Georgouda_ Theano Giannezi_Elena Hadjiathanasiou_ Haris Hilitsis_ Ljilja Jaric_Christos Kalfas_Dora Kapetan Labrou_Alexandros Kapetanou_Dimitris Kapetanou_Ellie Katsara_Katerina Katsiura_Peggy Kliafa_Charis Kondosphyris_Kostas Kloumis_ Nikos Kryonidis _ Andreas Laskaris_Stamatis Laskos_Emmanuela Liagou_Thomas Makinatzis_Konstantia Makri_Antigoni Manolidou_Giorgos Michalopoulos_Ioannis Monogios _Dimitris Palantzas_Giorgos Pantazis_Angeliki Papadopoulou_Anna Papavasiliou_ Maria Paschalidou_Sofia Pechlivanidou_Revecca Protopapa_Ion Rudolph_ Vasilis Sentzas_Eleftheria Stoikou_Mari Theofilou_Eleni Theofilktou _ Zefie Tiftiktsoglou_Konstantinos Tsakiris_Mantha Tsialiou_Maria Tsesmeli_ Sofia Vaggeli_George Vavatsis_Anastasios Veloudis_Vasilis Zografos
Art Athina 2023 Zappeion Hall 14 -17 September Lola Nikolaou Gallery | Booth R20 Dimitris Ameladiotis, Kostis Damoulakis, Thanasis Dapis, Dimitris Efeoglou, Pegy Kliafa, Stamatis Laskos
Art Athina 2023 Zappeion Hall 14 -17 September Lola Nikolaou Gallery | Booth R20 Dimitris Ameladiotis, Kostis Damoulakis, Thanasis Dapis, Dimitris Efeoglou, Pegy Kliafa, Stamatis Laskos
«Ενάντια στην Ευτυχία» Μια stand up τραγωδία με τη μορφή ενός τρίκυκλου βίντεο εγκατάστασης με διάλεξη και περφόρμανς, με αντικείμενα, μάσκες, και θεατρικά αποσπάσματα για το θαύμα, την τρέλα, την υποχρεωτική κατάργηση της μοναξιάς και το ναυάγιο της ύπαρξης. 'Δεν είναι όλη η τρέλα ιερή. Δεν δημιουργεί όλο το χάος μια αρμονική τάξη. Δεν προαναγγέλλει κάθε αίμα μια γέννηση ή μια νίκη. Ο έρωτας δεν οδηγεί πάντα σε μια μυστική φωτιά συνουσίας. Δεν ταξιδεύουν πάντα όλα τα κρασιά από έναν εμπνευσμένο θεό. Δεν είναι κάθε χρώμα ένας πίνακας ζωγραφικής. Δεν είναι κάθε βουνό ο Όλυμπος. Υπάρχει μια σημαντική διάκριση μεταξύ εκείνων των ραψωδών των οποίων τα έργα είχαν τις ρίζες τους σε μια εμπνευσμένη τρέλα και εκείνων, των άλλων, που συνέθεσαν τους στίχους τους με βάση το αξίωμα και την αφοσίωσή τους στην τέχνη τους. Το ίδιο ισχύει και για τους ζωγράφους: υπάρχουν επαγγελματίες, μεθοδικοί και αποτελεσματικοί, αλλά υπάρχει και ένα άλλο είδος ζωγράφων, αυτοί που είναι «μοιραίοι», αυτοί που μόλις και μετά βίας μπορούν να ελέγξουν τις παρορμήσεις που οδηγούν τις πράξεις τους, ελάχιστα ορθολογικοί, χωρίς να αναζητούν στην τέχνη έναν άλλο ορίζοντα ή ένα βραβείο, και προτιμούν να συνεχίζουν να διψούν, να παραμένουν άρρωστοι από την επιθυμία να διεισδύσουν σε αυτή την ανείπωτη επιφάνεια που είναι γι' αυτούς η τέχνη, και να επιστρέφουν κουβαλώντας ένα δέμα με παράξενα αγκάθια, επικαλούμενοι την ομορφιά όταν η φρίκη δεν τους είναι άγνωστη, τραγουδώντας στο εύθραυστο καράβι της ύπαρξής τους, όταν, όχι πολύ μακριά, τα μεγάλα πλοία με όλα όσα έχουμε αγαπήσει καίγονται σε κρεβάτια ερήμωσης. Να γελάμε καθώς ατενίζουμε την κόλαση. Αυτό δεν είναι που μας προτείνει μερικές φορές η τέχνη; Ένα έργο τέχνης είναι μια λίμνη εν θερμώ, μια αύλακα γεμάτη από όλα όσα δεν είμαστε σε θέση να αναφέρουμε χωρίς να τρέμουμε. Ένα έργο τέχνης είναι μια φωτιά φτιαγμένη από χαμένους αμπελώνες, από διαλυμένα όνειρα, από μαύρο γάλα που κρατιέται στοργικά στην αγκαλιά της νύχτας. Έργο τέχνης είναι αυτό που μας προειδοποιεί για την περιπλάνηση του μυαλού μας και είναι η μουσική που μπορεί να συνθέσει η αγωνία μας, ενώ η καθημερινότητά μας κοροϊδεύει τη φυγή μας μπερδεύοντας τις ώρες μας. Ας τραγουδήσουμε στο εύθραυστο καράβι της ύπαρξής μας, ας βάλουμε αυτό το καράβι στη θάλασσά μας, τον πίνακα της ύπαρξής μας....'' Φίλιππος Τσιτσόπουλος , 2023
«Ενάντια στην Ευτυχία» Μια stand up τραγωδία με τη μορφή ενός τρίκυκλου βίντεο εγκατάστασης με διάλεξη και περφόρμανς, με αντικείμενα, μάσκες, και θεατρικά αποσπάσματα για το θαύμα, την τρέλα, την υποχρεωτική κατάργηση της μοναξιάς και το ναυάγιο της ύπαρξης. 'Δεν είναι όλη η τρέλα ιερή. Δεν δημιουργεί όλο το χάος μια αρμονική τάξη. Δεν προαναγγέλλει κάθε αίμα μια γέννηση ή μια νίκη. Ο έρωτας δεν οδηγεί πάντα σε μια μυστική φωτιά συνουσίας. Δεν ταξιδεύουν πάντα όλα τα κρασιά από έναν εμπνευσμένο θεό. Δεν είναι κάθε χρώμα ένας πίνακας ζωγραφικής. Δεν είναι κάθε βουνό ο Όλυμπος. Υπάρχει μια σημαντική διάκριση μεταξύ εκείνων των ραψωδών των οποίων τα έργα είχαν τις ρίζες τους σε μια εμπνευσμένη τρέλα και εκείνων, των άλλων, που συνέθεσαν τους στίχους τους με βάση το αξίωμα και την αφοσίωσή τους στην τέχνη τους. Το ίδιο ισχύει και για τους ζωγράφους: υπάρχουν επαγγελματίες, μεθοδικοί και αποτελεσματικοί, αλλά υπάρχει και ένα άλλο είδος ζωγράφων, αυτοί που είναι «μοιραίοι», αυτοί που μόλις και μετά βίας μπορούν να ελέγξουν τις παρορμήσεις που οδηγούν τις πράξεις τους, ελάχιστα ορθολογικοί, χωρίς να αναζητούν στην τέχνη έναν άλλο ορίζοντα ή ένα βραβείο, και προτιμούν να συνεχίζουν να διψούν, να παραμένουν άρρωστοι από την επιθυμία να διεισδύσουν σε αυτή την ανείπωτη επιφάνεια που είναι γι' αυτούς η τέχνη, και να επιστρέφουν κουβαλώντας ένα δέμα με παράξενα αγκάθια, επικαλούμενοι την ομορφιά όταν η φρίκη δεν τους είναι άγνωστη, τραγουδώντας στο εύθραυστο καράβι της ύπαρξής τους, όταν, όχι πολύ μακριά, τα μεγάλα πλοία με όλα όσα έχουμε αγαπήσει καίγονται σε κρεβάτια ερήμωσης. Να γελάμε καθώς ατενίζουμε την κόλαση. Αυτό δεν είναι που μας προτείνει μερικές φορές η τέχνη; Ένα έργο τέχνης είναι μια λίμνη εν θερμώ, μια αύλακα γεμάτη από όλα όσα δεν είμαστε σε θέση να αναφέρουμε χωρίς να τρέμουμε. Ένα έργο τέχνης είναι μια φωτιά φτιαγμένη από χαμένους αμπελώνες, από διαλυμένα όνειρα, από μαύρο γάλα που κρατιέται στοργικά στην αγκαλιά της νύχτας. Έργο τέχνης είναι αυτό που μας προειδοποιεί για την περιπλάνηση του μυαλού μας και είναι η μουσική που μπορεί να συνθέσει η αγωνία μας, ενώ η καθημερινότητά μας κοροϊδεύει τη φυγή μας μπερδεύοντας τις ώρες μας. Ας τραγουδήσουμε στο εύθραυστο καράβι της ύπαρξής μας, ας βάλουμε αυτό το καράβι στη θάλασσά μας, τον πίνακα της ύπαρξής μας....'' Φίλιππος Τσιτσόπουλος , 2023
The unsettling event of an enigma (to be forever, but never to have been*) Lola Nikolaou Art Gallery Opening: Tuesday 3 October 2023 from 18:00 to 22:00 Duration: 3 -27 October Curator. The exhibition develops through an eccentric and associative dialogue towards an artistic exploration, which primarily choreographs the unseen, in-between space. The dialectical space between the works, as well as the space that potentially emerges through the interpretations of the viewers. The installation is constituted through space-time extensions and foldings. and contractions. All are the result of hypotheses and visual performances, in which the outcome of one or multiple events can ultimately be recorded. This collaborative installation, intends to engage the unseen as existent and the immaterial as active. It is an elaboration that, by extending the visible and the perceived, also constitutes a political act. The title of the exhibition recalls Man Ray's work, "L'Enigme d'Isidore Ducasse", 1920, and the subtitle refers to the homonymous phrase in Jorge Luis Borges' poem "The Enigmas", from the 1972 collection "Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Poems, 1923-1967". (Extract from the curators' text)
The unsettling event of an enigma (to be forever, but never to have been*) Lola Nikolaou Art Gallery Opening: Tuesday 3 October 2023 from 18:00 to 22:00 Duration: 3 -27 October Curator. The exhibition develops through an eccentric and associative dialogue towards an artistic exploration, which primarily choreographs the unseen, in-between space. The dialectical space between the works, as well as the space that potentially emerges through the interpretations of the viewers. The installation is constituted through space-time extensions and foldings. and contractions. All are the result of hypotheses and visual performances, in which the outcome of one or multiple events can ultimately be recorded. This collaborative installation, intends to engage the unseen as existent and the immaterial as active. It is an elaboration that, by extending the visible and the perceived, also constitutes a political act. The title of the exhibition recalls Man Ray's work, "L'Enigme d'Isidore Ducasse", 1920, and the subtitle refers to the homonymous phrase in Jorge Luis Borges' poem "The Enigmas", from the 1972 collection "Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Poems, 1923-1967". (Extract from the curators' text)
"blind prohibition" 02 -30.11.2023 Opening Thursday 2 November 2023, 16.00 - 21.30 Curating: Alexandros Kapetanou - Dimitris Kapetanou A phrase that contains its acoustic achromaticity and its aniconic chromaticity. A complex of terms and thoughts with contradictory feelings about the visible, removal, protection, enclosure, frustration, limits. The concept of limits is dialectically examined in the exhibition's two-part artwork. Through obsessive and endless repetitions of handwriting, sometimes in the form of knots of weaving and sometimes in the symbol of the dot, the use of the sign, the randomness and non-randomness it carries and the activation of touch are examined in the visual landscapes of the exhibition. The activation of the dipole between the signifier and the signified deconstructs and reimagines boundaries, attempting to expand and explore their interpretation. The collaborative works in the exhibition attempt to operate interventions, acting fluidly between the artistic and social realms. Seeking new creative outlets, they form installations, playing with materiality and surfaces, touching the "limits" of semiotics. The repetitive braille of the wall works is inspired by the homonymous code and meets the semiotic knots of the white and red forbidding tape of the sculptural installations.The dialogue box with the viewer removes any possibility of conventional reading of the content of their installation. The aluminium surfaces become closed to reading, but at the same time completely open to interpretation. The impossibility of direct interaction with the text and the emergence of the relief of its form make it a living pictorial enigma, which converses suggestively with the thousands of handmade knots that lie tirelessly around it. The reuse of the familiar material of the marking tape and the exploitation of its morphoplastic quality leads to a playfulness through its transformation into geometric and abstract forms, mocking the notion of prohibition. The observation of traditional techniques of knitting in suffocating loops and weaving in endless knots testifies to the experiential and painstakingly ascetic nature of the works. The meeting of the two media is problematic with regard to the restoration of human boundaries. The shape of the circle, sometimes through its transmutation into a dot and sometimes into a knot, delineates a symbol of reference, trauma and exclusion that are present in the visual language of the works. Their combined and innumerable sum performs an artistic osmosis between the meaning that boundaries carry in the simple everyday life and human existence, examining the context of universal prohibition and absolute freedom. text: Alexander Kapetanou
"blind prohibition" 02 -30.11.2023 Opening Thursday 2 November 2023, 16.00 - 21.30 Curating: Alexandros Kapetanou - Dimitris Kapetanou A phrase that contains its acoustic achromaticity and its aniconic chromaticity. A complex of terms and thoughts with contradictory feelings about the visible, removal, protection, enclosure, frustration, limits. The concept of limits is dialectically examined in the exhibition's two-part artwork. Through obsessive and endless repetitions of handwriting, sometimes in the form of knots of weaving and sometimes in the symbol of the dot, the use of the sign, the randomness and non-randomness it carries and the activation of touch are examined in the visual landscapes of the exhibition. The activation of the dipole between the signifier and the signified deconstructs and reimagines boundaries, attempting to expand and explore their interpretation. The collaborative works in the exhibition attempt to operate interventions, acting fluidly between the artistic and social realms. Seeking new creative outlets, they form installations, playing with materiality and surfaces, touching the "limits" of semiotics. The repetitive braille of the wall works is inspired by the homonymous code and meets the semiotic knots of the white and red forbidding tape of the sculptural installations.The dialogue box with the viewer removes any possibility of conventional reading of the content of their installation. The aluminium surfaces become closed to reading, but at the same time completely open to interpretation. The impossibility of direct interaction with the text and the emergence of the relief of its form make it a living pictorial enigma, which converses suggestively with the thousands of handmade knots that lie tirelessly around it. The reuse of the familiar material of the marking tape and the exploitation of its morphoplastic quality leads to a playfulness through its transformation into geometric and abstract forms, mocking the notion of prohibition. The observation of traditional techniques of knitting in suffocating loops and weaving in endless knots testifies to the experiential and painstakingly ascetic nature of the works. The meeting of the two media is problematic with regard to the restoration of human boundaries. The shape of the circle, sometimes through its transmutation into a dot and sometimes into a knot, delineates a symbol of reference, trauma and exclusion that are present in the visual language of the works. Their combined and innumerable sum performs an artistic osmosis between the meaning that boundaries carry in the simple everyday life and human existence, examining the context of universal prohibition and absolute freedom. text: Alexander Kapetanou
for Nikos Kryonidis Thalia Stephanidou Art Historian/Curator "...at that time, the artist was free... On a wall with a fresh souvah, splashed with shiny sandal* or fermented with milk and saffron**, he painted someone crossing with weary feet a meadow meadow strewn with white asphodel, someone on whose eyelids all the Trojan War rests..." [ The Critic as Creator, Oscar Wilde ] "...look at the mimosas*** I see. Imagine the mimosas. What you don't see.... The mimosa is the painter's nymph..." [ The Last Painting or Portrait of God, Hélène Cixous ] Nikos Kryonidis discovers and deposits, incessantly, shapes of thought or feelings as forms of visual expression with the determination of an adult and childlike enthusiasm at the same time. His "painterly" texts function as sketches of visual discourse that form episodes of graphisms, sometimes implying and sometimes emphatically emphasizing the primary tools of the act of painting. These are undoubtedly developments of experimentation and gymnastics, attempts to map an associative narrative, even impressions of successive patterns that multiply the perception of the enigma, expanding its interpretative potential. His creaturely landscapes, similar to masses of colour suspended in a kind of equilibrium on the canvas, function as geographies of the imaginary that seem to trap shapes of flocks of birds in fluid lines of the horizon. Again, perhaps they convey emotions of psychic order from an inner vision, without forming anything immediately recognizable. I had previously identified his improvisational practice as "happenings on paper" and as networks of color flows and fleeting images or words that promote and foster independent thought and the polysemy of painterly performance. A painting act that struggles to trace the present of the moment in that elusive, erotic and playful condition where the imperative of "come further away" - "go closer" is confessed. Today, mainly due to his recurring obsessions and selective retrospectives, I call his personal idiom a visual diary of his purely personal and experiential wanderings, a diary beyond goals and final destination.Nikos Kryonidis's poetics moves in search of the inexplicable and indeterminate, proposing incessant transmutation, a prolonged and constant delirium for what is a trace of memory and emotion intertwined with creatures of the imagination and with what is here and now present. In an attempt to decipher the poetics of this type, Nietzsche's aphorism "you have to guess the painter to understand the image" helps us to suspect the dialectical relationship between the image produced as the body of the painting and the body of the creator who produces it. Thalia Stephanidou, Art Historian/Critic - Curator _ _ _ * Fossil pigment of intense red [ sandyx or sandykos ] ** Strong yellow pigment derived from the stamens of the saffron plant [ saffron or saffron(s) ] *** Mimosa is a genus of plants of the order Mimosa. The name mimosa, feminine of mimos, is of Greek origin. The best known species of the genus is mimosa pudica, also known as touch-me-not (honteuse femelle/sensitive).
for Nikos Kryonidis Thalia Stephanidou Art Historian/Curator "...at that time, the artist was free... On a wall with a fresh souvah, splashed with shiny sandal* or fermented with milk and saffron**, he painted someone crossing with weary feet a meadow meadow strewn with white asphodel, someone on whose eyelids all the Trojan War rests..." [ The Critic as Creator, Oscar Wilde ] "...look at the mimosas*** I see. Imagine the mimosas. What you don't see.... The mimosa is the painter's nymph..." [ The Last Painting or Portrait of God, Hélène Cixous ] Nikos Kryonidis discovers and deposits, incessantly, shapes of thought or feelings as forms of visual expression with the determination of an adult and childlike enthusiasm at the same time. His "painterly" texts function as sketches of visual discourse that form episodes of graphisms, sometimes implying and sometimes emphatically emphasizing the primary tools of the act of painting. These are undoubtedly developments of experimentation and gymnastics, attempts to map an associative narrative, even impressions of successive patterns that multiply the perception of the enigma, expanding its interpretative potential. His creaturely landscapes, similar to masses of colour suspended in a kind of equilibrium on the canvas, function as geographies of the imaginary that seem to trap shapes of flocks of birds in fluid lines of the horizon. Again, perhaps they convey emotions of psychic order from an inner vision, without forming anything immediately recognizable. I had previously identified his improvisational practice as "happenings on paper" and as networks of color flows and fleeting images or words that promote and foster independent thought and the polysemy of painterly performance. A painting act that struggles to trace the present of the moment in that elusive, erotic and playful condition where the imperative of "come further away" - "go closer" is confessed. Today, mainly due to his recurring obsessions and selective retrospectives, I call his personal idiom a visual diary of his purely personal and experiential wanderings, a diary beyond goals and final destination.Nikos Kryonidis's poetics moves in search of the inexplicable and indeterminate, proposing incessant transmutation, a prolonged and constant delirium for what is a trace of memory and emotion intertwined with creatures of the imagination and with what is here and now present. In an attempt to decipher the poetics of this type, Nietzsche's aphorism "you have to guess the painter to understand the image" helps us to suspect the dialectical relationship between the image produced as the body of the painting and the body of the creator who produces it. Thalia Stephanidou, Art Historian/Critic - Curator _ _ _ * Fossil pigment of intense red [ sandyx or sandykos ] ** Strong yellow pigment derived from the stamens of the saffron plant [ saffron or saffron(s) ] *** Mimosa is a genus of plants of the order Mimosa. The name mimosa, feminine of mimos, is of Greek origin. The best known species of the genus is mimosa pudica, also known as touch-me-not (honteuse femelle/sensitive).
2024
Takis Veremis Yannis Gagrinas_Dimitris Efeoglou_Christos Kalfas_Kiriaki Mavrogeorgi_Ilias Christopoulos 11.01 - 09.02.2024 Opening Thursday 11 January 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 The photographic prints of Takis Veremis, the "still lifes" of Yannis Gagrinas, the improvisational graphic works of Dimitris Efeoglou, the painted fictions of Christos Kalfas, the enigmatic micro-sculpture of Kyriaki Mavrogeorgis and the clay sculptures of Ilias Christopoulos, will come together at the gallery of Lola Nikolaou from 11 January to 9 February 2024.
Takis Veremis Yannis Gagrinas_Dimitris Efeoglou_Christos Kalfas_Kiriaki Mavrogeorgi_Ilias Christopoulos 11.01 - 09.02.2024 Opening Thursday 11 January 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 The photographic prints of Takis Veremis, the "still lifes" of Yannis Gagrinas, the improvisational graphic works of Dimitris Efeoglou, the painted fictions of Christos Kalfas, the enigmatic micro-sculpture of Kyriaki Mavrogeorgis and the clay sculptures of Ilias Christopoulos, will come together at the gallery of Lola Nikolaou from 11 January to 9 February 2024.
George Tsakiris Handicrafts and More 15.02 -15.03.2024 Opening Thursday 15 February 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 George Tsakiris is a unique case of contemporary Greek art. He artistically combines the ecological-biological-agricultural process as an organizer of the ways in which the painterly gaze organizes, through installations-constructions and environments, the conditions in which nature functions in its absolute self-sufficiency. The art historian Yannis Bolis writes about the exhibition of George Tsakiris, among other things: The consistency, coherence and breadth of his quest, the constant experimentation, the crucial reflection and the intense experiential element are those characteristics that distinguish the course of George Tsakiris from the 1970s to the present day, composing the image of an accomplished creator who treats art as an attitude of life, or more correctly in his case art is identified with life itself: From his sculptures, collages and constructions, his paintings and prints to his "still lifes", his yuks, his velvets and his installations with stork nests, tree trunks and woods, his aquariums, greenhouses, dovecotes and snail farms, frogs and spinning machines, or the works with moths, wasps, wheat seeds, eggs, pumpkins, pumpkins, composts, must, grape seeds, grape must and wines...George Tsakiris is Professor Emeritus of the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.He has presented his work in more than 40 solo exhibitions, has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Greece and abroad and his works are part of many public and private collections around the world.
George Tsakiris Handicrafts and More 15.02 -15.03.2024 Opening Thursday 15 February 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 George Tsakiris is a unique case of contemporary Greek art. He artistically combines the ecological-biological-agricultural process as an organizer of the ways in which the painterly gaze organizes, through installations-constructions and environments, the conditions in which nature functions in its absolute self-sufficiency. The art historian Yannis Bolis writes about the exhibition of George Tsakiris, among other things: The consistency, coherence and breadth of his quest, the constant experimentation, the crucial reflection and the intense experiential element are those characteristics that distinguish the course of George Tsakiris from the 1970s to the present day, composing the image of an accomplished creator who treats art as an attitude of life, or more correctly in his case art is identified with life itself: From his sculptures, collages and constructions, his paintings and prints to his "still lifes", his yuks, his velvets and his installations with stork nests, tree trunks and woods, his aquariums, greenhouses, dovecotes and snail farms, frogs and spinning machines, or the works with moths, wasps, wheat seeds, eggs, pumpkins, pumpkins, composts, must, grape seeds, grape must and wines...George Tsakiris is Professor Emeritus of the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.He has presented his work in more than 40 solo exhibitions, has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Greece and abroad and his works are part of many public and private collections around the world.
George Lazogas_Thanasis Dapis 21.03 - 18.04.2024 Opening Thursday 21 March 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 Curated by Efthymis Lazogas, Professor of Art History Yorgos Lazogas, conceptual artist and professor emeritus of the ASFA, together with Thanasis Dapis, an important artist of the younger generation, will open their works at the Lola Nikolaou Gallery from 21 March. As the curator of the exhibition, Professor of Art History Efthymis Lazogas, points out about George Lazogas: Lazogas always maintained that "The fragment is the whole". In his visual idiom, the fragment carries the memory of the image of the whole, but remains as a record of the minimum as it avoids the chatter of narrative, listening to the silence and the poetry of the non finito. It is an allusion, allegory, and symbol playing between the imagination and the ineffable. In this sense, the fragment is the work, its origin and its generative core, at the same time documenting the permanent impossibility of the idea to be transferred unchanged into matter. The idea through the fragment remains a fragment, a fragmentary reminder of the whole, giving the image an enigmatic dimension. The fragment, posing the enigma, "neither tells nor hides but means". By its very nature it negotiates the idea of inexorable time, of loss, of memory, of destruction. The very memory implied by the fragment also functions in a fragmentary way. Through the superimpositions of memories, the mechanisms of memory shatter the image of the whole, removing useless information and allowing only the fragments that contain the essential to surface. Culturally, we live through the traces of the past, we have in our luggage memories - fragments of accumulated images of older cultures that are constantly recreated and reconstructed each time in a new proposal. About Thanasis Dapis the curator states: Without losing any of the innocence of childlike writing and thinking, Dapis attempts, with his unpretentious instinctive writing as a morphoplastic weapon, a new abstract narrative that tends to introduce multiple readings into his work. Colour, drawing and composition take centre stage. Dapis behind each drawing he formulates invents a personal visual alphabet through symbols, codes and concepts that are introduced in each work, thus challenging the viewer to feel his thoughts. He traces simple, archetypal symbols such as the sun and the moon, the house and the tree, the apple and the snake, flowers and animals, creating allusions and allegories. On the other hand, it expresses emotions, situations, weather phenomena, the coexistence of good and evil, life and death with colours, faces, shapes and letters. His colours themselves are pure, pure colours are also used as symbols serving the charm and dynamics of original writing, Thanasis Dapis' art keeps the joy of life unchanged in it, winning the bet of the lost meaning of simplicity while keeping alive the primary feeling of the excitement of discovering the world when we were children. Excerpt from the text by Efthymis Lazogas for the exhibition
George Lazogas_Thanasis Dapis 21.03 - 18.04.2024 Opening Thursday 21 March 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 Curated by Efthymis Lazogas, Professor of Art History Yorgos Lazogas, conceptual artist and professor emeritus of the ASFA, together with Thanasis Dapis, an important artist of the younger generation, will open their works at the Lola Nikolaou Gallery from 21 March. As the curator of the exhibition, Professor of Art History Efthymis Lazogas, points out about George Lazogas: Lazogas always maintained that "The fragment is the whole". In his visual idiom, the fragment carries the memory of the image of the whole, but remains as a record of the minimum as it avoids the chatter of narrative, listening to the silence and the poetry of the non finito. It is an allusion, allegory, and symbol playing between the imagination and the ineffable. In this sense, the fragment is the work, its origin and its generative core, at the same time documenting the permanent impossibility of the idea to be transferred unchanged into matter. The idea through the fragment remains a fragment, a fragmentary reminder of the whole, giving the image an enigmatic dimension. The fragment, posing the enigma, "neither tells nor hides but means". By its very nature it negotiates the idea of inexorable time, of loss, of memory, of destruction. The very memory implied by the fragment also functions in a fragmentary way. Through the superimpositions of memories, the mechanisms of memory shatter the image of the whole, removing useless information and allowing only the fragments that contain the essential to surface. Culturally, we live through the traces of the past, we have in our luggage memories - fragments of accumulated images of older cultures that are constantly recreated and reconstructed each time in a new proposal. About Thanasis Dapis the curator states: Without losing any of the innocence of childlike writing and thinking, Dapis attempts, with his unpretentious instinctive writing as a morphoplastic weapon, a new abstract narrative that tends to introduce multiple readings into his work. Colour, drawing and composition take centre stage. Dapis behind each drawing he formulates invents a personal visual alphabet through symbols, codes and concepts that are introduced in each work, thus challenging the viewer to feel his thoughts. He traces simple, archetypal symbols such as the sun and the moon, the house and the tree, the apple and the snake, flowers and animals, creating allusions and allegories. On the other hand, it expresses emotions, situations, weather phenomena, the coexistence of good and evil, life and death with colours, faces, shapes and letters. His colours themselves are pure, pure colours are also used as symbols serving the charm and dynamics of original writing, Thanasis Dapis' art keeps the joy of life unchanged in it, winning the bet of the lost meaning of simplicity while keeping alive the primary feeling of the excitement of discovering the world when we were children. Excerpt from the text by Efthymis Lazogas for the exhibition
GALLERY LOLA NIKOLAOU | Tsimiski 52, Thessaloniki, Greece t. +30 2310 240416, e-mail: info@lolanikolaou.com https://lolanikolaou.com/ http://lolanikolaougallery.blogspot.gr Press release Dimitris Ameladiotis_ Melina Georgouda_Stamatis Laskos What's Inside 23.04 - 25.05.2024 Opening Tuesday 23 April 2024, 17.00 - 21.30 Exhibition curator. Thalia Thalassa Thalassa Thalassa.Mixed rhythms as three versions of visual detection by : Dimitris Ameladiotis, Melina Georgoudas and Stamatis Laskos. Dimitris Ameladiotis with a collection of heterogeneous and para-artistic materials produces enigmatic combinations, a modular installation work , like an adventure in progress. Melina Georgouda's drawings and paintings of varying dimensions convey landscapes of psychic order, both in her 'portraits' and in her purely abstract editorial adventures. Stamatis Laskos reconstitutes in his images visible and invisible forms of observation, thought and feeling. He projects landscapes of inner worlds similar to imaginary elven environments. [excerpts from comments by Thalia Stephanidou]
GALLERY LOLA NIKOLAOU | Tsimiski 52, Thessaloniki, Greece t. +30 2310 240416, e-mail: info@lolanikolaou.com https://lolanikolaou.com/ http://lolanikolaougallery.blogspot.gr Press release Dimitris Ameladiotis_ Melina Georgouda_Stamatis Laskos What's Inside 23.04 - 25.05.2024 Opening Tuesday 23 April 2024, 17.00 - 21.30 Exhibition curator. Thalia Thalassa Thalassa Thalassa.Mixed rhythms as three versions of visual detection by : Dimitris Ameladiotis, Melina Georgoudas and Stamatis Laskos. Dimitris Ameladiotis with a collection of heterogeneous and para-artistic materials produces enigmatic combinations, a modular installation work , like an adventure in progress. Melina Georgouda's drawings and paintings of varying dimensions convey landscapes of psychic order, both in her 'portraits' and in her purely abstract editorial adventures. Stamatis Laskos reconstitutes in his images visible and invisible forms of observation, thought and feeling. He projects landscapes of inner worlds similar to imaginary elven environments. [excerpts from comments by Thalia Stephanidou]
Konstantinos Patsios_Spyridoula Politi_Eleftheria Stoikou 30.05 - 28.06.2024 Opening Thursday 30 May 2024, 17.00 - 21.30 Three different versions of the act of painting: Konstantinos Patsios' pop collages, painted narratives of synchronicity that produce cross-cultural co-contextualities of meanings, will converse with Spyridoula Politis' 'embossed painting constructions', an experiential process concerning the concept of clothing and its visual transfer on the canvas, as well as with the abstract gestural performances, the tracheo-graphies/mappings of Eleftheria Stoikos. (comment by Thalia Stephanidou)
Konstantinos Patsios_Spyridoula Politi_Eleftheria Stoikou 30.05 - 28.06.2024 Opening Thursday 30 May 2024, 17.00 - 21.30 Three different versions of the act of painting: Konstantinos Patsios' pop collages, painted narratives of synchronicity that produce cross-cultural co-contextualities of meanings, will converse with Spyridoula Politis' 'embossed painting constructions', an experiential process concerning the concept of clothing and its visual transfer on the canvas, as well as with the abstract gestural performances, the tracheo-graphies/mappings of Eleftheria Stoikos. (comment by Thalia Stephanidou)
Yorgos Agrotes_Penelope Akritidou_Vasilis Alexandrou_ Dimitris Ameladiotis_ Fotios Balas_ Olga Bogdanou_ Katerina Charalambidou_ Konstantinos Chatzipapas_Kostis Damoulakis_ Athan Dapis_ Dimitris Dimitriadis__Danai Dimoutziki_Giannis Gagrinas_ Boris Georgitseli_ Melina Georgouda_ Theano Giannezi_Elena Hadjiathanasiou_ Haris Hilitsis_Kallirroi Ilia_ Ljilja Jaric_Christos Kalfas_Dora Kapetan Labrou_Alexandros Kapetanou_Dimitris Kapetanou_Ellie Katsara_Katerina Katsiura_Konstantinos Kioutsioukis_Peggy Kliafa_Harris Kondosphyris_ Nikos Kryonidis _ Andreas Laskaris_Emmanuela Liagou_Thomas Makinatzis_Konstantia Makri_Antigoni Manolidou_Ioannis Markakis_Konstantinos Michos_Ioannis Monogios _Dimitris Palantzas_Giorgos_Angelika Panagiotidou_ Aspasia Pania_George Pantazis_ Kiki Papazi_Maria Paschalidou_Sofia Pechlivanidou_Anna Popofidou_Revecca Protopapa_Ion Rudolph_ Vasilis Sentzas_Eleftheria Stoikou_Mari Theofilou_Eleni Theofilktou _ Zefie Tiftiktsoglou_ Nikos Triantaphyllou_ Konstantinos Tsakiris_Mantha Tsialiou_Maria Tsesmeli_ Sofia Vaggeli_George Vavatsis _Dafni Vlasidou_Aexia Xafopoulou_Vasilis Zografos
Yorgos Agrotes_Penelope Akritidou_Vasilis Alexandrou_ Dimitris Ameladiotis_ Fotios Balas_ Olga Bogdanou_ Katerina Charalambidou_ Konstantinos Chatzipapas_Kostis Damoulakis_ Athan Dapis_ Dimitris Dimitriadis__Danai Dimoutziki_Giannis Gagrinas_ Boris Georgitseli_ Melina Georgouda_ Theano Giannezi_Elena Hadjiathanasiou_ Haris Hilitsis_Kallirroi Ilia_ Ljilja Jaric_Christos Kalfas_Dora Kapetan Labrou_Alexandros Kapetanou_Dimitris Kapetanou_Ellie Katsara_Katerina Katsiura_Konstantinos Kioutsioukis_Peggy Kliafa_Harris Kondosphyris_ Nikos Kryonidis _ Andreas Laskaris_Emmanuela Liagou_Thomas Makinatzis_Konstantia Makri_Antigoni Manolidou_Ioannis Markakis_Konstantinos Michos_Ioannis Monogios _Dimitris Palantzas_Giorgos_Angelika Panagiotidou_ Aspasia Pania_George Pantazis_ Kiki Papazi_Maria Paschalidou_Sofia Pechlivanidou_Anna Popofidou_Revecca Protopapa_Ion Rudolph_ Vasilis Sentzas_Eleftheria Stoikou_Mari Theofilou_Eleni Theofilktou _ Zefie Tiftiktsoglou_ Nikos Triantaphyllou_ Konstantinos Tsakiris_Mantha Tsialiou_Maria Tsesmeli_ Sofia Vaggeli_George Vavatsis _Dafni Vlasidou_Aexia Xafopoulou_Vasilis Zografos
Vasilis Alexandrou, Harris Kodosphyris, Nikos Kryonidis, George Vavatsis, Vasilis Zografos
Vasilis Alexandrou, Harris Kodosphyris, Nikos Kryonidis, George Vavatsis, Vasilis Zografos
George Zongolopoulos _ Alexia Xafopoulou 03.10 - 25.10.2024 Opening Thursday 3 October 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 Lola Nikolaou Gallery will present from Thursday 3 October to Friday 25 October, a selection of serial reproductions of works in small format by George Zongolopoulos from the eponymous Foundation. Among the works are the Olympic Circles, the sculptural composition at the entrance of the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre, the iconic Umbrellas on the beach in Thessaloniki, as well as other compositions with umbrellas, lenses and laminates. At the same time, the gallery will present the most recent painting compositions of the artist Alexia Xafopoulou, her series of works entitled The Great Wide Open, works on canvas of varying dimensions with mixed techniques. [... these irregular contours and asymmetries of volumes and planes, like the pieces of a puzzle with its own distinct logical constitution, could be personal clarifications of the perception of landscapes and paths. It is a spatial coexistence in succession, similar to the 'dredging' of thought, where a pictorial sense of time is served, while at the same time a topospatial attitude towards chaos is declared. (excerpt from a text by Thalia Stephanidou)
George Zongolopoulos _ Alexia Xafopoulou 03.10 - 25.10.2024 Opening Thursday 3 October 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 Lola Nikolaou Gallery will present from Thursday 3 October to Friday 25 October, a selection of serial reproductions of works in small format by George Zongolopoulos from the eponymous Foundation. Among the works are the Olympic Circles, the sculptural composition at the entrance of the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre, the iconic Umbrellas on the beach in Thessaloniki, as well as other compositions with umbrellas, lenses and laminates. At the same time, the gallery will present the most recent painting compositions of the artist Alexia Xafopoulou, her series of works entitled The Great Wide Open, works on canvas of varying dimensions with mixed techniques. [... these irregular contours and asymmetries of volumes and planes, like the pieces of a puzzle with its own distinct logical constitution, could be personal clarifications of the perception of landscapes and paths. It is a spatial coexistence in succession, similar to the 'dredging' of thought, where a pictorial sense of time is served, while at the same time a topospatial attitude towards chaos is declared. (excerpt from a text by Thalia Stephanidou)
Eleni Theofilaktou_Afrodite Liti 31.10 - 28.11.2024 Opening Thursday 31 October 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 Eleni Theofilaktou's new work is mainly works on paper with mixed materials. She confesses about this series of works : ''I don't know what happened and I missed the act of painting, thinking that I 'write' or 'sew' but I don't betray, I don't do injustice, I don't disguise myself. This project led me to a very welcoming, almost proprietary dormitory. It was not the images that were the goal but the suspension of the image, which carries the painting process into perpetuity-at least for me. Ultimately a manipulation of the ego by my materials and the joy of 'doing'. Aphrodite Liti among others says about her work : The main axis of my work is the in-depth exploration of the common ground between the verb ''statue'' and the term ''statue''. I understand my art not as a series of equations but as variations of promises of happiness. The sculptures develop a morphological and semiotic dialogue with anthropology, folklore and the ancient sculptural tradition, while the frequent figurative references compose a deeply architectural organization of the sculptural space, with reference to both contemporary art and the Orphic and Paleochristian ''world''.
Eleni Theofilaktou_Afrodite Liti 31.10 - 28.11.2024 Opening Thursday 31 October 2024, 18.00 - 21.30 Eleni Theofilaktou's new work is mainly works on paper with mixed materials. She confesses about this series of works : ''I don't know what happened and I missed the act of painting, thinking that I 'write' or 'sew' but I don't betray, I don't do injustice, I don't disguise myself. This project led me to a very welcoming, almost proprietary dormitory. It was not the images that were the goal but the suspension of the image, which carries the painting process into perpetuity-at least for me. Ultimately a manipulation of the ego by my materials and the joy of 'doing'. Aphrodite Liti among others says about her work : The main axis of my work is the in-depth exploration of the common ground between the verb ''statue'' and the term ''statue''. I understand my art not as a series of equations but as variations of promises of happiness. The sculptures develop a morphological and semiotic dialogue with anthropology, folklore and the ancient sculptural tradition, while the frequent figurative references compose a deeply architectural organization of the sculptural space, with reference to both contemporary art and the Orphic and Paleochristian ''world''.
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2025
Young Artists FENOK - MARIA TSESMELI - DAPHNE VLASSIDOU - KONSTANTINOS XATZIPAPAS 16.01 - 07.02.2025 Opening Thursday 16 January 2025, 18.00 - 21.30 Daphne Vlassidou's works deconstruct and reconstruct moments frozen in time, trying to give life to forgotten fragments of memories. The old photographs she uses usually come from antique shops, while the contemporary collage photographs always depict strangers. Through the composition of photographs and memories that have already been discarded, he seeks to evoke a sense of curiosity and introspection, inviting viewers to reflect on and question the perceived value of moments consigned to oblivion, as well as their relationship to their own memories. The aim is not only to redefine the value of forgotten moments, but also to create a new and ever-changing collective memory; a testament to the constant evolution of human experience.The present textual work of Maria Tsesmelis is based on automatic writing. Personal thoughts are recorded in single texts , with words becoming the medium to the visual effect. The central core of the unit is the repeated repetition, which functions as a practice of emotional decompression. An attempt to disengage from the charge of an event or situation . In terms of the theme, current events are the starting point. Disasters and losses, natural or otherwise, are a reference point for reflecting on one's social position. Crucial quests and chronic questions, about individual and collective identity, develop into universal concerns of human nature. These are the timeless questions of life and death, loss and loss, loss and memory, as they occur in the grotesque language of Edgar Allan Poe and the intensely social and existential works of Franz Kafka. In Fenok s works, routes with objects-symbols and abandoned cars, the Greek countryside and its empty streets scattered with iconostases (elements of tradition) and at the same time, what could be described as an anthropology of the landscape becomes its phenomenology (1). These architectural structures that we find throughout the country, beyond their religious character, are customary constructions that signify the meeting of wonder and drama, life and death - without ever knowing which of the two forces prevailed in each case. (1)* Starting from the conscious experience of phenomena, the fundamental characteristics of the perceptual process and the entity of experiences are deduced (Edmund Husserl). The artistic activity of Konstantinos Xatzipapas,focuses on the fields of painting, drawing and installations with the main focus on the theme of loss. Through studies of the process of grape decomposition and research approaches to the concept of emptiness and black colour, the artist delves into the theme of loss and aspects related to it, such as ageing, death and transition, in order to make them accessible to the viewer and to alleviate the existential anxiety surrounding their nature.
Young Artists FENOK - MARIA TSESMELI - DAPHNE VLASSIDOU - KONSTANTINOS XATZIPAPAS 16.01 - 07.02.2025 Opening Thursday 16 January 2025, 18.00 - 21.30 Daphne Vlassidou's works deconstruct and reconstruct moments frozen in time, trying to give life to forgotten fragments of memories. The old photographs she uses usually come from antique shops, while the contemporary collage photographs always depict strangers. Through the composition of photographs and memories that have already been discarded, he seeks to evoke a sense of curiosity and introspection, inviting viewers to reflect on and question the perceived value of moments consigned to oblivion, as well as their relationship to their own memories. The aim is not only to redefine the value of forgotten moments, but also to create a new and ever-changing collective memory; a testament to the constant evolution of human experience.The present textual work of Maria Tsesmelis is based on automatic writing. Personal thoughts are recorded in single texts , with words becoming the medium to the visual effect. The central core of the unit is the repeated repetition, which functions as a practice of emotional decompression. An attempt to disengage from the charge of an event or situation . In terms of the theme, current events are the starting point. Disasters and losses, natural or otherwise, are a reference point for reflecting on one's social position. Crucial quests and chronic questions, about individual and collective identity, develop into universal concerns of human nature. These are the timeless questions of life and death, loss and loss, loss and memory, as they occur in the grotesque language of Edgar Allan Poe and the intensely social and existential works of Franz Kafka. In Fenok s works, routes with objects-symbols and abandoned cars, the Greek countryside and its empty streets scattered with iconostases (elements of tradition) and at the same time, what could be described as an anthropology of the landscape becomes its phenomenology (1). These architectural structures that we find throughout the country, beyond their religious character, are customary constructions that signify the meeting of wonder and drama, life and death - without ever knowing which of the two forces prevailed in each case. (1)* Starting from the conscious experience of phenomena, the fundamental characteristics of the perceptual process and the entity of experiences are deduced (Edmund Husserl). The artistic activity of Konstantinos Xatzipapas,focuses on the fields of painting, drawing and installations with the main focus on the theme of loss. Through studies of the process of grape decomposition and research approaches to the concept of emptiness and black colour, the artist delves into the theme of loss and aspects related to it, such as ageing, death and transition, in order to make them accessible to the viewer and to alleviate the existential anxiety surrounding their nature.
Roots and Rein | states of coexistence What is the old heron that looks forward to the old plant? [ What ancient root that still clings to its parent stem, looking back to its ancestral soil?] Euripides, Phoenicia (608-609) Stratos Kalafatis, in his search for archaic evidence from the mythical past of his native land, this time investigates the traces of the mounted hero of Thrace, an archetypal symbol that embodies the ideal of bravery, strength, courage, protection and faith in a sacred cause. The horse, with all its symbolism of energy, movement and infinite vitality and as the hero's faithful companion, strengthens the heroic image, emphatically stating the harmonious condition of coexistence between man and animal. At the same time, his gallop reinforces the dynamic of free movement in nature and liberating conquest. The museum representations of the mounted hero with their mutations into versions of saints of the Orthodox faith, the timeless elements of the symbolism of the horse, the connections with psychoanalytic types that refer to the search for balance between conscious and unconscious, as well as the concept of transformation and the journey to maturity, are the basic elements that drive Kalafatis' visual narrative. Lia Nalbandidou, staying true to her quest around the thematic core of family, the revival of the experience of displacement from places of origin and the loss of ties, traces her archives in order to create a complex visual narrative of personal apprenticeship. Through thoughtful exploration and immersion in the struggles of survival, she 'embroidered' the paths that mark the changing of the home of ancestors she did not know, thus probing anxieties and emotional depths. Similar to a ritual process, it seems to put some unanswered questions in order, while rhythmic repetition creates contours in the dimensions of human uncertainty. Moreover, from her personal archives, she chooses for her narrative euphemistic verses and indicative moments of joy that resemble certainties, capable of exorcising evil. Birthday celebrations with intimate etiquette in photographs and videos, narrate moments of fairy tales. Trying to compile some elements of recollection from my meetings with Stratos Kalafatis and Lia Nalbandidou in their workshop in Down Ladadika on the occasion of the Roots and Reins proposals they are preparing, some images become dominant references: the chewed heavy stone/erasure, the textile surfaces of soie sauvage, where trails will be embroidered, like traces of anthropogeography, the photograph with the oversized statuesque horse profile, the one with the nine versions of the mounted Hero of Thrace, the photo with the standing crowned man in the field, the one with the small bird, carved upside down on a branch, the photos with versions of braided palms and even the one with the remains/stones on the sugar-sprinkled surface of the cake.These images, I think, could serve as the decisive pieces of a puzzle, not yet defined. I perceive them as a summation and co-option of representations of Life, where metaphors, ambiguities, allegories and longing for connection are used to form an overall narrative of internal relations. In them, the alternations between private and public, the big and the small story, family records and the fictional environment from representations of myths and beliefs, all, come to underline the personal characteristics of these two so different artistic identities, in their common need to find their deductive roots and to understand them.The title of the overall action as a rhetorical complement to the visual process further coordinates my thinking. Roots and Reins is undoubtedly a dynamic metaphor for the notion of a controlled 'root' that is constantly evolving and that functions similarly to a system of words and images as it expands in many intersections and complex ways. However, what for me beyond the meaning of the words created a particular interest, is the initial R's of the two words in the title and the musical sense they produce. I was automatically dictated some word twins beginning with R : Repetition - Reflection, Rhyme - Rhythm, Resilience - Reign, Rhizome - Resistance, Rationalism - Romanticism, .... and I thought that repetition and reflection, rhyme and rhythm, resilience and reign, rhizome as coherence and resistance to extinction, rationality and sensitivity are certainly among the key concepts to interpret the proposals of the two artists. After all, the associative flows and correlations in the exploration of the human condition in terms of origins have direct connections with symbols from short and long history, in which the dynamic complexity for both artists can be reflected. In conclusion, I would argue that the premise, as an imperative in both Roots and Reins narratives remains persistent: to know one's origins in all their historical and mythological metaphors. Thalia Stephanidou Art Historian/Critic - Curator Thessaloniki, January 2025
Roots and Rein | states of coexistence What is the old heron that looks forward to the old plant? [ What ancient root that still clings to its parent stem, looking back to its ancestral soil?] Euripides, Phoenicia (608-609) Stratos Kalafatis, in his search for archaic evidence from the mythical past of his native land, this time investigates the traces of the mounted hero of Thrace, an archetypal symbol that embodies the ideal of bravery, strength, courage, protection and faith in a sacred cause. The horse, with all its symbolism of energy, movement and infinite vitality and as the hero's faithful companion, strengthens the heroic image, emphatically stating the harmonious condition of coexistence between man and animal. At the same time, his gallop reinforces the dynamic of free movement in nature and liberating conquest. The museum representations of the mounted hero with their mutations into versions of saints of the Orthodox faith, the timeless elements of the symbolism of the horse, the connections with psychoanalytic types that refer to the search for balance between conscious and unconscious, as well as the concept of transformation and the journey to maturity, are the basic elements that drive Kalafatis' visual narrative. Lia Nalbandidou, staying true to her quest around the thematic core of family, the revival of the experience of displacement from places of origin and the loss of ties, traces her archives in order to create a complex visual narrative of personal apprenticeship. Through thoughtful exploration and immersion in the struggles of survival, she 'embroidered' the paths that mark the changing of the home of ancestors she did not know, thus probing anxieties and emotional depths. Similar to a ritual process, it seems to put some unanswered questions in order, while rhythmic repetition creates contours in the dimensions of human uncertainty. Moreover, from her personal archives, she chooses for her narrative euphemistic verses and indicative moments of joy that resemble certainties, capable of exorcising evil. Birthday celebrations with intimate etiquette in photographs and videos, narrate moments of fairy tales. Trying to compile some elements of recollection from my meetings with Stratos Kalafatis and Lia Nalbandidou in their workshop in Down Ladadika on the occasion of the Roots and Reins proposals they are preparing, some images become dominant references: the chewed heavy stone/erasure, the textile surfaces of soie sauvage, where trails will be embroidered, like traces of anthropogeography, the photograph with the oversized statuesque horse profile, the one with the nine versions of the mounted Hero of Thrace, the photo with the standing crowned man in the field, the one with the small bird, carved upside down on a branch, the photos with versions of braided palms and even the one with the remains/stones on the sugar-sprinkled surface of the cake.These images, I think, could serve as the decisive pieces of a puzzle, not yet defined. I perceive them as a summation and co-option of representations of Life, where metaphors, ambiguities, allegories and longing for connection are used to form an overall narrative of internal relations. In them, the alternations between private and public, the big and the small story, family records and the fictional environment from representations of myths and beliefs, all, come to underline the personal characteristics of these two so different artistic identities, in their common need to find their deductive roots and to understand them.The title of the overall action as a rhetorical complement to the visual process further coordinates my thinking. Roots and Reins is undoubtedly a dynamic metaphor for the notion of a controlled 'root' that is constantly evolving and that functions similarly to a system of words and images as it expands in many intersections and complex ways. However, what for me beyond the meaning of the words created a particular interest, is the initial R's of the two words in the title and the musical sense they produce. I was automatically dictated some word twins beginning with R : Repetition - Reflection, Rhyme - Rhythm, Resilience - Reign, Rhizome - Resistance, Rationalism - Romanticism, .... and I thought that repetition and reflection, rhyme and rhythm, resilience and reign, rhizome as coherence and resistance to extinction, rationality and sensitivity are certainly among the key concepts to interpret the proposals of the two artists. After all, the associative flows and correlations in the exploration of the human condition in terms of origins have direct connections with symbols from short and long history, in which the dynamic complexity for both artists can be reflected. In conclusion, I would argue that the premise, as an imperative in both Roots and Reins narratives remains persistent: to know one's origins in all their historical and mythological metaphors. Thalia Stephanidou Art Historian/Critic - Curator Thessaloniki, January 2025