Efi
Strousa:
Speech
and writing in Space (page 2) |
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Jannis
Psychopedis,
Lower
Limbs,
1996 |
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Jannis
Psychopedis,
A
Tale of two Cities, 1996 |
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| During
the 1970s the concept of art as a space defined by a political perception
of history and contemporary Greek culture finds one of its most astute
exponents in Jannis Psychopedis. The accompaniment of the image
by a written commentary was to become a trademark of his work. |
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In
1980 the live acts and performances of Nikos Zouboulis and Titsa
Grekou, who used the body, motion, music and latex as their main tools,
gradually took on a more theatrical aspect as the action of the body behind
the latex alluded to fragmented memories from classical Greek sculpture.
During that time they produce the book-sculpture Action-Reminiscence-Displacements
which encloses layers of materials, photographs, texts and other important
elements from their work up to that time. |
Nikos
Zouboulis & Titsa Grekou
Action-Reminiscence-Transpositions,
1980 |
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With the advent of the
crisis of the avant-garde movements in the mid-1980s, the written word
returns as an inseparable element of the visual vocabulary of some of the
younger artists. Writing is often adopted as a familiar tool for expanding
the special cultural ingredients which make up historical awareness and
generate a particular sensitivity towards the concepts of ‘culture’ and
‘memory’. |
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| George
Hadzimichalis,
Journey: O.P./c 1221(12),
1986 |
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| The work of George
Hadzimichalis after 1984 is dominated by the notions of writing and
books as mental spaces where the art of figuration and representation is
recorded and filed in archive forms, denoting a link between visual language
and the history of knowledge and civilizations. |
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Marios
Spiliopoulos
N.G.Pentzikis.
The Landscape of Being, 1997
(details
from the installation
Memory
Fort,
„Wigmore
Fine Art Gallery”, London 1997) |
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Yannis
Dimitrakis
Manuskripts,
1986 |
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| The younger Marios
Spiliopoulos, who appears on the scene in the late 1980s, draws thoughts
and texts from the reserves of the rich scholarly art of modern Greek culture
and turns the familiar Byzantine and post-Byzantine tradition into symbols
of universal spiritual significance.
Yannis Dimitrakis
employs drawing and painting in a natural, direct fashion as elements of
a primordial alphabet. In his works painting and drawing are recognized
as fields for the encounter and harmonious co-existence of body and mind,
while his painterly work is consistently accompanied by texts written by
himself which transform the dimensions and the meaning of his images. |
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Michalis
Arfaras, Triptych, 2001
a.
As
years go by you talk with fewer voices
b.
You see the sun with different eyes
c.
The beautiful dance which ends in nudity |
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| The art of Michalis
Arfaras explores the ambiguous limits between the iconographical properties
of images and script and the fluidity of their interaction; the artist
displays incomparable sensitivity and skill in his experiments with engraving
and printing techniques and book illustrating, using a wide range of new-technology
media in combination with traditional methods. |
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