Efi
Strousa:
Speech
and writing in Space (page 3) |
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Antonis
Panagopoulos
Espace
de Mémoire, Rosetta, 1990-2001 |
| One
of the most lucid and comprehensive propositions regarding the depletion
of ideas in art and image-producing methods in our times was given in 1990
by Antonis Panagopoulos. The language of painting forms part of
the realm of pure intellectual creations, with Speech and Memory as its
sole points of reference. Spontaneous inspiration in his work manifests
itself in a text he has written himself to link the field of the creative
process with the memory of nature and civilization. This text, which is
still in the process of being translated into all current and past languages
of human civilization, forms the basis of his entire oeuvre. |
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In
Nakis
Panayotidis’s photo-constructions the space of the artwork appears
as a gathering place for elements from the archaeology of Greek and industrial
civilization along with key-words, so that the artistic act is depicted
as a method for building poetic correlations between past and present. |
| Nakis
Panayotidis, Poleis,
1989-1990 |
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Among
the younger generations, in 1999 Pandelis Chandris summarized some
twelve years of his career in a series of works under the title Medlent
(an inventive abridgement of the words ‘Medium Talent’). Whereas in previous
works writing was present in the form of scientific notes and explanations
of images taken from natural history, which made the painting look like
a page from a huge dictionary, Medlent introduces a method for interpreting
the world which is tailored to human measure, thus turning the average
man into a protagonist and reader of the book of life. |
| Pandelis
Chandris, The Diary
(detail), 1998-1999 |
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| The artists who
emerged in the 1990s emphatically provided an image which was firmly associated
with their times. Their critical stance and their language-related choices
are largely determined by the uniform models of behaviour of contemporary
man. The image in itself is no longer semantically sufficient, and speech
or written comments often assume an almost leading role. At the same time,
their demand that their work be widely diffused in everyday space encourages
the use of the entire range of modern communication media. |
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Tassos
Pavlopoulos
Socialising,
1999 |
| The
rich imagery of Tassos Pavlopoulos is based on the example of illustrated
publications and comic strips. Using painting as his medium he composes
a host of illustrated stories and parodies of contemporary society, with
inexhaustible sarcasm and intelligent wit. Books are his natural field,
and many of his works are compiled in editions designed by himself.
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Alexandros
Psychoulis
Eikonologio,
1999,
video 6' |
| The
wealth of expressive media afforded to visual artists by contemporary times
and technology provides Alexandros Psychoulis with a wide scope
for action. Yet what he focuses on is clearly the new labyrinth of communication
resulting from the non-correspondence of meaning between image and speech
in a multi-cultural society which behaves –in terms of communication– as
if it is contained in a single space, digital space, and a one-dimensional
time: the present. Central to his language is the transcendence of the
boundaries between arts and cultures. Psychoulis adopts interactive methods
of visual and verbal communication to engage the viewer in a direct oral
dialogue with the work, while the artist himself manipulates the intertwining
of speech and image as codes for determining the multiple levels of spatial
and temporal perception. |
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