ART-PRESENTATION: Collectanea

Zissimos Lorenzatos is considered by many to have been one of the most important and significant men of letters in Greece in the 20th Century. In 1931 he entered the Law School of Athens University, but in 1933 he moved to the Philosophical School from which he graduated in 1936. The year before his graduation he published his first literary study, on Edgar Allan Poe. After WWII Lorenzatos wrote and published his first significant literary study on the poet Dionysios Solomos, called “Essay I”. It was also in 1953 that he translated into Greek William Blake’s “Marriage of Heaven and Hell” which was published in the same year. His writings deal with figures as Dante, Pascal, Andre Gide, T. S. Eliot, E. A. Blair, Paul Valery, Ezra Pound, and the philosophers Ludwig Wittgenstein and Cornelios Kastoriadis. These writings took the form of essays and were published throughout the years as monographs.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Christoforos Marinos Archive

The group exhibition “Collectanea” features drawings, photographs, sculptural installations and a video. Some works function as notes and three-dimensional visual essays, while others function as diary entries and phychograms. We also encounter text-sculptures as well as drawings that focus on the process of immersing ourselves in a text and the physical relationship we develop with it. As the curator of the exhibition, Christoforos Marinos,  says “Collectanea was born out of a reading of the eponymous book by acclaimed essayist Zissimos Lorenzatos. The time (summer) and place (Skyros and Evia) of reading this philosophical diary have been crucial in conceiving the curatorial concept and selecting the artists. In his attempt to visualize a reading experience, the curator assumes the role of mediator: he assembles artworks that seem to embody the spirit of the book and certain obsessions of its author”. From the start of his artistic course in the mid-1980s, Nikos Alexiou shows an interest in simple, natural materials such as stone, wood, mud etc. and in architectural structures. Subsequently he experiments with natural phenomena and especially with light, its reflections and its iridescence on water and on other surfaces. The most characteristic and recognizable aspect of his work is the paper lace motifs and the geometric constructions made of canes in various forms and dimensions, which he often composes into large-scale installations in order to create fluid, poetic worlds. From 2003 he explores themes and motifs from Mount Athos’ Iviron Monastery, which he visits often. The creation of his works is inspired by tradition and the historic past, for which he uses various materials and expressive mediums. He has also been involved in stage design. Panagiotis Koulouras’ watercolors from the series “41 Days” are a transparent and fluid. The simplicity inherent in his technique coupled with its great craftsmanship, leads us to a not-so-obvious place where the qualities we choose to see play a leading role. As the artist says “Personally, I felt the fulfillment by the sight of a weed that can grow anywhere, in the most adverse conditions, out of sight of something thar  you miss it  or stand and see. That’s why I have nothing to say except that in a movie I remember a warrior standing before the battle in front of a blooming cherry tree and telling his opponent that he could look at his flower for a lifetime, without considering his life lost”. From  his first exhibition Yiannis Theodoropoulos’ photographs constitute sites of absence, of memory.In the Photo he presents the artist continue sto focus on his personal path and the formation mechanisms of the Ego through small everyday stories identified with the peculiarities of his family. Nina Papaconstantinou is interested in the subject of language and seeks the relationship between image and text, writing and texture, which are transformed and arranged in the lines of the various texts that she appropriates into her work.

Participating artists: Nikos Alexiou, Anna Constantinou, Ria Dama, Nella Golanda, Nana Isaia, Zissis Kotionis, Panagiotis Koulouras, Vasiliki Lefkaditi, Klearchos Loukopoulos, Nina Papaconstantinou, Anthimos Peloponnisios, Kostas Roussakis, Studio Lialios Vazoura, Yiannis Theodoropoulos, Tassos Triandafyllou, Giorgos Tserionis, Maria Tzanakou, Andreas Vais, Myrto Xanthopoulou.

Info: Curator: Christoforos Marinos, ACG Art Gallery, The American College of Greece, 6 Gravias Street, Aghia Paraskevi, Duration: 21/2-21/3/20, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 14:00-18:00, Sat 12:00-16:00, www.acg.edu