PRESENTATION: Irini Vazoukou-Light the Fire

Irini Vazoukou’s work is a deeply philosophical expression of her view of human existence. Her artworks impress with both their size and their subject, guiding the viewer to new paths of aesthetic perception. Through her detailed and complex compositions, Vazoukou invites the viewer to explore the multidimensional aspects of human experience and develop deeper thoughts about existence and interaction with the world. Each of her works is a gateway to a world of contemplation and aesthetic exploration.

By Efi MIchalarou
Photo: Irini Vazoukou Archive

Through her new works, that are on show in her solo exhibition “Light the Fire”, at Desmos Gallery in Paris, Irini Vazoukou reconstructs a personal-autobiographical narrative, without renouncing the inherent affinities and influences. She is using the space as a shell and through painting and sculpture, Irini Vazoukou creates an installation, with three different bodies of work: “burnt calendars”, “white dresses” and “puppets:”, which coexist and converse, with a common conceptual axis the ultimate existential anxieties. The artist, through expressionism and abstraction, which characterize and permeate every part of her painting, with clarity and purity redefines and repositions values and emotions, such as the burning of memory, through the diaries of her life during the pandemic, to bring catharsis, transformation, liberation and ultimately redemption… She places the brushes on the side and the spatula, becomes an extension of her hand, where the oil in thick paste as she explains “It imposes the abstraction of details and enables me to keep only the essence, which is the play of light and shadow and the freedom of movement, letting the work unfold as it wants”. The innate affinities with Anselm Kiefer’s work are evident not only to experts and viewers, but also to her, when relatively recently, she became aware of the deep osmosis that was happening in her work and her evolutionary course through his own. Thus, the white dress for Irini Vazoukou contains dualistic concepts and multiple readings. It is not only a “garment of the body: such as: the wedding dress, the dress of chastity, the nightgown of dreams and innocence, but also the garment of the soul that leaves through the shroud. “The white dress plays the role of Iphigenia. Of sacrifice… of trauma…. of the Crucifixion which leads to the Resurrection”, as she notes. And… The triptych of the exhibition is completed with a solid-hard material, copper, since after deconstruction occurs the reconstruction of the self, with a favorite material for the artist, which renounces any kind of fashion and convenience, escaping the narrow limits of the two dimensional canvas, aiming the direct communication and interaction, with honesty and authenticity. She thus composes the fragments of her soul, embraces her old self (puppet), she thanks him and together they join hands with boldness and strength… just like Giacometti’s sculptures, who for her is a beloved teacher.

Photo: Irini Vazoukou, The burned diary, 2024, Oil on canvas 30 x 30cm, © & Courtesy the artist

Info: Curator: Efi Michalarou, Galerie Desmos, 14 Rue Vandamme, Paris, France, Duration: 21-28/5/2024, Days & Hours: Tue (21/5) 18:00-21:00, Wed-Mon (22-27/5) 15:00-19:00, Tue (28/5) 11:00-14:00, www.desmos-grece.com/galerie