Dépôt Αrt gallery is hosting the art group exhibition " The Art, Myself "

Dépôt Αrt gallery (Neofitou Vamva str.5, Kolonaki, Athens) is hosting on Tuesday 27th of March (20:00 up 23:30 the art group exhibition " The Art, Myself "

Duration of the exhibition: 27 March – 20 April 2018

The exhibition is curated by the art historian and assistant professor at the University of Athens Κonstantinos Vafiadis.

Dimitris Lazarou has the responsibility for the concept, organization and communication of the exhibition.

69 contemporary visual artists present art works of painting, sculpture and photography, inspired by the words of the French poet Paul Verlaine: "Art is to be absolutely yourself."

Paul Verlaine is characterized as a purely lyric poet who has marked a transition from romance to the symbolism movement, and is distinguished by the musical effect of his writing, through the use of several secrets of French procreation, such as appearances, assertions and imparisyllabic lyrics.

Art historian and Assistant Professor at the University of Athens Konstantinos Vafiadis in his text, titled "Commentary on Paul Verlaine's Exclusion: Art is to Be Absolutely Yourself" notes:

“Consequently the aphorism of the lyric poet Paul Verlaine (1844 – 1896) “Art is to be absolutely yourself, seems to adopt a view of the same aspect. Nevertheless it reveals ambiguity as it refers to two ancient notions, concerning Representation, absolutely not compatible to each other.

According to the first notion Art is considered to be realized to matter, reference to the Self as a materialistic projection to the exteriority of a nonvisible essence, and thus as a way out (exit) from the walls of an individual consciousness.

Papalexandri Aspa

In that case the artistic work constitutes a symbolic parallel to the self having a reference relationship, a point without objective but relevant substance.

According to the second – more ancient – notion. Art is the Self in an absolute Sense. In that case the artistic work constitutes a presence, it doesn’t refer to the Self. It is the Self. Thus the artistic work sheds the arbitrary character that is innate in the relationship between phonetics and the meaning and at the same time it establishes itself as objective.

Having all these in mind and within the frame of Paul Verlaine’s symbolic thought the latter seems to support the second notion of the artistic representation as a testimony of the art work. It proceeds even further by equating the art work with the self or rather by substituting and converting the self into the ultimate piece of Art fully independent from the recent manipulating collectiveness.

In that sense the french poet seems to prepare the path that was destined to lead to the “Death of the Art” and later on to the postmodern Situation, innate to the variations of Conceptual Art – not only to the manipulation of the artistic produce by the “World of Art” since the latter doesn’t do anything else but continuously direct the dominant World of power.”

The participant artists are:

Maria Andreou // George Androutsos // Anna Antarti // Antonis Antzoulidis // Elena Antoniou // Giannis Antonopoulos// Maria Apostolou // Nikos Apostolou // Maria Argyrakopoulou // Eleni Sameli Varouxakis // Liza Merlin Vasilatou //Konstantinos Vapheiadis //Nineta Vretou// Palida Georgoulakou // Anastasia Gkinaki // Giannis Darlamitsos // Tasos Dimos //Elisavet Dionyssopoulou// Tania Drogossi // Stathis Theodoropoulos// Gerasimos Thomas // Ioanna T. // Ioanna Kazaki // Leonidas Kampanakis // Evita Kanellou// Christina Karamanli // Eleni Karatza //Michael Kevgas // Georgia Kokkini // Christos Kontaroudis // Vassilis Kontogeorgos // Marina Koutsospyroy // Evi Kirma // Penny Konstantinou // Grigoris Latsios // Spyros Lytras // Peny Manavi // Katerina Mavroleon // Konstantina Mina// Niki Michailidou // Stavroula Michalopoulou// Fiona Mouzakiti // Mata Bigali // Georgia Bliatsou // Vassiliki Bloukou // Eirini Pagoni // Despoina Pantazi // George Papadimitriou // Styliani Papathanasiou // Aspa Papalexandri // George Partsinevelos// Maria Pastra // Eirini Petropoulou // Aikaterini Pouliassi // Nadia Rapti // Natassa Rachovitsa // Katerina Rimpatsiou // Vicky Samouilidou //Afroditi Sezenia // Katerina Soroula // Sofia Stavrou // Pandora Sofianessa // Konstantinos Tzalalis // John Jomakas // Kerassia Touliatou // George Tsakiris // Katerina Hatzi // Katerina Hortaria // Aristidis Chrysanthopoulos

General information for the exhibition:

Curator: Konstantinos Vafiadis

Concept - Organization - Communication: Dimitris Lazarou (repdla@hotmail.com)

Graphic designer: Giorgos Kastanakis

Video editor: Tasos Petsas

The instrumental composition "This life of mine" which accompanies the video of the exhibition, is created by Tasos Petsas.