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The title of the exhibition is "Untamed Testimonies"
"Untamed Testimonies" are the genuine testimonies which function freely,
effortlessly and tell their story.
I had come across an album by Spyros Meletzis,
which contained black-and-white photos,
images of common meals of the post civil war era
and it tremendously impressed me. The photos were compelling.
I wanted to transfer the black-and-white photos to canvas from my own angle.
I wanted to give them color,
thus wanting to exorcize an unpleasant event.
It is like giving life, meaning, existence, happiness in a soulless body.
Her lines express feelings.
They have pieces of soul. It is not merely an artwork I looked at.
If you notice my technique,
you will understand or you will feel the intensity and the aura of the period through the brushstrokes,
through the intensity and the action of the brushstroke in the painting.
Obviously, the moment I was painting it,
I was feeling, watching the black-and-white photos, the same intensity myself.
I was feeling that I was painting
a very difficult theme and maybe the brushstroke aroused in this way.
It resulted for this reason.
What I wanted to achieve was the break of the form.
I wanted to narrate realism and not to imitate it.
I didn't want the concept of restriction to be present in the image.
I wanted the image to communicate with the background.
I wanted them to be connected.
Also, the colors function in the same manner.
She makes her own point with immediacy,
bridging the gap between the past and the present, depicting her personal concerns.
When I came across Spyros Meletzis' album about the common meals,
I thought at once that even today we experience the same thing.
Maybe then - two years ago- it wasn't so bad.
But as the time passes, we hear about common meals
more often and more and more people experience them.
Nowadays, us artists, we can help a lot all those people who experience this situation,
showing them a more optimistic perspective.
Besides, art is redemptive.
It's time for us to be silent.
Painting isn't words, it is a message, it is a sentiment, it is expression.