2024-05-09 00:09:34
-On May 21, a solo exhibition-installation of Roditisa visual artist Irene Vazoukos entitled ΄΄Light the Fire΄΄ opens in Paris at the Desmos gallery which is located in Montparnasse, specifically on Vadam Street, in the 14th arrondissement. It is the second time that Vazukou presents her work, this time solo, the first was at Christmas in a group exhibition.
-The curator of the exhibition is Efi Michalarou, Art Critic & Exhibition Curator, Treasurer of the Greek Section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA HELLAS) who writes, among other things:…
The solo exhibition of Irini Vazoukou entitled ”Light the Fire” is an exhibition specially designed for the specific space which is located in the heart of Paris and in the 14th arrondissement.
Through the new works exhibited by Irini Vazoukou, she reconstructs a personal-autobiographical narrative, without renouncing her inherent kinships and influences. He uses the space as a shell and through painting and sculpture, creates an installation, with three different units, the “burnt diaries”, the “white dresses” and the “puppets“, which coexist and interact, with a common conceptual axis the last existential anxieties.
The artist, through expressionism and abstraction, which characterize and permeate every point of her painting work, clearly and cleanly redefines and repositions values and feelings, such as the burning of memory, through the diaries of her life during the pandemic , to bring about purification, transformation, liberation and ultimately redemption… She puts aside the brushes and the spatula, her hand becomes an extension, where the oil in a thick paste as she explains to us: “It forces the removal of details and it allows me to keep only the essence, which is the play of light and shadow and the freedom of movement, letting the work evolve as it wants”.
The inherent affinities with Anselm Kiefer’s work are not only evident to experts and viewers, but also to her, where relatively recently, she realized the deep osmosis that was happening in the work and its evolutionary course, through his own. So the white dress for Bazuku contains ambiguous meanings and multiple readings. It is not only the “garment of the body: such as: the wedding dress, the dress of purity, 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 the sacrifice…..of the trauma…. of the Crucifixion after which comes the Resurrection”, as he notes.
And… the triptych of the exhibition, completes a solid – hard material, such as copper, since after the deconstruction comes the reconstruction, of the self, with a favorite material for the artist, who renounces any kind of fashion and convenience, escaping from the narrow boundaries of the two dimensions of the canvas, for the purpose of direct communication and interaction, with sincerity and authenticity. She thus synthesizes the fragments of her soul, embraces the old self (puppet), pleases him and they go together with boldness and strength… just like the sculptures of Giacometti, who is her favorite teacher.
– We should note that the photos for the bronze (life-size) marionette (sculpture) that will be presented in Paris were taken by the well-known Roditisa photographer Kalliopi Voutzali.
-Poly Hatzimarkou Art Historian and European Culture Msc Management of Cultural Units former curator of the Museum of Modern Greek Art of Rhodes, who has been following Vazouko’s work for years notes on the occasion of this exhibition:
“I ask for a new writing for the inner world” “To turn – this is the miracle – / with ragged eyes, / with temples burning from the fall, / to turn / to your good side. [….] To turn around – that’s the miracle.” The above verses of my beloved Karousou come to my mind when I see the new work of Irini Vazoukou.
It is her impassioned expressionism, increasingly abstract from her earlier units, in the burnt diaries. Burnt manuscripts, but often their entire shape can still be discerned, perhaps just before they disintegrate into small pieces, just before they turn to ash and finally. They are there to remind. What finally burned? How many words, what experiences and feelings, how many mosaics of happiness or unhappiness? Does the memory finally burn if the testimony burns? Of course not. But, the paper, when “caught” at the moment of combustion, “folds” into itself. In fact, when the paper is a diary, it is time that gets wrinkled. And this folding brings to mind the past and the present at the exact same moment. The fire itself becomes the author, composes its own text, context, content. It liberates, deconstructs, transforms.
In addition to the “liberation” diaries, a central work of the exhibition is the fabricated human-sized bronze puppet with lace-braided locks – precisely where the delicate becomes the handle for manipulation.
Next are the white nightgowns – perhaps also suspicions of wedding clothes – hanging on crosses. As if ready to burn on prepared altars of fire, or as heroic symbols that survived destruction and wave as banners of strength and resilience. Punishment of promethean payment in the womb, on the one hand. The sacred fire of Hestia on the other hand, of the venerable invisible center that ritualistically and femininely, promotes justice, care, purity and co-existence.
And in this slight stumble in meaning and intention, Irini Vazukou, through the title of the exhibition, makes everything a little clearer. Light the fire. “Set fire to what burns you, to what eats your soul.” You. Prescriptive and sensitive together. Nothing is erased, only embedded.
All in all, Irini Vazukou’s exhibition sheds light and sets the tone. It is a touching pictorial ode to our abused, raped, murdered women-sisters but also to those who fought, were hunted or lost their lives because of their gender, origin, ideology or sexual identity.
Next to it again are the lyrics of Caruso: “just don’t fall when the light / mixed with an elusive voice / and sad / stops you: “Why are you fighting me?”.
Thanks to:
Kalliopi Voutzali for photographing the puppet and Apostolos Koumou for photographing the rest of the works. Costas Georgiadis for the French translation, Dimitris Lebesi and Poly Hatzimarkou for the English translation and Georgia Kazoulis for the graphic design of the entire exhibition.
-A few words about Irini Vazukou:
The visual artist Irini Vazoukou was born in Rhodes. He lives and works between Athens and Rhodes. He is a member of the EETE, the IAA/AIAP, the International Association of Art, the international “10dence platform”, etc. She has participated in many group exhibitions in Greece and abroad while she has presented her work in 16 individual exhibitions. Indicative examples: Historical Archive-Museum of Hydra 2015, Municipal Gallery of Corfu 2014, Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki (Casa Bianca) 2012, Museum of Modern Greek Art of Rhodes 2002 as well as in galleries and archaeological sites in Greece. She has presented her work in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad (Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Egypt, Austria, Bulgaria, Malta, Germany, Belgium, England, Italy, France, Holland, Albania, etc.). Her works belong to public and private collections in Greece and abroad.
-The DESMOS Bookstore was started in 1983 by Mr. Yiannis Mavroidakos and is more than just a bookstore, it is a publishing house, a literary magazine, a small school, a gallery and a hangout for friends of Greece. For forty years now, this space has been the roof and refuge of the Greek language and literature in the French capital. Important Greek and French intellectuals and artists have passed through the bookstore and gallery, such as: Costas Axelos, Adonis Kyrou, Vassilis Alexakis, Claude Mochet, Jacques Lacarrier, Jean-Paul Vernon, Andreas Kedros and many others.
-Gallery Desmos Rue Vandamme, 75014, Paris. Tel:: 0033 01 43 20 84 04. Opening 21/5/24 from 18.00-21.00. Exhibition duration until 28/5 Opening hours Wed-Mon: 15:00-19:00 Sunday closed. Tuesday 28/5/24 hours 11.00-14.00
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