2024-04-18 05:10:07
What if an exhibition was inspired by literature? This is the challenge that Gallery 3Portes has set itself, giving the title of its next project to one of Joseph Conrad’s greatest literary works, “Heart of Darkness”.
On this occasion and in the name of Conrad’s Darkness, Gallery 3Portes invited the contemporary artists Alikis Pappa and Nikos Sepetzoglou to present, for the first time together, a selection of works, with the aim of establishing a metaphorical principle between the literary spirit and the visual their sensitivities. This scenographic interpretation of Conrad’s work within the gallery creates a sensitive space in relation to the dark and disturbing aesthetic that is so characteristic and recognizable.
Reflecting on a contemporary art exhibition based on a reading, the gallery invites the public to discover how literature can influence an artistic work by acting as a matrix.
“And what a womb is that! Because it is not the first time that “Heart of Darkness” has been adapted: the most famous is Coppola’s film “Apocalypse Now” in 1979. Conrad’s quintessentially modern story, written in 1902, is still open to interpretation. A violent critique of colonialism, a demonstration of man’s alienating desire to dominate at all costs and an analysis of his complex relationship with the untamed forces of nature, this literary work is an inexhaustible inspiration for the present and the future, even for the visual arts. Thus, when darkness is more fertile than light, an initiatory journey begins, whose dark path illuminates more than it conceals. A leap into the unknown with a dense emotional climate, characterized by the transition between intense black and chiaroscuro, where this pair of visual artists try their hand at this unimaginable strangeness.
Between Alikis Pappa’s anthropomorphic designs and the structuring power of black in Nikos Sepetzoglou’s objects, black is no longer the color of loss and mourning, but becomes a harbinger and revelatory factor. Through a selection of important works, this exhibition invites us to read, look and feel the hypnotic darkness. An initiatory journey, on the edge of the fantastic, in the heart of a land that no longer seems earthly, “Heart of Darkness” stops us at the zero point of history, where the complex construction of our essence begins. Formless matter in an undefined and undefined out of place, this darkness becomes itself the center of the universe, where the taste of the eternal is still felt. That’s when the impenetrable meets its own demons,” writes Sophie Fardella, who is curating the exhibition together with Tasos Kaliakatsos.
The opening of the exhibition at the 3Portes Gallery will take place on Saturday, April 20, from 12 noon to 4 pm, and its duration will be until June 21. The opening hours are from Monday to Friday 11 am to 2 pm, Saturday 1 to 3 pm, while Tuesday, Thursday, Friday the gallery will also be open from 6 pm to 8 pm. Finally, it will be possible to visit the exhibition outside of opening hours by appointment.
Information at the e-mail [email protected] and at the telephone numbers 2651313184 and 6945 802673.