Worth viewing

As art is the last shelter of all our other rooms in our heart's house, I thought of visiting the exhibition of Kostas Tsoklis at "Scholeion" with the title "The living painting". The artist presented eleven pieces that has created from 1985 till now. Main aspect in his inspiration is the greek ancient tragedies that have been combined with the view of contemporary living. Although the viewer has the feeling that the artist's tragic experiences of life have been dressed up with the greek myths, it gives the impression that greek education and tradition are fully combined with life's mysteries. This actual puzzle that looks so good seems to me that he has at least achieved to become classic while past time feels so present.

The silence was all over the exhibition,as every piece had the demand from the viewer to dive into the ritual of watching and judging and read the words that were not written. Something like the wind, a silent force that you cannot actually see.

Also most of the pieces were of long duration. For example, "Artemis" was a thirty minutes piece. The "Consecutive Oedipus" is another long piece which is divided in square screens, of 2 meters each. The viewer sits back and waits for the screens to start showing, beginning from the first and continuing per 5 minutes to the others. What is magical about this work is that each screen begins as a video-film but then it becomes a painting. It's like water being movable like a sea and suddendly the temperature falls down and everything is freezed. So this could be "the stable video" instead of the "living painting". The trick with words cannot explain utterly the magic that thanks to technology and Tsokli's imagination, time has shared with the viewers its relativity.

I think he is a master of image with his large scale works and the minimal aspect of the work. The object of analisis is in front of you ,like a dialogue between you and the work, like a mirror of yourself which arises the deepest of emotions. And the crystallization of being and not being through the images have made me think he has gained some kind of immortality.