DIMITRIS POLYCHRONIADIS
The Self Behind the Window
On Wednesday, December 04th, from 18:00 to 21:00, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center presents Dimitris Polychroniadis’ solo show, curated by Galini Lazani.
The exhibition will be on view until January 25th 2025.
In the space of linear perspective the viewer is imagined to be looking at the world
as if through a window.This window has become our habit of mind and through it
we have become a self which has learned to keep its eye upon the world.
Behind the window we have become distant and detached, a self separated and
isolated from the world, a neutral observer and recorder of the world’s events.
Robert Romanyshyn, “Technology as Symptom and Dream” (1989)
In the book by the American psychologist Robert RomanyshynTechnology as Symptom and Dream, Dimitris Polychroniadis finds the expression of his personal concerns regarding the relationship between man and technology, a relationship that is of great concern to all of us at the crucial point where we stand today. Without either of them demonising technological achievements – which, according to Romanyshyn, are both a symptom and a dream, a symptom of our unconscious desires and fears and at the same time the dream of a better world in which our deepest desires can be fulfilled – they question whether modern man’s detached gaze makes him primarily an observer who has renounced his experiential relationship with the world.
The “window” behind which the observer is isolated, acts as a metaphor for the organized vision that man himself invented and through which he has mastered a series of technical and scientific accomplishments in order to better understand himself and all that surrounds him. Starting with the linear perspective, which studied the world in terms of distance from the viewer, the emphasis was placed on this very viewing rather than on experiencing. The “window”, therefore, is the framework of a highly organized, rational world, defined by suffocating structures- conceptual or pragmatic- which ultimately make it a spectacle to be measured, mapped, coded and consumed.
Following on from the above, we can understand the three pillars on which Polychroniadis built the series of works presented in his solo exhibition entitled The Self Behind the Window. His artworks consist of three elements that are signified by three different media and, as hehimselfmentions, are presented as repeated exercises that test the boundaries and tensions between them. The “background” on which they are all presented are photographs from NASA’s digital archive, specifically from manned missions orbiting the Earth and the Moon, but which to the untrained eye appear incomprehensible or damaged. These photographs are the destination, that is, the world in its entirety. The second element is a three-dimensionally printed spatial grid, i.e. a structural carrier of modern superstructures which, symbolizing the vehicle of observation, fragments the images of space for the viewer. The third element is the self-navigator. It is the only experiential element of the works, as it consists of lyrics of musical pieces that carry for the artist an emotional charge full of doubt and insecurity, corresponding to his concerns.
Attempting to confront the profound and decisive questions of contemporary life through his visual work, Polychroniadis borrows in his practice references from a wide range of human expression, which testify to his broader fields of engagement. The minimalist relationship of the structures with space, the creation of a staged environment, the use of text that applies to pop art and conceptual art, the choice to use Ed Ruscha’s font of preference, an artist who is a lasting inspiration to him, have their roots beyondart, in his architectural and especially in his theatrical background. And what could be more fitting for this exhibition than the creation of a scenery of illusions – both visual and conceptual – that makes us wonder if thorough knowledge and the so-called progress it brings, is what we need to stand in the world by truly experiencing it.
Galini Lazani,
November 2024