On Thursday, February 06th, from 18:00 to 21:00, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center presents Eleni Damopoulou’s first solo show.
The exhibition will be on view until March 8th 2025.
The exhibition “Words in Transition: The Passage of Thought” emphasizes the fluidity of meaning as it shifts from written text to visual form. The fragmented nature of the text in the works underscores the idea that the process of transition allows for new interpretations and experiences through new passages of thought.
The work of Eleni Damopoulou revolves around words as a central medium of artistic expression. Texts, poems, and fragments of language are transformed into visual compositions that carry their own rhythm, texture, and “sound.” What begins as written language gradually evolves into a material presence on paper, where black or multicolored ink becomes a medium through which meaning transcends its verbal origin, becoming something more visceral, abstract, and poetic.
Some of the works contain aesthetic references to printmaking, with an emphasis on drawing, in an effort to discover a form that, through an expressionistic approach and a process of evoking associations, captures (depicts) the personal conscious and unconscious conceptual charge and emotional content carried by each word.
At other times, this associative process unfolds through stratification, where the transparency of the ink preserves the trace of a word that serves as the starting point for the creation of another. The successive layers add new texture, shape, and color. The wear from the removal and the trace of tearing on the paper bind disparate elements into a synthetic harmony that evokes the walls of the city, where before and after coexist, merging ideas that were created at different times and left their imprint on the image.
Through constant research and experimentation, words in her works take on a distinct visual language and form. The text she creates is not simply meant to communicate; it is imbued with a physicality that speaks to the tension between meaning and abstraction. The works are open-ended, leaving space for interpretation and reflection.
Damopoulou’s work is deeply connected to her everyday experiences. In a constant attempt to process and metabolize the vast amount of information, sounds and images from irrational wars, migration, poverty, unemployment, environmental destruction, social and political degradation, she paints text like images that mirror ideas and associations in a mental landscape reflecting the futility of a society still incapable of addressing the violence, inequality, and despair that permeate our world.
The urban landscape is another significant influence in her practice. She is captivated by the textures of the city—worn, battered surfaces layered with posters, graffiti, and fragmented signs. These urban remnants hold an inherent poetry, evoking the fleeting, often chaotic nature of modern life. In her work, the repetition and density of words reflect our collective anxiety in a world saturated with information.
The artist’s approach is mainly indirect. The text may appear fragmented or incomplete, inviting the viewers to uncover irony, subtle commentary, or personal reflection within the work, to reconstruct its meaning, or simply to immerse themselves in the sensory experience of the forms, colors, and rhythms created by the letters themselves.
