MUSEUM AVEROFF in GREECE
Presents "Creative Encounters"
Stavros Kotsireas & Sir Peter Blake
17th APRIL 2021 - 30th AUG 2021
Because of the Covid-19 situation
the exhibition has been moved to 2023.
More details will follow in due course.

05/03/2019
SIR PETER BLAKE / STAVROS KOTSIREAS


We live in a highly transitioning era, in which the demand to redefine the political scenery and review social values acquires a sense of urgency throughout the planet. Riots and the rise of the far-right in most countries of the "civilized" Western world, present a serious challenge to the principles on which this world was built. In a time of post-truth and alternative facts, are there any timeless truths to which we can hold on, in order to navigate the uncertain waters of the present, with some certainty about the future?

In this historical moment, viewers are invited to converse, through the works of Peter Blake and Stavros Kotsireas, with great personalities of the past and the present, while thinking how they want to shape the future.
Metaphorically placing personalities that are at large interwoven with our collective unconscious around a table, Kotsireas creates a dialogue beyond the limits of space and time. In front of each seat on the table lies an embossed bronze sphere with quotes or excerpts from works of each personality, while each chair bears objects that are directly associated with every one of them and form the basis of the artwork that is behind each personality. Participation plays an important role in this installation: in front of the viewer's chair on the table lies a glass sphere with an opening on top, in which the artist invites the public to share their concerns (in their own language) and perhaps suggest solutions to the deadlocks of our time.

Completing the installation, the paintings of Blake present the new protagonists that emerge from the information overload brought to us by the mass media. Having been characterized as the ‘’godfather’’ of Pop Art, Blake is famous for his painted portraits, as well as those in drawing and collage, which mix modern images over an old motif. Depicting the interaction between the individual and the public, fashion and convention, his works reflect the struggle of a person to find and keep his/her individuality in a world that continually changes and evolves.

From the above, it can be understood that the point of contact between the two artists is the individual itself but viewed through a different lens. On one side, Kotsireas elevates certain public figures in a kind of archetype, transforming the essence of their personality or their contribution to our global community in symbolic objects. On the other side, Blake defends individuality by making common people the protagonists of his works, searching for what makes each and every one of us unique.

The result is a fruitful dialogue among many different creative mediums (painting, sculpture, graphic art, installation art etc.) All together and each separately reveals the desire of the individual to be integrated and contribute to society while keeping his/her individuality. Finally, drawings will be exhibited, parallel to the main exhibition, in order to show how each artist transforms an idea into a meaningful and complete work of art.

Annita Apostolaki – Anastasia Manioudaki, Art historians, Co-curators