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| Thodoros In his work Theodoros is essentially interested in the category described as artistic with whatever it includes: sculpture as a genre, the artist and the viewer as historical subjects, museums and institutions as participants in the creation of meaning. His artistic presence is significant – and so is our duty before him – because he manages to overcome any form of bipolarity in strictly artistic terms: form and content, nature and technique, optimism and pessimism, success and failure, conservatism and progressiveness, creation and disintegration, the personal and the political. The way in which he overcomes such binary distinctions constitutes the very meaning of his work: questions are retained on purpose as the crucial and structural component of his work, as well as its reception, thus constantly renewing our relationship with art and life. The contradictions between finite and infinite, sacred and mundane life, nature and culture, are interwoven in his work, thus overcoming – we repeat once again, in strictly artistic terms – the political theories of alienation, politicizing of daily life, etc. In this context, the imperative mode – together with prohibition – used in his work “Anti-Spectacular 1974-2009”, relinquishes its given temporal identity and becomes a continuous imperative (it was an imperative in 1974 and it is also an imperative today and it will be an imperative tomorrow and perhaps for ever). However, the continuity that marks Theodoros’s discourse surprisingly enough invites us to be more concerned and anxious and actively alert. His imperative is an order and a gift at once: in this regard, it does not function in the same way as a common imperative, which seeks to impose something on one level only. It seemingly limits our possibilities, but at the same time it holds out the promise for new ones. These new possibilities, for which it prepares us, sound strict, almost threatening, and at the same time they allow us to breathe an air of freedom. The content of his questionnaire, which, on a practical level, is only partially proportionate to the referendum of Hans Haacke in ΜΟΜΑ (1970), is indicative of his artistic strategies: it activates the process of assigning meaning as well as the process of enjoying art on multiple levels. On the other hand, the entire work itself could be a trap. Letters are half erased, whilst, once you pull the curtain, the image you see will change automatically; it may become a wall; it may become a white curtain again or a red one. What is more, the work could be paradise. Adam and Eve are there, and so are the apple and the snake. It may all be just conjuration. It may not be possible to pull the curtain. Whatever you see – and whatever you don’t see – may be a vision already. A vision of your own. Thouli Misirloglou Art Historian  Download CV |  Αντι-Θεαματικά |
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