On Friday, March 6, 2020, Ikastikos Kiklos SIANTI Gallery presented the “Perfect Eros” exhibition, while introducing an album under the same title, published by University Studio Press.
Twenty-one visual artists are depicting Eros as a perfect idea, not as an ephemeral act, bringing to view a different aspect of human nature: that of Eros, as a driving force of life. By depicting physical beauty, spiritual elevation is inevitably arisen. In this constant search for the Ideal, 21 remarkable writers and poets put into words the path where desire will meet the absolute, the infinite, the constant, the perfect beauty… the Eros!
The idea of an album as an ode to Eros was implemented by the art historianManos Stefanidiswho states as the curator of the exhibition:
“Perfect Eros with 21 +21 creators: What do we have here? A writing exercise which is becoming an image. A group experiment with old and future friends. As always, at the beginning was a chance, a fragment. A random line, a trace, a brush stroke on a white canvass like a golden fly trapped in a sealed room. A suspicion of color. Then was movement.
A senseless forth and back, a bidirectional, ambiguous movement full of doubt – only to exorcise stillness. Even worse, stagnation. We are always prompted to do something, anything, even if there doesn’t seem to be any point in it. Even if we fail. Even better, it is our duty to fail in the best way that we can, like Becket, the evangelist of the void, wanted us to. It is a line moving in search of its inner rhythm. A line not trying to be beautiful, but striving to be real. Like a seismographer’s point.
The bigger it is, the more dangerous its trace becomes, the closer it is to its target. The closer it is to Truth. Rhythm comes out of repetition. Simple, boring at first, then more and more unforeseen. More interesting. And it is then, that the line dancing rhythmically on the paper starts its narration. It is then that poetry and painting, languages of rhythm, come closer together. It is then that rhythm, poetry and painting become one. Music. It is then that instinct speaks from the innermost layers of being. When expression is accomplished. A work of αrt? Something even bigger. A work of life!”
No one can stay unmoved in the presence of erotic desire, its ravaging force, its emotional intensity. Art itself is about intensity and passion. No doubt, eroticism is an integral part of art masterpieces throughout the centuries – from Michelangelo to Picasso, from Klimt to Schiele, who deified erotic pleasure in its provocative, as well as its sensual form. It is obvious that woman and love have always been a source of inspiration leading to great masterpieces.”
In the end, love is our urge towards conquer, not the conquer itself. Platonic love, as we understand it today, is based on this idea: an idealistic love that does not involve conquer. To quote the philosopher himself: “If he meets by chance his true other half… then they are both moved by an extraordinary sense of affection, of common origin, of love. And I would say that no one could separate them…”
And the reason is that this was the primal nature and once upon a time we were whole.
Well, the desire and momentum of wholeness goes by the name of Eros…
