He keeps a huge digital photo archive – hard drives with images that are replenished over the years. Most of them are photographs of demonstrations, which he looks through from time to time to check if the slogans on the banners are still relevant. In some of his works, he displays some of the words from these slogans, transforming the banners into symbols that counter their ephemeral nature, but at the same time save collectives and socio-political claims.

On an old oil can, the metal only in its invisible form indicates its previous use – Kostas Christopoulos he carves out the word “justice”, leaving the tin to oxidize with time and decay with the elements.

“I enjoy working with used materials that are often of little value, such as tin cans or items found in demolition ruins – doors, windows, frames – old wood floors and candles from those recycled in churches,” explains artist. . “I feel that their previous use makes them familiar and that on their surface they retain traces of their past and the purpose they served,” he says, referring to the steps of people who walked on these parquet floors, or wishes that the candles were ordered to be fulfilled..

Kostas Christopoulos, Associate Professor at ASKT Athens and Doctor of Political Science at AUTH, is currently presenting his fourth solo Exhibition at Zumbulakis Gallerywith title “Flash”. Shown here is part of his years of research, including paintings, sculptures and mixed media based on photographs.

“Modern painting is forced to create a field of cooperation with photography,” he comments. “The images of the world that we perceive are mostly mediated by photography. Therefore, I am looking for a way for my painting to “respond” to this fact.”

Thus, in his large caboto boxes, he works in his own technique, which develops over the years, and from exhibition to exhibition, he continues to experiment with materials and textures. The way he handles oil on canvas creates on the surface a sense of immateriality, transparency, which again makes reality flat, “enclosing” it in two dimensions. His painting adheres to a black and white palette, and the tonal scale creates the illusion of digital processing even when shooting landscapes. Two large-scale works “Gyaros” and “Makronisos”, as well as photographs of skin and holly, evoke a verse by Ritsos: “This landscape is harsh, like silence.”

“It is true that my landscapes are nothing but sunny, if you remember Elitis. They are arid and inhospitable, contrary to what I call “geoclimatic nationalism”, that is, Greece, which is described as a land of light, blue, white,” emphasizes Kostas Christopoulos.

My landscapes are not sunny at all, if you remember Elitis – they are arid and inhospitable.

And yet, two scattered wooden “bays”, as he calls them, located almost in the center of the room, are connected with nature. Inspired by the mysterious cliffs of Foneas Beach in the western part of Mani, their unglazed parquet construction links them to modern Greek storytelling and city life.

The apartment building that “opens” the tour is immersed in the blackness of the night, looks dirty and “blind” in its anonymity, and the only bright exit is the lit Christmas lights on the top floor balcony. The title of the work is just a date, as we would write on the back of a souvenir photo: “7.1.2023”.

In the end, the visual language of Christopoulos constitutes a universe for the viewer, which leaves room for reflection both on the limits and strength of matter, and on the subjectivity of the gaze.

It is clear that there is a dialogue with recent world history, such as it is presented in the present and imprinted both in collective and individual memory, but political reflection is neither superficial nor pretentious in the light of the trend towards “new-militarized” art of the 21st century.

The duration of the exhibition is until April 22.