“Studies in Symbology”

68 Projects, Berlin 2016

PRESS RELEASE

We are very pleased to open the second half of the year with a solo exhibition by Greek born and New York City based artist Panos Tsagaris. Following an invitation by 68projects, Tsagaris spent the summer working in Berlin. His art revolves around timeless themes, such as humanity, the search for meaning and the sublime. Tsagaris’ mostly abstract collages, paintings and films are always grounded in the medium of photography, revealing an intense fascination with occultism, spirituality and mystic teachings.
His current series of works is based on photos of mirror still lives that he assembles in his studio. Once constructed, the reflecting composition is photographed with the artist ’s iPhone- “the” symbol of self-presentation and vanity of our time. The photo is subsequently blown up, printed, furnished with further mirrors and re-photographed in another installation. This process of arranging, photographing and printing is repeated until the reflecting qualities of the mirror have been exhausted.
Following mythological tradition, such as the story of Narcissus, who drowns in his own reflection, the mirror in Tsagaris’ work symbolizes the fall of the soul from the divine to the physical realm, from higher consciousness to the profane, while simultaneously exemplifying the purification of collective being.
In the ongoing “Newspaper” series, which he began at the onset of the Greek crisis, the artist partially covers front pages of the New York Times with gold leaf, leaving visible only the newspaper’s masthead and the pictures that show the current political events in Greece, for the most part scenes of police or state violence against the people. By means of this reduction the artist is able to highlight the narrow thematic scope in the international perception of the crisis-ridden country. At the same time he demonstrates that the crisis in his home country is by no means a purely economic, but rather a serious political one. Over time Tsagaris extended the choice of images to include headlines and pictures that deal with events and incidents all over the world- such as the demonstrations against police brutality towards Afro-Americans in the USA or the terror attacks in Paris. The artist’s works thus become a “speechless” chronicle of the escalating nature of recent global events. At the same time they are a testament to the great importance of images in today's reporting and their power to both inspire and manipulate.

text by Katharina Pilz