The text below is an excerpt from the exhibition
catalogue Genius Seculi curated by
Dr. Syrago Tsiara, Director of
Τhe Contemporary Art Centre / State Museum
of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki

Art functions as a screen/mirror for the recognition and deeper understanding of the self. Both the artist and the observer face different versions of subjectivities that they are called on to unconsciously identify with or reject. Besides, artistic creation itself is to a great extent the product of identification and discourse with images (imagos) that arise from the collective unconscious, from a common tank of myths, representations and narratives. The creator shares with a community of people the experiences she has had, she recomposes her personal identity through the fragments of collective memory, and when she has to deal with extreme events, then she returns to the historical wound in an attempt to achieve catharsis, familiarisation with the past and reconciliation with life itself. The revival of memory and the redemptive force of oblivion jointly determine identities. The events that we keep alive in our memories are equally as important as the others that we fight so hard to forget. The identification of the subject also takes place through the experiences that the social body keeps repressed in the subconscious, through those remnants of memory that persist despite our eager efforts to erase them once and for all.