Cynthia Gerothanassiou, Myrto Vounatsou, Stelios Dexis, Ioanna Kazaki, and their guest Panagiotis Triantafyllidis, attempts the conversion of a semiotically loaded material, the rubble, into a contradictory, controversial space between reality and dream, truth, deceptiveness, illusion and deceit. The ruins are the building materials of a multi-level sculpture on which the unceasing movement of small sheep is projected, while at the same time the melody of a child lullaby is heard. The artists use the combination of the traditional symbolism of the elements of their work with the inherent ability of visual and sonic repeatability to “put to sleep” and “hypnotize” the viewer to comment on the practice of power systems to put citizens in a “passive” mode, avoiding thus any notion of risk. The news media term echo chamber refers to the condition in which information generated and manipulated by power is reproduced, homogenized, accepted without critical filtering and ultimately established as correct and universal by means of their “bombardistic” repetition by the mass media. Essentially, the work deals with the contradiction of “risk taking” in its most realistic, contemporary version, at a time when truth and ignorance alternate without distinction by the ruling power according to its purposes. The seemingly safe or the precarious daily life is to a great extent a product of “processing” and determining the consciousness of the masses by the power systems. Consequently, “risk” and “non-risk” are not defined by objective criteria or healthy consciences, but by whom, how and why the role of the patron of society has been obtained. The idea that “seeking the truth requires risk” is not of philosophical nature, but a fundamental principle of the protection of basic human rights.
Art historian Vassiliki Vayenou