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Angelos Spartalis

Me or Mrs. Vasso?


painting exhibition
July 20 - August 31, 2019
Jewelry store "to skouliki", Aghios Nikolaos, Crete

text also available in Greek

 

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he room was empty. It used to be Mrs. Vasso’s room and it would be renovated soon. The bed and the few furniture had been moved away. Only a dozen frames were still hanging on the walls. Small frames with Mrs. Vasso’s simplistic handmade ethnographic or decorative embroideries: An Evzone soldier dancing with a woman from Epirus, a shepherd with his crook and a dog, a kid on his knees praying in front of a candle, a little bird and flowers, lots of flowers.

I was standing there thinking about the themes of the embroideries, when all of a sudden an intense light flooded the room through the window and the empty space with the small frames carefully hung on the walls was transformed in a museum and a paintings exhibition! An exhibition attended only by me, since I was the only person on the planet who perceived it as such. There I was, the only guest, at the opening and at the same time at the finissage –as our French friends would say- the closing, that is, of the exhibition. After a while, I removed the frames and I left the room trying to carry them all at once in my arms.

So, I was stuck with these little frames. Now what? Sell them? That’s out of the question. Give them away? I didn’t want to. What about using the perfectly conserved handmade wooden frames for my own art? Now we’re talking! But I felt ashamed; ashamed because of Mrs. Vasso’s work. After all, she was a true lady. So, I said to myself –as well as out loud for that matter- you shouldn’t throw away these embroideries that were created with so much effort, although they are simplistic, although they are not modern like yourself. What you should do is put them back in their frames, but on the back, save them from other tomb raiders like you covering them with… your supposedly modern works. And after 100, 200 or even 500 years, let humanity finally decide which one of us should be on the front and which on the back. Me or Mrs. Vasso?
 

(translated by Sophia Charalampous)

 

 

Opening: Saturday, July 20, 2019, at 19:00

Duration: July 20 - August 31, 2019

Opening hours: Monday-Saturday, 10:00-14:30 & 17:30-22:00, Sunday closed

Adress: Jewerly store to skouliki”, Iroon Polytehniou 1, Aghios Nikolaos, Crete, Greece

 

 


#2: Hug and flowers


 

 

 

 

#1: Hug and flowers

 
 

 

 

 

#8: Hug and flowers

 
 

 

 

 

  #7: Evzone soldier dancing with a woman from Epirus and a hug  
 

 

 

  

  #10: Eye and flowers.  
 

 

 

  

  #6: Hug and a shepherd with his crook and a dog  
 

 

 

  #5: Hug and a kid on his knees praying in front of a candle