Where are the lotus eaters

Where are the Lotus Eaters?
Through this unexpected question, Konstantinos Patsios and Alexandros Maganiotis present in an imaginative and subversive way, their answers, seeking the imperceptible lines that connect their work, related to the concept of memory and to references to myths, monuments and artworks of antiquity. Konstantinos Patsios combines the art of collage with painting whilst maintaining a contemporary point of view, looking for new possibilities of representation and storytelling. His compositions raise existential and ontological questions, his references cover a wide range, whereas the use and exploitation of photographic archives is of pivotal and decisive importance to the artist. With a critical spirit, Patsios presents fragmentary images – ruins of a complex world – a world of contradictions and entrapments, of certainties and subversions – to the extension of the social and political reality, of ideologies and history, of the future and the present, of the personal to the collective experience, anticipating the participation and the complicity of the viewer, who must immerse deep into the work and trace all the connections which unify conceptually the images. Alexandros Maganiotis’ compositions form, on the verge of the “normal”, the “paradox” and the “ambiguous”,imaginative, conceptual and aesthetic, collages in which the surrealistic spirit and catalytic humor are in dialogue with the concept of memory, of symbols, of history and the everyday life, the world of ancient myths and of the Homeric Odysseus. The unexpected meetings, the game of transformations, the projection of inner fears, fantasies and obsessions, trigger a different condition. At the same time, the investigation of the limits between image and speech/text, the interactive and mutual relationship between them is the source of his main reflection. The section with the words (one for each letter of the alphabet) and their images, where the heads of animals or plants rise from humans’ bodies, is indicative of his intentions towards the pre-mentioned direction, defining at the same time, an original alphabet of the adventure of life and life itself.

Yiannis Mpolis, Art Historian.