Last Friday, February 21st, Eternal Life left the improvised workshop I had mentioned a few weeks ago to be shared with others. An event that, thanks to the collaboration of many, was a success. I was moved by the warmth and acceptance I received from those who came to experience it. The exhibition will remain open until March 3rd, and those who have yet to see it still have time. I am deeply grateful to the municipality of Thessaloniki for providing the space for this project and to the cultural organization ES EN ROI, who have been the bridge between my personal vision and public institutions, making this meeting between art and institution possible.
On Sunday, I took my sister and my friend with me to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, one of those places where time seems to disappear. As we walked through its halls, my gaze was captivated by a drawing that, at first glance, seemed insignificant but rose above everything else. These sensitive lines formed an adult bovine barely seven centimeters in size on a tomb eroded by the passage of time.
This graphic, created 2,325 years ago, so meticulous and full of life, deeply moved me. It made me think about how something so seemingly simple can contain such vitality. This drawing of fine lines, so precise in its elegance, reminded me of the feeling of a well-executed stroke, an action as subtle as it is powerful. As I gazed at the piece, I thought about how difficult it is to distill the essence of what has been lived in so few gestures. About how hard it is to synthesize life in a single stroke, in a line that, like this bull, rises up and seems to charge with strength. Artistic creation is precisely that: an act of courage. Each gesture is not just an aesthetic pursuit, but an attempt to capture the essence of lived experience, to question what is in constant motion.
Of course, this drawing made me think about my own work. About what I have been trying to build over the years and the direction in which I find myself. It is curious how, when contemplating a work so distant in time, one is confronted with the question of whether they are truly advancing in the right direction. Whether the path of our practice is the right one, or if, on the contrary, we are getting lost in the pursuit of the spectacular, of the impactful. My reflection through that tiny sketch was that simplicity and delicacy can hold more power than any grandiose work. And perhaps that is what allows me to continue this search, tracing that hidden energy in the finesse of the stroke and gesture, in which, truly, less is more.
In Eternal Life, as in that bull, there is not only painting or drawing, but a reflection on how creation, in its most subtle forms, becomes an echo of the past, a resonance that transcends time and can invade the deepest part of the human soul.
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