Alma Contemporary Art Gallery

Untitled,
30 x 30 cm,
2024

What really is the force that moves the world of Eleni Theofylaktou? Where are her images coming from? They can only be perceived as imaginary joints or as a collage of the unconscious, with a surreal and playful character. Twists upon twists, contractions, conjunctions, heterogeneous connections, the absurd, paradox, playfulness, gloominess, inverted universes, unexpected events, of the imaginary, admixtures, restlessness, humour, endless zigzags, pauses, interiority and abysses; all of these constitute a new reality, through transcending reality. The mind is captured and guided by the hand that traces on the white surface, in a game of constant shifts. Her imaginary worlds fly through space and time: a manoeuvre of flee and escape through a dreamy coherence. In one of my previous texts about her work (2014), I noted: “In the case of Theofylaktou, fantasy and reality are blurred to such an extent that it is impossible to locate the edges and separate the events. Everything that happens seems to come from a place where boundaries do not exist, nor have they ever been undermined. Predominantly there is an essence, as if it was and will always be like this”. After eleven years I still stick to these words, with the addition of the dream: I would add the Dream to the fantasy. (“The dream is a second life,” writes Gerard de Nerval in Aurelia.)

Untitled,
40 x 40 cm,
2024

One can enter the works of Eleni Theofylaktou without a safety net. It is a risky environment. Perhaps the viewer should put himself at risk within her images, the same way the artist puts herself on the line as a persona in her works. In the past she would often place herself in the frame as the main figure, shifting the centre of gravity in her experiential space, turning the unfamiliar space into an intimate. It was her favourite approach; she used to dress up and play roles, changing her identity and, at the same time, somehow be autobiographical. She hasn’t stopped being autobiographical. It is just the terms that have changed; when she is absent, like in this exhibition, we should consider her as being present. And so, in her synapses, we can always detect a face, a hidden experience that moves her world, a hidden (auto)biography on stage. I often have the feeling that this is theatre. Her images look like scenes, and I feel that a theatrical act is taking place before my eyes; time stands still, but what unfolds is alive. Theofylaktou’s love for the theatre and her emergence from it is evident.

Untitled,
50 x 61 cm,
2023

In this new work, she resorts to the theatre. And indeed - where else - in the theatre of the absurd. The exhibition's title Good Weather refers directly and indirectly to Samuel Beckett's play Oh les beaux jours/ Happy Days (Oh! The Good Days/Happy Days). Here we should assume Theofylaktou as another Winnie, buried up to the neck, while “the garbage dump around looks like a flower-strewn fortress”, as she writes in her personal notes. Another heavenly day. Begin, Winnie. Begin your day, Winnie. Another day. The imagery of the works shines through a heavy inner mourning, which however flows into the joy of things. It can't be done otherwise. There is no other way to move on from this incessant come-and-go but insist to on celebrating and dreaming amongst the ruins. A bittersweet feeling emerges. A world, where everything still happens. It's her feeling of a grieving celebration, but she doesn’t want to accept defeat.

Untitled,
50 x 62 cm,
2023

Theofylaktou's ability to see and assemble things has not changed. Perhaps more than ever there is a reflection. A quietness, that is a new element of hers. Silence is more visible. The colours dominate, with the tones of black and grey to propose grieving.

Yes, the bell for sleep, when I feel it at hand, and so make ready for the night – in this way, sometimes I am wrong – but not often. I used to think – I say I used to think – that all these things – put back into the bag – if too soon – put back too soon – could be taken out again – if necessary – if I needed – and so on – indefinitely – back into the bag – back out of the bag – until the bell – went.

Eleni Theofylaktou is dreaming of the world. She seems to live all lives assorting them; the world comes to her eyes as a bond. Maybe she dreams the very moment she sees it, capturing the dream in her paintings. Art, as we agree, does not reproduce the visible.

So maybe it was and will always be like this.

Thanos Stathopoulos