There are exhibitions you simply look at, and there are exhibitions that «captivate» you, making you linger a little longer in front of a piece.
Her work Vasiliki Koskiniotou In Kythira, it undoubtedly belongs to the second category.
The Kythera.News He attended the opening and had the opportunity to tour the exhibition, engage in conversation, and, above all, take his time viewing the works.
And what ultimately remains is the sense of an extremely personal style of painting, one that does not use the poetry of Nikos Karouzos merely as a decorative motif. It reworks it, deconstructs it, and attempts to reassemble it using its own means: color, line, shape, script, materiality, and movement.
Four verses – four paintings
Among the projects we’ve highlighted is one that stands out four-panel, based on four verses by Nikos Karouzos:
«Meditate on death and on solitude"
Joy that echoes through the heavens, and bitterness that rings in the ears
When you die, where do you end up?;
»You leave as a centripetal force and return as a centrifugal force."
The story behind these words gives them even greater significance. The four-line verse was dictated from Karouzos to his partner, Eva Bey, on August 25, 1990, a little more than a month before his death, and was later included in the posthumous collection Discoveries of cobalt blue.
Koskinotou transforms every line into a unique visual realm.
However, he does not attempt to tell us «what the poet meant.».
And that is perhaps one of the greatest strengths of her work.
It allows poetry to remain open-ended and painting to create its own parallel narrative.
In the four paintings, one encounters dark fields and bright bursts, an almost floating blue figure, circular movements, lines, and trajectories. From the introspection of death and desolation to the enigmatic question «When you die, where do you go?», painting follows Caruso without becoming subservient to his words.
And in the last table, the «You move away from the center, you move toward the center» It almost seems to come to life. Lines and trajectories revolve around a center, move away, and return.
«The poet is ambivalent»
Another project that stood out was the Kythera.News is the «Amphiflox», inspired by Nikos Karouzos’s famous line: «The poet is ambivalent».
A strange word, almost explosive. «Amphiflox» refers to one who is ablaze on all sides, caught in the fire and the intensity coming from every direction.
Koskinitou conveys this idea on the canvas in an exceptionally dynamic way. Arrows of different colors move in every direction: up and down, toward the center and outward. Circles, lines, and trajectories intersect, creating a field of constant motion.
Nothing seems static.
The poet finds himself, symbolically, in the midst of this vortex: he receives the world and at the same time radiates out into it; he gathers and disperses, consumed by both what surrounds him and what he carries within himself.
And perhaps that is where the power of this particular work lies. Koskiniotou does not attempt to paint the flame literally. She paints her intensity.
An exhibition worth your time
Of course, Vasiliki Koskiniotou’s work is not limited to the pieces we have chosen to present.
These are just a few of the ones we focused on the most.
And perhaps that is the best way to approach the exhibition: not by looking for the «most beautiful» work, but for the one that will make him stop.
Let him take another look.
Read a line.
Return to the table.
And just like that, in Kythira, Poetry becomes painting without ceasing to be poetry—and painting draws closer to words without losing its own voice.
An outstanding piece of work and, above all, an exhibition well worth seeing in person.
