ICUL CTION C
o
n
t
e
m
p
o
r
a
r
y
A
r
t
R
e
v
i
e
Dalia Smayze
w
T hodoris Trampas Lives and works in Athens, Greece
An artist's statement
T
he ongoing search of the human beings for their own image is found in the conscious and unconscious need “to be”. We are in the depths of an existence experiencing the loneliness in front of two empty tables, declaratory of the absence of “those who never came”. It is waiting and searching at the same time. It experiences rejection. However, the hope that they will come transfers those human beings to the area of utopia. With stereotypical moves, with quicklymoving hands and feet and after that, with an ear-splitting creeping, they try to bridge the distance between the ideal and the real. A conflict of wishes upsets the ego, which wishes to escape from a sense of confinement by recalling desirable moments of integration in order to be able to balance. They daydream, they lead themselves beyond what has happened to them, they lose themselves within fantasy, they stand still waiting for what shall come. In the light, the form loses its outline, it fills with soil and water, it struggles to build all of “them” as well as their own image in the reality that they want to live and by means of the above-mentioned archetypal materials, that is the soil and water, by which human existence on earth begins. They free themselves from unconscious internal prohibitions, they break
16
the limits of compromise, they clear themselves, they take any necessary time, they consciously experience fantasy, they surrender themselves to a concealed flow, they travel towards the satisfaction of the primary need; that of “to be”. Thodoris Trampas is a visual artist has been working with performance art and installation in space. He searches the limits inside and outside the body; while it moves, it generates some pace, which affects its relation to the space, it makes natural sounds, which sometimes interrupt and sometimes connect the constant flow. He also uses items and materials of modern life, such as trash bags and nylon together with organic materials, such as soil and water. He changes the properties of the said materials to give certain meanings to them, which are related mostly to the concerns of the human and in general, of the today’s society. Through improvisation, the free movement, he lets respiration get into every cell, recall memories, awaken the existence. Through experiential reality, he aims to highlight a human condition as an endless effort to balance within an “area”, which is constantly changing in space and time.
Thodoris Trampas