Overlook is Pavlos Nikolakopoulos solo show where he presents an installation comprised of two separate and interdependent works.

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The first art piece that gave the title to the show (Overlook, 2011-2012) depicts a series of 270 drawings in ink and acrylic on paper, sized 14 x 19 cm each. A familiar cosmos of dense and awry narratives is portrayed, which seeks to ensnare the spectator into an apparently purposeless wandering of the gaze. Yet, as soon as the viewer somewhat distances himself from the work, he is able to perceive the drawing of a violent conflict, visible only in overview.

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The second work with the title Carnage of ennui (2012) consists of a sphere made of the artist’s nails, which constantly rolls over a strongly lightened surface so as the shadow of the sphere is projected on the wall. The movement of the sphere is strictly orientated from one corner of the wall to the other. In addition, the whole construction is inside a room where the only contact with the viewer occurs through an embrasure, where he could distinguish the shapes on the walls created by the shadow of the nails. The artist places on the external corner of the room a dental sample in which he has excessively sharpened one tooth, which is an element that alludes to a cannibal’s trait.

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With a slight sarcasm, the artist comments upon the course of our alienation and passivity that results to a “carnage of ennui”, while he asserts that contemporary man has been alienated due to the bribery that prosperity and the controlled guidance offers. This situation has been solidified after making blunt his key means of defense, his subjective judgment and the desire for a self-willed life. Unable to incorporate in life, man has learned to perceive reality only as an image and himself as part of it. Therefore, he becomes weak and fractured and survives as a momentary apparition, detached from his history and social context.

 

Pavlos Nikolakopoulos was born in 1973 in Athens, Greece and has attained a BFA from the Athens School of Fine Arts (1996). He has participated in numerous group shows, such as: A Rock and A Hard Place, 3rd Thessaloniki Biennale (2011), Greece; Aftermath, 25th Alexandria Biennial, Egypt (2009); Personal-Political, 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale (2009), Greece; Heterotopias, 1st Biennale of Thessaloniki (exhibition Other Places), (2007) Greece; Drawing Screen, Museum of Cinema (2006), Greece; An Outing, Contemporary Art in Greece in the 21st Century, Beltsios Collection, Trikala (2006); Dialogues, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (2005), Greece.

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