Project Description

“Palimpsest”: A manuscript or piece of writing material on which later writing has been superimposed on effaced earlier writing. (Oxford dictionaries) This definition constitutes the framework of M. Pantelias’ experimentations. He studies and is inspired by the mechanisms of memory, the past, its recall and transformation into something new, in a new time. ‘The palimpsests refer to old manuscripts which have been erased in order to write new writings on them, this double-written reading defines a new place and becomes the carrier of new interpretation. I collect elements that attract my attention through notes then I reconstruct them in the studio producing a new image, which has become autonomous in a new reality’ (Miltos Pantelias) Pantelias refers to images, processes them and then the procedure ofpalimpsests is concluded with the rewriting of the new image and sensation. From the woman’s form in the sea and back concepts participate in each other’s experience. The artworks of this unity function as monumental instantanés that release an aura with intense elements of nostalgia and lust, which is also reinforced by the characteristics of M. Pantelia’s art, the obsession in the detail and the quiet use of colour. At the same time, in this tranquil frame, the detail in the folds contributes in a sense of an aerial movement. The notion of Palimpsest in memory, as it is represented through Pantelias’ work, affects his practice, too and finally is reflected through it. Multiple layers of processing which are not always visible; the fabric, the design, the frequent addition of paper all together form plaits, writings and ripples. Miltos Pantelias  He was born in 1954 in Athens. He stayed in Paris for eleven years where he studied engraving and lithography at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and then at the Art Plastiques section in Paris VIII University. Since 1978 he has presented twenty seven personal exhibitions and has participated in many collective ones and art meetings in Greece in collaboration with distinguished exhibition curators of Greek art stage and abroad in France, UK and Belgium. Works of his are included in collections of State and Private Museums, in Municipal Galleries and Foundations, as well as in important private collections in Greece and abroad.