Dimitris Xonoglou and the palimpsest function of art: an answer to three riddles
Undoubtedly, this exhibition at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki is a unique occasion. Part of its uniqueness lies of course in the fact that it presents the Derveni papyrus, the oldest extant book of Antiquity (its content dates from the late fifth century BC and the text was probably also written around or shortly after that time), discovered carbonized in 1962 amidst the ashes of an ancient funeral pyre. The contents of the Derveni papyrus were only recently read and studied. Despite, or perhaps exactly because of, its unrivaled value, the Derveni papyrus is not the only item on display; the exhibition includes works created by Dimitris Xonoglou, which give an equally lucid rendering of the past.
Thus, the uniqueness of the exhibition lies in the parallel presentation of works belonging to two different spheres, History and contemporary art. Despite their different origins, however, they also have many similarities, sharing above all a common discourse, reasoning, and expression. It is therefore both commendable and legitimate that the Museum took the initiative to bring together the old and the contemporary, to unite a historical find from the distant past with a modern work of art that is only now taking shape, both of them revolving around a shared notion of the Mediterranean and the region’s culture and timeless nature.
The idea of timelessness is related foremost to the struggle for incorruptibility and survival in the face of decay and death. And this is exactly the main theme that links the two works: the papyrus has survived since the fifth century BC and its survival was possible not in spite, but because it was thrown into the pyre of a funeral rite without being entirely consumed by the conflagration: for the Derveni papyrus, the decaying force of the pyre secured its incorruptibility and survival. This being the case, the choices Dimitris Xonoglou made were anything but random: a major, consistent theme in his thought and practice as an artist has been the survival of being into perpetuity. This survival is made possible by love, by a sense of singularity that can even take the form of amputation, and, in his more recent works, by the experiences of invaluable everyday life.
Timelessness is also related, however, to the written word, the text. The Derveni papyrus, whose content is presumed to be Orphic, referring to sacrifices and libations, is sacred in character. For Xonoglou, however, the same sacredness characterizes every piece of writing, every word ever written. This is how we should approach his work with burned and subsequently wax-treated books: the pyre brings the destruction of decay, while the wax is the harbinger of corruption. In the texts and illustrations that survive his fire, the artist plays the role of Time: just as Time can seize, tear apart and leave a piece of writing in ruins, the artist uses the fire to scorch part of the text, thereby ensuring its survival in an intact, purified and sacred state. In brief, the artist becomes the one organizing the sacred memory and the palimpsest of recollections.
What does the word “palimpsest” connote? It implies the funeral goods from the past hiding just below the images of the present. As you scratch the surface of the present, the past comes pouring out. The works of Dimitris Xonoglou become the stimulus and starting point, they are the crust of the present that yields to allow passage to the past, reaching the Derveni papyrus but also every other written – and hence sacred – account of the past: the past of the Mediterranean, the Past of our nation and, further beyond, the Past of Humanity.
Xonoglou’s “Cross” is exhibited next to the Derveni papyrus. The center of the “Cross” represents the statue of the philhellene Roman Emperor Hadrian. The arms are made of broken white plates. At their end, there are umbrellas, rendered in a deep-red color, which are the collectors of cosmic power, adding the elements of motion and color to the “Cross”. Next to the “Cross”, we see twenty-one compositions, strictly and geometrically organized in groups of seven, all of them with book pages as a background. The first group consists of seven paintings with carbonized and subsequently waxed books: as already mentioned, these are pages of memory. In the second group of works, we see broken plates, again with book pages as a background. The third group shows distorted metal utensils, once again with pages as a background. The common denominator of all three groups is the finite nature of everyday objects, which become decomposed by time, decay, or fire. From destruction, however, emerges the text, the written word, the sacred map which resists fire and, despite its losses, becomes again legible, like the Derveni papyrus.
Xonoglou’s composition “The Miracle of the Mediterranean” is exhibited in the second room of the exhibition and revolves around the symbolic image of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), an emblematic personality of contemporary painting, the representative of a new philosophy of freedom, and a symbol of the human will: after an accident in 1925, she became almost entirely handicapped. Despite the extreme pain she suffered since she never stopped working.
The composition shows, on the one side, the figure of Frida Kahlo; the opposite side shows two wheelchairs with books, carrying letters of the Latin and Greek alphabets. Frida, her face made in a mold like the ones used in the making of dolls, is wearing a snowy-white wedding dress• next to the gown, we see a long procession of bridesmaids, ten in total. According to the artist, the bridesmaids, presented in video or photographic form, symbolically and actively support, each in his unique way, the timeless revolution of Frida Kahlo: Marco Polo, Democritus, Russian Monks from the early 20th century, the footballers Lionel Messi and Roberto Baggio, the Cincture of the Blessed Virgin Mary, monks of the Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, Aris Velouchiotis and Athanasios Diakos, Peggy Guggenheim and Boubacar Ould Messaoud, a former slave from Mauritania, who organized, initially in his own country before expanding it internationally, the SOS – Esclaves organization. In front of Frida, there is a construction cart with a very rich load: the cart carries the head of Alexander the Great and fragrant soaps resembling construction bricks. The process of global recomposition, orchestrated by Alexander the Great, purified from any extrinsic and undue damages: his work intact is also offering its support to Frida’s gait.
Because Frida is standing, Frida is walking: in an image negating the reality of her frail, handicapped body (a video projection behind her reminds us of her real state), Frida is shown hale and walking, a white, immaculate image, purified by the fragrant soaps, waiting for her groom (her first imaginary husbands appear in the background, in cells) and trailed by her bridesmaids, our Universal heroes. Frida, standing and writhing, opens the exhibition she receives visitors with her bridesmaids through the filter of the purified image of Alexander the Great. This is a heroic image, presenting an ideal of art in which the artist is spotless, socially independent and a living bond between History and the past, art and the future. In this way, art, as the representative of the future, and history, as a documenter of the past, become united in the artist – or, to be exact, in the ideal of the artist. The image of Frida Kahlo is the conveyor of one last message. After living in severe pain for years, with art and painting being her only panacea and medicaments, shortly before she died, she wrote these last words in her diary: “I hope the exit is successful and that I never return”. Art, therefore, becomes the midwife of consolation, the antidote for pain and a study on death.
Xonoglou’s ideas, and the works that give expression to those ideas, validate and support, and at the same time ex- tend and enrich the message sent throughout the ages by the Derveni papyrus.
Michalis Cacouros