The Artist’s Home or the perpetual wanderings of his soul.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, che la diritta via era smarrita.
Dante, Divina Comedia, Inferno, Canto I, v. 1-3

What can we expect from an artist today? what is his margin of action after so many artistic movements of liberation, or practices and revolution? Can he still present a theme that is unexplored, new, original and based on a spontaneous, pure and authentic inspiration? The answer to these questions is given only in a negative way, as in apophatic theology: it is unknown what we can expect from the artist, but it is known that we no longer expect him to offer us a restoration of reality.

So, what was in Dimitris Xonoglou’s mind, when he had the idea to present to us a house, an urban or rural domestic construction lined with eggs, with objects spread on the outside? Is this a real restoration of reality or, behind this superficial image, another reality is hidden, a “poetic” reality with the literal meaning of the term? Is this a reality created in the context of a personal approach, completely unknown, which the artist invites us to discover? We will express some thoughts about this reality, a reflection of a provocative, honest and acute mental process.

The objects presented in the exhibition are undoubtedly related to the interior of the house; therefore, the language, the communication code defined by the artist is directly intertwined with them. However, looking at these objects closely, one finds that their functionality is negated, and they become “objects of art”, which “paraphrase” the everyday words (Logos) uttered in the house, as well as our movements around them, which articulate our daily life.

In this way, the para-paradigm that the artist adopts and applies completely negates the usefulness of the objects and alters their form, even if they remain clearly recognizable: a bed with scales (or scales with a bed), a bed with holes that alter its level, which is further altered by the presence of a blue being, resembling a lost soul whose ears allude to the nightmarish visions of a demon-possessed from beyond. Another bed, placed vertically, is crossed by waves and so is the sofa with the two grenades.

This Logos which paraphrases the specific objects, giving them unusual and striking forms, corresponds to a language of opposition and controversy, but mainly of paradox: these objects, strange as it may seem, are outside the house and fill the outside space, as if they were to be placed in a fantastic garden. In short, on one side is a completely empty living space, and on the other an extra-domestic space full of distorted objects.

And as if all this were not enough, in the imaginary garden is also the video of a pregnant woman in a functional space on a treadmill ∙ at the same time, the artist’s photo in pregnancy riding a stroller. Thus, the outside space is completely filled, while between the two spaces are the sensitive egg walls.

The ensemble is called “The artist’s house”. But to which space this term refers to ? the external or the internal? We think it refers to both, because they reflect the soul of the artist who is called to move from one to the other, crossing the wall of eggs. Spirit, ethereal and demonic, the artist frequents these spaces, lives there, and realizes the triple journey imposed by his role, doomed to recreate reality, to change it, to transport it away from everyday life, to go beyond. The triple journey is made by the soul of the artist through Hell, the Purgatory and Paradise.

Hell, which represents the everyday life of today, is filled with the distorted objects of the house, the pregnant woman who dances despite the pregnancy and the unnaturally pregnant man. The Pougratorio corresponds to this empty space where the artist’s soul lives alone, looking for a slow, difficult and painful salvation, after first crossing the delicate wall of eggs.

As for Paradise, where is it? Is it in the other room of the exhibition, where a whole series of portraits are displayed, corresponding to the artist’s friends and relatives? Similar to the penates of the Latins, they accompany with their protection the soul of the artist in the hereafter, in the initiative exploration that is the discovery of Art. This means that in the work of Dimitris Xonoglou, Paradise is not obvious. Can we assume that it does not exist or that it is well hidden in the depths of his soul?

Michel Cacouros

Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

(a la Sorbonne), Paris.