Aquatint is a demanding and time-consuming form of art. It includes a wide gamut of techniques, a fair amount of alchemy and a good deal of kitchen work.
Christophoros Katsadiotis
Engravings from the unconscious
Text: Marni Hatziemmanouil
His art is shocking, uplifting, and revolutionary. It is not destined to be believable, obvious, mundane. It borders with our deeper self, the ineffable experience of our inner ego. His every engraving on the metal and his every inscription on paper is a route leading from the bowels of the soul to the level of consciousness. Award-winning engraver Christophoros Katsadiotis challenges and scandalizes us, while pointing out that “our works resemble us as long as we are honest to ourselves and find the courage to face our fears.” He admits the surprise that overwhelmed him when he insensibly found himself in a locus where “reason holds back the flow of expression.” His therapist enabled him to understand that he had permeated the realm of the unconscious, a land governed by existential quests. “I invoke feelings out of my dark areas, in other words from an intangible world, to give them shape here, in the real world.” He takes a fervent interest in all viewers of his work, even those who turn their back on him, as his art “touches some hidden strings of their existence, triggering an emotional discomfiture.” He sees his work as “one of the most effective antidepressants. I keep notes and photos, I portray facial expressions, I seek patterns in stockings and balcony railings, I count the floors, I search inside the trash and, most of all, I travel a lot.”
As he mentions, “aquatint is a demanding and time-consuming form of art. It includes a wide gamut of techniques, a fair amount of alchemy and a good deal of kitchen work. Nevertheless, the outcome comes as a reward, even if it involves a strenuous effort. One needs to be a little masochist in this field of work, I must say. Gabriel García Márquez once wrote: molds should be worked with the inconceivable patience of failure.” Different molds, printed on one another, color up the works of Christophoros Katsadiotis. “I am responsible for every tint you see; I don’t use a tube. As harsh as the look of my animal-like protagonists may be, the smooth color palette balances out the image. Moreover, I often cut into little pieces the leftovers from my countless trials and errors in the process of achieving the desired coloration, and reposition them as a puzzle onto other engravings, thus creating new compositions. Then, in order to bind together the new works, I sew every tiny piece of paper with a thread of the same color so that the process is not visible by the viewer. It’s an experiential act, in the hope of freeing myself from the phobias of destabilization. As always, of course, all this led me to a completely new destination.”
Christophoros Katsadiotis, born in Athens in 1971, shares his life and work between Athens and Paris. He worked for 15 years as a journalist before art won him over. He studied Engraving at the School of Visual & Applied Arts of AUTh’s Faculty of Fine Arts (2009-2014), with Xenofon Sachinis and Manolis Giannadakis as his teachers.
Through the LLP-Erasmus program he attended classes of engraving at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design Academy, in Poland’s Wroclaw, delivered by professors Christopher Nowicki and Przemysław Tyszkiewicz. “The viewers are free to give a number of interpretations to my art, such as to compare it to a theater stage, with ourselves starring in the play, the everyday man broken and shattered for one reason or another holding the leading role. The common man who, deliberately or not, becomes an outcast is the main hero in my art. My works are plot-oriented, as if something is constantly on the verge of happening, something that remains elusive up until the very end. I opt for plot way-outs rather than escape valves. The viewers can read the image according to their desires and provide their own versions. That’s why I often refer to the viewers of my works as readers,” he stresses.
I invoke feelings out of my dark areas, in other words from an intangible world, to give them shape here, in the real world. Our works resemble us as long as we are honest to ourselves and find the courage to face our fears.
“Failure, agony, despair, inexpediency, self-restraint, revenge, self-destruction, subversion, guilt, exclusion, shame, lying, and anything that lies masked underneath the surface,” is at the core of Christophoros Katsadiotis’ art, who points out: “Through the themes I select, I aim at anything that has the power to shake us. I seek what’s left on the bottom, and I couldn’t care less for what shines on the surface. No surprise, therefore, that my works adopt a dark and blackish aesthetic, an element that oozes the biggest charm, at least for me. At the same time, I leave a commentary, I am conducting a psychological street reportage. For example, I take great interest in issues such as religious disobedience or the human need to be a part of an entity or a group of any sort.”
In 2011, Christophoros Katsadiotis was awarded by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and in particular the LLP-Erasmus program, in 2012 he received an honorary distinction at the 1st Biennale of Greek Engraving Students Ex-Libris, hosted in Crete, whereas in 2017 he snatched an award at the 12th International Athens Animfest. “I wanted my engravings to be endowed with movement. I created several animation works such as The Midnight Merry-go-round of Engraving, The Theater of Engraving, The Television of Engraving, as well as the video clip for the music track ‘Border Blues’ by Stéphane Tsapis. I am currently working on a new improvisational animation, where Eva Tsangaraki and myself coexist with the paper figures of my engravings, titled One Day Even Picasso Will Be Dead. It goes without saying that none of this would be possible without my precious partners in crime, graphic designer Nikos Korakakis and photographer Odysseas Vaharidis, since I am utterly clueless when it comes to technology. I just provide the guidelines.”
Christophoros Katsadiotis believes that an artist’s mission is not to provide answers but to raise questions. He draws elements from mythology and religion, related to the persevering struggle for survival and Prophet Elija’s Fiery Ascension. “I consider religion to be the kitsch peak of human folklore. My works are of course associated with hyperrealism, the liberation of imagination and the absence of reason. What the Minotaur, the Sirenes, Pan, Anubis and Saint Cristopher have all in common – and each and every one of them for a good reason – is their animal-like figure. The Christian religion deems us as sinners from the outset, threatening to send us to eternal hell if we fail to obey. Notice how masterfully religions use the guilt card and how many wars are still taking place even today in the name of God and religion.”
Discussing his work The Butcher of the Avenue, which portrays a dragon-like Saint George slaughtering a butterfly, he explains: “In reality, he’s killing innocence. Most church saints were Roman warriors who committed acts of violence, more than eager and always ready to punish the unfaithful, the enemies, whoever is not of our own. Therefore, I was puzzled as to how these people could have perched and spread the Word of God, the Word of love, peace and harmony.” As for the future of civilization and mankind, Christophoros Katsadiotis “sees nothing else than self-destruction. As soon as humanity is wiped out from the face of the Earth, everything will come to a balance. I often imagine myself as one of the last men alive, trying to picture how the last days of humanity would be like, the final moments. All the struggles, the efforts, the knowledge, the love, the philosophers, the stories, all would be gone.”
Since 2010 the multi-awarded engraver has hosted many individual exhibitions in a series of art venues both in Greece and abroad, starting from “Ilios” printmaking center of the Municipality of Neapoli, Thessaloniki. The exhibitions that came up next were Criticism-Overthrow-Deformation (Art Space 24, 2011, Athens), Museum of Paper (Duszniki Zdrόj, 2012, Poland), Trojan Horse (Art Space 24, 2013, Athens), The Revenge of Little Red Riding Hood (Halle Saint Pierre, 2015, Paris), Dîner Romantique (De l’Angle Gallery, 2016, Paris), Poetic Incidents (Zoumboulakis Galleries, 2016, Athens and Fougaro, 2017, Nafplion), Conversion (Zoumboulakis Galleries, 2022, Athens), and Engravings & Animation (Fondation Hellénique, 2023, Paris).
Moreover, his works were showcased in dozens of prestigious collective exhibitions of engraving held both in Greece and all over the world. As for his upcoming plans, in mid-December he will take part in an exhibition scheduled to be hosted by the National Gallery, taking the form of a “conversation” with the 80 engravings featured in Goya’s The Caprices, curated by the National Gallery’s Director Syrago Tsiara. Christophoros Katsadiotis’ engravings have appeared in books of notable publishing houses like Gutenberg, Kedros, Diatton, Polytropon and Melani, among many others. In 2015, Parisian-based theaters Eurydice, Zéro and Théâtre du Cristal used his engravings for their stage productions.
