Pavlos Liaretidis turns the spotlight on the burning issues of the public sphere through his exquisite works, gifted with a strong sense of personal identity and powerful symbolisms.
Pavlos Liaretidis
Talking politics through the language of art
Text: Zafeiris Konstantinidis
He talks about politics using the language of art. His works are endowed with a sociopolitical identity, but their interpretation remains open to the subjectivity of each viewer; there’s only thing beyond doubt and that is his talent. Twenty-five-year-old sculptor Pavlos Liaretidis from Thessaloniki has graduated from the School of Sculpture of AUTh’s Faculty of Fine Arts, while he is currently having his post-graduate studies in Sculpture, in Baltimore, USA. Even though at a young age, he has already showcased his work in various collective exhibitions. The political hue is more than evident in his works, which bring forth pivotal events of the Greek topicality. After all, that’s the key role of culture: Keeping the bar of awareness on political and social issues high, through its admirable works.
When asked about his first spark for sculpture, he identified himself as one of these cases drawn by art as if by an unconscious magnet, right on from a really early age. “Ever since I was a child it fascinated me to create my own proper objects, providing them with character and a side story,” he mentions. While growing up, Pavlos Liaretidis took on design and sketching. He was intrigued by sculpture as it offered him the chance for an interdisciplinary approach on a particular form of art; to examine the space, the volume, the lighting, the ambiance, while evaluating the adequacy of certain crucial parameters. He was also gripped by the answers to a series of questions he kept posing to himself such as: “What is the most appropriate venue for a work to be exhibited? What is the best time of the day for it to shine?” As he gradually found the answers to these questions, it was a matter of time for him to realize the goal he wished to dedicate his life to, and it takes only a swift glance at his works to corroborate how correct was the decision to fully devote himself to art.
“Some people are born with natural talent, but art can also be taught along the way,” he explains. As to whether art can be subdued to the unyielding rules of conventional professions, he replies: “Some prefer to produce works upon commission through open calls, while others operate more independently, defining the framework of their work. Liaretidis, at least for the time being, places himself in the second category, without ruling out the prospect of taking part in an open call that does not come in conflict with his identity as an artist.
There was a time when artists were completely identified with the motifs and the materials they frequently used in their works, which formed an artist’s signature, whereas nowadays young artists avoid to remain attached to a particular material or object.
Having lived both in Thessaloniki and in Baltimore, he asserts that the working conditions in the USA enable an artist to step up, relieving him from the burden of struggling to make ends meet that most Greek artists are faced up against. As we mentioned, his works mirror his sociopolitical agonies, which serve as the main canvas of his artistic inspiration. Three months ago, he attempted to intertwine the Greek and the American topicality, through a universal interpretation. The bedrock of his inspiration was no other than the burnt little animals photographed after the Rhodes wildfires, which he paralleled with the deers often found killed on the main streets of Baltimore.
The title he decided to give to this threefold relief work that renders homage to the Tempi tragedy is 28/02/23 and served as a turning point in his course as an artist. He endowed the work with symbolic and conceptual elements, without being tempted to steer the audience towards a specific interpretation. After all it is his firm conviction that a viewer’s point-of-view may very well provide an interesting take on the work that the artist may not have considered otherwise. Nevertheless, he has no problem giving us an insight on the prism through which he created the painting, laying out its main features. “The metal used symbolizes the metallic skeleton of trains. The plaster was placed on account of its healing effect, when it passes on from liquid to solid form. I saw this healing process as an allegory that reflects the healing of mankind and the world, expressed as grief. As the plaster turns solid from liquid, people will likewise mourn and eventually be healed. The painting will be showcased in a cultural venue in Baltimore under the title This is not your grave.
Another work that stands out, indicative of his sensitivity for animals, is the silkscreen engraving on a big-size 100-meters long roll of paper, depicting two wild goats found dead following the Rhodes fires. “Making the standard butcher shop wrapping paper that bigger the symbolism becomes clear; Greece is the real butcher shop as it leaves its animals unprotected without ensuring even their most fundamental rules of well-being. While discussing the differences with regard to art between the past and present-day, he recalls a time when artists were completely identified with the motifs and the materials they frequently used in their works, which formed an artist’s signature, whereas nowadays young artists avoid to remain attached to a particular material or object.
Pavlos Liaretidis turns the spotlight on the burning issues of the public sphere through his exquisite works, gifted with a strong sense of personal identity and powerful symbolisms. His view on art is purely interdisciplinary, but this does not prevent him from staying true to the romantic notion of an artist’s independence, an element that allows art to flourish. As the French painter and sculptor Edgar Degas once said: “Art is not what you see, but what you make other people see.”
Photos
|
