Ελληνικά | English
Passages, Iris Criticou, November 2010
With the prompting sayings of Homer and Menander, Thoukidides and Demokritos, of Herond and Marcus Aurelius and, with slender guiding rod, lyrics by Odysseas Elytis, Panayiotis Pasantas fortifies his fragile figures with clay, by dipping them in a particular coating of primary ethos, forms them into a silent wondering theatre of the world that criticises boldless decisions, in an army of mercy that perpetually fights for the passions and suffering of humanity…
[Read More]
Newspaper articles
Eleytherotypia
Phileleytheros
Phileleytheros
Cyprus Weekly
Kathimerini
Passages
With the prompting sayings of Homer and Menander, Thoukidides and Demokritos, of Herond and Marcus Aurelius and, with slender guiding rod, lyrics by Odysseas Elytis, Panayiotis Pasantas fortifies his fragile figures with clay, by dipping them in a particular coating of primary ethos, forms them into a silent wondering theatre of the world that criticises boldless decisions, in an army of mercy that perpetually fights for the passions and suffering of humanity.
Even for those of us that have been watching his pale tiny crowds from the very first time they appeared, from the first time they settled under the shadow of a naked tree, climbed up the steps of a Panayiotis staircase that lead nowhere, or followed the hypnotic circular flow of a diaphanous wheel, sometimes recalling the memory of a ceremony on the walls or bottom of a prehistoric Chirokitia vase and at other times bending over the fragmenting visions of the crazy flow of a contemporary urban crowd, the mature compositions of Pasantas are in need of a new interpretive process with a complex metaphysical dimensions.
Narrating stories that come back under ambiguous time and space coordinates, the current work of Panayiotis Pasantas focuses on the meaning of passing. Under the glance and through a stroking touch of the creator, the "passing" forms into a condition of complex liquidity, in relation with various events, experiences and situations where the painful for the body, mind and soul trials, according to himself "do not ultimately lead to destruction but to rebirth", to the transformation to someone wiser and more capable to handle the small victories and big defeats, the gained ground and the inevitable losses, the honest mistakes and the misguided choices.
Marking an improvisational genre viewing of living that enscripts through an insightful rigor of sayings and lyrics, Pasantas figures at times come out of the depths of the earth and at other times through half open doors, at times emerge from river banks and at other times transform into humble beggars or into amazed pilgrims of a divine miracle, whereas the continuous hovering element of hatred, sometimes directs to the heart renting love story of Orfeas in Ades or the utopic fall of Icarus and at other times to the liberating enclosure of Jonas in the biblical beast.
In the Anglosaxon vocabulary, the lemma "passage", corresponds to an impressive number of various interpretations:
- The act or process of passing, especially:
- A movement from one place to another, as by going by, through, over, or across; transit or migration.
- The process of elapsing: the passage of time
- The process of passing from one condition or stage to another; transition: the passage from childhood to adulthood.
- Enactment into law of a legislative measure.
- A journey, especially one by air or water: a rough passage on the stormy sea.
- The right to travel as a passenger, especially on a ship: book passage
- The right, permission, or power to come and go freely: Only medical supply trucks were granted safe passage through enemy territory.
- A path, channel, or duct through, over, or along which something may pass: the nasal passages.
- A corridor. See Synonyms at way.
-
- An occurrence or event: "Another encouraging passage took place …when heads of state… took note of the extraneous factors affecting their economies that are beyond their control" (Helen Kitchen)
- Something, such as an exchange of words or blows, that occurs between two persons: a passage at arms.
-
- A segment of a written work or speech: a celebrated passage from Shakespeare
- Music A segment of a composition, especially one that demonstrates the virtuousity of the composer or performer: a passage of exquisite beauty, played to perfection.
- A section of a painting or other piece of artwork; a detail.
- Physiology An act of emptying, as of the bowels.
- Biology The process of passing or maintaining a group of microorganisms or cells through a series of hosts or cultures.
- Obsolete Death.
"Passage", we read elsewhere, is also the migration of birds and the course of the stars or a comet, the transition of an object, of good or bad news to someone and the change in human psychological condition , the transition from school to University and the «locus classicus» of the Bible, of classic or contemporary literature. In addition, an almost horizontal passage that leads from the surface of the earth to the depths of a mine, a secret underwater sea route followed by salmons when the swim against the current, the mouth of a vase or the neck of a chimney, the birth passage,– a tight passage in the womb through which the embryo passes through coming into life, the surgical opening, the gate, the "porta" that leads to a body cavity like the aorta leads to the heart, the lacrimal sack that collects the excess tears, the passage of the air in the lungs, the passage where the food we eat or a medicine we take goes through into the body, the tube where the snake keeps the venom inside its teeth.3
Recommending in random order the above interpretational readings to the observer of his work, or, rather, the interrelations and the interstices in between them as an explanatory "passing" for the deeper viewing, Panayiotis Pasantas – through systematic effort and continuous care and toil, in accordance with Menander – indicating again the truth of the sayings he chose to follow through the art of sculpture: Demokritus prompt ("Without learning, no art or science can be gained"). Thukidides finding ("Ignorance leads to arrogance and logic brings hesitation") and of Ploutarch ("Life is short"). Finally, the reconciliation prompt by Marcus Aurelius ("People are born for one another∙ improve them or tolerate them").
Iris Criticou
From the catalog "Panayiotis Pasantas - Sculpture", The Athens Art Gallery
November 2010