Drawing on a Scandal

From the moment that the former general secretary of the Ministry of Culture opened the window and jumped out of it, up until the daily series about it on TV broadcasts, where various people yell at the top pf their lungs opinions that make no sense whatsoever, the Zahopoulos story unfolds in thick mist. Since all this talk hasn’t explained much till now, let’s allow pictures to speak (certainly not the pictures from the infamous dvd).

Six contemporary painters, with their antennas tuned to current events, make their own visual comments on the sexual scandal and on political corruption. Manolis Zaharioudakis, Haris Kontosfyris, Antonis Kiriakoulis, Tasos Pavlopoulos, Dimitris Tsoublekas created the works presented today especially for “Epta”, while Dimitris Halatsis gave us one of his older, unpublished works that fits perfectly to the Zahopoulos case.

**In the colored sketches by A. Kyriakoyli, disfigured monsters dance under the rhythm of hard rock music at the Ministry of Culture. Known for his edgy sense of humor, T. Pavlopoulos depicts the Ministry’s artistic activity as…naked.

** Dimitris Halatsis has created a meat-grinder, painted in the colors of our flag, considering the former mighty man of the ministry as the architect of a mechanism that grinds “national myths” and “national celebrations” with patriotism.

** “Existing politics roam around the world as sad proof of its absence, as a notorious medium of its own inertia, its own shortage, its own absence, Headless”, is Haris Kontosfyris’ comment on his piece entitled “Headless politics”.

** “There’s political decay and contempt for morality”, M. Zaharioudakis points out. His piece “Videoart”, amongst others, “matches” the grotesque sexual scenes from the dvd with the provocative photographs of Japanese visual artist Araki. “Money is always given to those closer to power, with no objective criteria, no specific decision, just because of who they know” he says about the way the Ministry of Culture operates. “It’s not a new thing. Perhaps this time something bigger is behind it all; more money or more pressure”.

** Finally, D. Tsoublekas, who follows the events from Berlin, sets an operation room in his piece, as he is impressed by the fact that both the press and public opinion disregard the human aspect of the drama. “There are scandals and there are responsibilities, certainly Mr. Zahopoulos didn’t pull all the strings by himself. However, it is tragic that somebody jumps out of a window and this is dealt with as a minor detail” he says.

By Pari Spinou (spinou@enet.gr)
Elefterotypia newspaper, “Epta” – section for the arts, 7 – 27/01/2008