The exhibition “Abandoned Cartographies and Other Odd Hours” explores uncharted territories of the subconscious, forming a constellation of quests that transcend rationality, order, and narrative coherence. It focuses on experiential encounters that are not confined by conscious perception or information but instead open new paths of introspection, revealing unseen facets of the psyche. At the same time, it activates stimuli that retrieve buried memories and underlying anxieties.
Engaging with key conceptual axes of Surrealism, the exhibition examines the disconnection of the self from the external environment and from established structures of thought. Rather than approaching Surrealism merely as an aesthetic category, it delves into its fundamental principles, treating it as a state of mind—a mode of creation that highlights the hidden, the enigmatic, and the elusive. Within this framework, the participating artists move away from dream representation and the faithful depiction of non-rational states, focusing instead on destabilization and internal conflict.
The works in the exhibition revolve around the notion of abstract meaning-making, employing aesthetic and conceptual mechanisms such as disorientation, the fragmentation of form and content, and the use of uncanny iconography. Positioned at the threshold between reality and imagination, they place eerie or ominous settings within dreamlike or nightmarish contexts.
Recurring motifs function as vortices of the subconscious or instinctive gestures that trigger free associations through ambiguities and constantly shifting perspectives. Optical illusions push viewers to question their perception of reality through distortions and fleeting visual deviations. At the same time, language appears in fragments, with words emerging as spontaneous traces of the unconscious, alluding to automatic writing.
The relationship with space is disrupted, heightening the sense of incompleteness and perpetual displacement. Some works function as contradictory psychological portraits, depicting environments that feel both familiar and alien, blending the organic with the inorganic. Water imagery appears repeatedly, often as a mirror of the subconscious, where forms fold into themselves, distort, or dissolve at the surface.
Unbound by a specific field of expression, the exhibition spans a wide range of media and techniques, incorporating painting, sculpture, installation, works on paper, photography, video, sound, and poetry. Through fluid materialities and indeterminate forms, strict interpretations are bypassed, and meaning hovers at the edge of perception.
Participating artists
Elli Antoniou, Giorgos Yiatromanolakis, Konstantinos Lianos, Stefania Strouza, Dimitris Tampakis, Sokratis Fatouros, Despina Charitonidi, James Fuller, Shambhavi Kaul, Louis-Philippe Scoufaras, Sasha Streshna
Farewell Tour
CAN Christina Androulidaki gallery
Chalkokondili 19, 10432 Athens
Date: Saturday, May 10th, 2025
Start Time: 13:00
