Dora Iliopoulou-Rogan on the «Complex, Adjacent, Unique» solo exhibition

Untold is the poetry of the that Maria Stamati reveals, utilizes, exhausts to the superlative degree in the optical-video/photo-but also in the visual material, which is inexhaustibly presented in her current exhibition.

In the video, the visual material is orchestrated by extremely creative alternations and the main stimulus: the hand movements but also the movement of the male and female torso, as it is becoming free of garments; garments of “any” form, substance, quality and texture (shirt, blouse, undershirt, t-shirt, etc.) that cover the female sternum or the male chest.

By deliberately excluding the face, the exceptional sensitivity of the creator to her stimulus reveals the psyche of every person, exclusively through the hand and body movements and at the same time, she orchestrates not just simple information or messages but inexhaustible, in ballast, associations. The rhythm is the main protagonist of this orchestration, the rhythm with which she presents her stimulus not simply in order to create epidermal impressions but this rhythm is, in fact, experienced as an aesthetically complete action. Thanks to the truly denaturing gesture of the creator, the human body is sender and receiver of experiences, lifestyles, mental reactions, biological rhythms, social commands: free from any meaningless, superficial treatment. It projects a field of polling-mapping of life itself in its poetic, dual creative dimension: the result of a complete aesthetic action and not of a demonstration of skill.

The removal or dismissal of any garment that covers the male chest or the female sternum, through the hand movements and the finger contractions, the rhythm and the tension that are manifested in the unbuttoning of a shirt, in the removal of a bra, in the lowering of a zipper, viewing the female underwear or the hair growth on a male chest: they exceed without undoing the anatomical part and make it a key substitute of the missing face: declarative on of the psyche, the physiology, sociability and biological rhythm of each person. A projected substitute, through the inexhaustible range of stimuli, the rhythm and the energy: the amazing creator has not only immortalized them, but she has also felt, experienced and reshaped them, during an exhausting preparation. During the preparation, the passion – given to her stimulus – neutralizes every element that is reactive to the essential poetry of the artistic action, making even the slightest gesture or movement an integral protagonist of the visual event.

The rhythm is the main regulator here: the rhythm not only of the movements depicted but also of the intensity with which the artist herself alternates them in dynamism and direction, reveals a reactive route, in each repetition and inexhaustible in inventive solutions and in intensities. Thanks to Stamati’s talent, this path restores the main medium that she used to express herself – the video – as a creation project and not as a glaring demonstration of skill.

By freeing all depiction from any small, narrative and breathless, realistic element, Stamati’s ingenious utilization of her stimulus makes her an integral connecting link of a peculiar < map >, thanks to the contained energy and intensity. This map refers to the aura that is surrounding each form. The creator has managed to locate this aura into the rhythm and the intensity that she is using to visually reshape the forms; this leads to the point where the attempted decryption is a constant reconstruction of stimuli. A reconstruction in a constant alternation of intensity, rhythm, movement, aesthetic approach, conceptual submission of emotions, and situations, in an absolute identification with the very energy of life.

Dora Iliopoulou-Rogan
Dr. Art Historian
Technocritic