"Ex-Staseis"

"Liberation," 2021

Composite photograph for the group exhibition: "Ex-Staseis, Attempts at the Representation of Liberty" at Cultural Foundation of Tinos, Greece 10/7 - 10/9/2021

Giclée print on photographic paper (150 x 105 cm)
Curator: Megakles Rogakos, MA MA PhD

 

In his work entitled "Liberation", Dimosthenis Gallis presents a metallic twisting staircase of an exterior space obliquely with a clear reference to the DNA helix, the structure of genetic material of chromosomes with unique characteristics that define any living organism. In the opposite upper part of the picture the feet of the man who acquired wings are just discernible, with reference to the Ptenopus (Winged-Foot) Hermes, the agile psychopompos. Although this composition could well comprise a metaphorical depiction of death, it refers rather to the liberation of consciousness, of the true essence of the person from the tyrannical mind. Through constant psychotherapeutic working with oneself, the person may tame the mind as the seat of the passions, of experiences, of obsessions and restrictive thoughts and feelings. Without it he is a prisoner of the weight of his existence. The practice of the psychoanalytic act reveals the invisible side of the analysed individual, which is all the most genuine within him. Psychologists and psychiatrists still use today the ancient Socratic irony and the maieutic method to make man confront the truth that would release him. Liberty is a universal good that is not given away but earned through painstaking and constant struggle. Every small conquest constitutes a step on the spiraling staircase of the person’s evolutionary course.

​

Megakles Rogakos, MA MA PhD