Homage to Delft - symposium 2009
'a philosopher who gives himself a mission'
Commitment is the word which characterizes Sarantis Gagas may-be most of all. He has been called a philosopher among the artists. A philosopher who gives himself a mission. That was very clear when the general theme of the previous general theme of World Art Delft was Recycling. He created a very appropriate installation in the compound, in the middle of a sympathizing prairie.
When during the Fifth Symposium the theme of Homage to Delft was chosen, Sarantis Gagas chose to write down information about the city, white on black, in Greek language, in the beautiful letters of his mother’s tongue. Seeing him doing it, fully concentrated, passionately, far away from the surrounding world, was like seeing Moses executing his duty, copying the Tables of the Law.
Recycle Art - symposium 2008
'art can put individuals on another track.'
Gagas thinks that memories are an important figurative
example of recycling: knowing where everyone comes from
is essential, to understand each other’s differences.
He feels that for too long people have thought having is at the centre of life instead of
being. Too long people of the western world have created innumerable mountains of rubbish.
He believes that only recently are people beginning to wonder what the consequences are of
producing so much waste. For years we have lived in the here and now without worrying about
what we are leaving behind for future generations.
The work of Gagas is conceptual. He wants it to stimulate thought and feels that it has to
sow a seed that makes people look at things from another angle.
He is aware that art can’t change the world on its own, but that it can give us other
points of view.
For the ‘Recycle Art’ project he has created four paintings in which he has
incorporated old shoes. Each shoe tells its own story. It is about the memory of each object:
the individual memory of the one who used it and the collective memory of the civilisation which
produced it.
