The ultimate expression of the latter is the role of women as inherently and most importantly mothers. The curtain is the painting.” The curtain here, what has been obscuring our vision for so long that has almost become a prank, is the great stereotype, biological determinism.

“Do not say, ‘Draw the curtain that I may see the painting’. “I create phenomena in swarms, and paint with a full palette a gigantic and gaudy curtain before the abyss” writes Kazantzakis.

The slit is red-tinted and crowned by a spray-painted colourful clown wig. The first room, namely Genesis/Trauma, is dominated by Mike Kelley’s installation ‘Glorious Wound’ (1986), a white curtain-esque piece of cotton fabric cut in the middle. Daskalopoulos Collection, are organised into five thematic rooms: Genesis/Trauma, Life Struggle: An Affirmation, Creativity into Eternity, Touching the Other and Return to the Abyss. The exhibits, which cover a wide spectrum of media and are courtesy of D. The exhibition is curated by Dimitris Paleocrassas and Maria Marangou and consists of thirty five works by twenty eight prominent contemporary artists including Marina Abramovic, Louise Bourgeois, Jenny Holzer and Costas Tsoclis. The means to accomplish this transition is inspired by Nietzsche’s concept of “superman”, that is by discarding every illusion so as to have a real chance of transcending the abyss, or ‘Flying over the Abyss’ as is the title, as well as the subject, of the exhibition developed by NEON Organisation for Culture and Development in collaboration with the Thessaloniki Centre of Contemporary Art.

“As soon as we are born the return begins, at once the setting forth and the coming back we die in every moment.” According to the Cretan thinker, the purpose of this journey from womb to tomb is to turn matter into spirit.

“We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life”, writes Nikos Kazantzakis in the introduction of his book ‘Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises’. Title : Installation view of Flying over the Abyss, 2016 Website : Credit : Copyright: Ioanna Fotiadouįlying over the Abyss Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki, Project developed by NEON 7 November - 29 February 2016 Review by Ioanna Maneta.

Neon Abyss instaling