By chance, at the periphery

Anna Saloustrou’s exhibition, held at a municipality owned site in Rethymnon, is a surprise teaching us a lesson, to those of us at least who see local events only in their interest as such. The fortunate coincidence of seeing a body of work not in a museum or an art gallery, without curatorial support, and getting the feeling that I could see this same work in the centre of Athens, but also in any European city, brings hope if nothing else.

Ms Saloustrou, coach and high school physical education teacher in Heraklion, Crete, creates an intricate imagery-calligraphy promoting a flawless drawing used for an automatic writing, which starts without predetermining where it is going to stop. Each painting, either in colour or in black and white, has the complexity of a palimpsest of condensed information which might have their origins in unknown civilisations or in the civilisation of the internet, leaving ample room for the viewer’s interpretation.

I do not know what the future holds, mistrust in amateur creation, no matter how many hours one dedicates to it, cannot be eradicated; nevertheless, this very instant, I declare myself to be surprised and charmed.

Maria Marangou,

Art Critic, Curator, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Crete.

Eleftherotypia,  Monday, 28-9-2009