A conversation with the confident and talented visual artist Anna Saloustrou about her idea for an “installation” where old white porcelain toilet bowls are transformed into pots of jasmine, aloe, and olive trees.
Kostis Kazamiakis: Anna, I am thinking of a title for this innovative idea of yours. If I were to give it a title it would be: “The child and the flower”.
What title are you thinking of for this artistic idea of yours?
Anna Saloustrou: The title I have already thought of and given is “Transubstantiation”, and by that I mean the radical change of a scent. Literally changing the essence of a scent, from unpleasant to very pleasant.
Kostis Kazamiakis: Is there a story behind this idea?
Anna Saloustrou: During my childhood, which is “my artistic homeland”, when I was in the first grades of Primary School spending time in the welcoming house of aunt Erofili, I noticed with great wonder a jasmine tree that was planted in a toilet in the yard. The trunk had passed through the roof tiles and expanded throughout the area, spreading its wonderful scent.
That contrast between fragrance and stench left me speechless. Inside the toilet, which usually emits unpleasant odors, a jasmine tree takes root that smells beautiful. In general, I have always been taken aback by the strong contrasts found in life and art. Nikos Kazantzakis in a letter to his friend Pantelis Prevelakis writes: “If we fail to turn poison into honey, we are lost. Because everything, everything, apart from the heart of the creator is poison”.
Growing up, I often remembered Picasso’s quote: “Every child is an artist”.
Victor Hugo, another giant of World literature also said: “Life is a flower and love is its honey”.
The great Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen reminds us: “Just living is not enough, said the butterfly, one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower”.
A little flower like that white, fragrant jasmine.
Kostis Kazamiakis: Since you spoke using quotes, I will also mention one of Freud’s that characterizes you as a child: “Children are completely self-centered. They feel their needs strongly, and constantly struggle to satisfy them”.
Some of your students have mentioned to me that you exhorted them to love and care for flowers as this act leads to their proper education.
Anna Saloustrou: Children, relationships, art, and flowers become reflections of the quality of care they receive. I believe in the words of Coelho: “A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no particular reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all their might what they want”.
-Thank you Anna.
-Thank you as well.
K.N.M. Kazamiakis – Architect Architecture Historian, Art Historian
THE NEWSPAPER OF THE EDITORS SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
https://www.efsyn.gr/stiles/apopseis/404497_metoysiosi-mia-syzitisi-me-tin-eikastiko-anna-saloystroy