Costis

1976

Drawing, 110 x 70 cm.
Materials: paper, charcoal, ink ribbon

Collection: National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens - Donated by the Artist (Inv. no. 785/12).

In the work Silence. The poem is on the ribbon, 1976 a white unwritten paper surface has wear out traces from burning on its edges. The poem which is mentioned in the title of the work is never shown to the viewer, as it is hidden behind the typewriter ribbon which is accumulated at the bottom of the drawing. The poetic composition is written by its creator beyond the borders of the surface of the paper; the reader-viewer can only sense it without reading it. The work Silence which is placed in a transitional phase in Costis’ creation, expresses the dead-end and at the same time the quest of a new poetic language and sensation which will be formatted in the works of visual poetry that the artist will create the following years. The absence of text, the inability to write and read, the attempt of creating and approaching a new textuality are on the nucleus of the artist’s preoccupations.

- Tina Pandi, EMST