Technochoros Art Gallery presents the first solo exhibition of Maria Pastra entitled “A History State” curated by art historian Louisa Karapidaki. The opening of the exhibition will take place on Thursday, January 12, 17:00-22:00, and the exhibition will run until February 4, 2023.

Maria Pastra captures in her works “moments” in space-time. She herself wonders ,

“Is there a past, present and future, or are we all floating together as eternal wave functions in an ever-present now?” Being obviously influenced by her father’s stories from life in post-war Athens, she “crosses” the old with the new in a perpetual game. To be able to see the works through her own eyes she refers us to a quote by Olga Tokarczuk from her novel planets “….If future and past are endless, then in reality there is no “once”of any kind. Different moments of time float like sheets, like screens that will emit a moment, the world is made up of these still moments, of great meta-visualizations, while we jump from one to the other

other”…

Art historian Louisa Karapidaki says, among other things, about the exhibition, “Maria Pastra is experimenting with the depiction of the coupling of different eras. Time mutates incessantly in her works, the past and the present go hand in hand and the transcendental pictorial coexistences touch the realm of science fiction.”He goes on to say,” the sensational decade of the interwar period is in conflict with modern reality: the romantic toilets of the ladies coexist with the unconventional modern dress, the late means of transport with the modern ultra-speed, the traditional professions of the time with the current commercial activities, the neoclassical buildings with the postmodern ones.”and ends up wondering, “People of other times travel to the future or modern people visit the past? what is certain is that through the poetic atmosphere of her works the viewer travels from season to season in wonderful urban and coastal landscapes and is between two parallel worlds.»

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from quantum mechanics and a theoretical approach to the problem of time, according to which time does not exist, is precisely the state that never changes. The artist herself States: “I was enchanted by the conception and naming of the theorem and borrowed the term “A Historical State” to baptize my first solo exhibition. Besides, I think physicists would forgive me for borrowing because science uses art too: minimalism and elegance are scientific axioms that eliminate redundancies and asymmetries when researchers struggle to uncover the laws of nature.»

In conclusion, we would say that the viewer will travel through the works of the exhibition to stories of the past, Images “old” mixed with fresh landscapes and modern figures. An exhibition that will puzzle us and will put us in the process of thinking about how fast time flies, leaving everything around it over the centuries, in a way enchantingly incomprehensible, so same and so different at the same time.

Exhibition opening: Thursday 12 January 17:00-22: 00

Exhibition duration: January 12 – February 4, 2023

Days and hours of operation:

Tuesday, Thursday, Friday 11:00 – 14:30 & 17:30 – 20:30

Wednesday 11: 00-17: 00, Saturday 11:00-16: 00

Sunday, Monday closed

Technochoros Art Gallery

Lempesi 12, Athens / Metro Acropolis

Phone 211 182 38 18

www.technohoros.org | [email protected]

Biography of the artist

He was born in Athens where he lives and works to this day.

He initially studied Chemistry at the School of Physics and mathematics of the University of Patras and worked twenty-four years as an executive in the field of petroleum products of Eko SA-HELPE Group. At the same time, he did the following painting studies:

From 1999 to 2001 painting lessons with Daniel Spyropoulos.From 2001 to 2006 painting lessons with Giorgos Rorris at the art spaces “view” in Kolonaki and “point” in Psirri. From 2006 to 2012 he studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts-painting with Professor Triantafyllos Patraskidis, hagiography, fresco and encaustic with Professor Pavlos Samios and Multimedia with Manthos Santorineos. He also specialized in art education with Cosette Salla as a teacher. In 2014 he was selected as “painter of the month” by art historian Leda Kazantzaki in the “readings” of Sunday dawn.

Since 2012 he has been employed exclusively as an artist and maintains an atelier in Vrilissia.Her works are in private and public collections.