City of Athens , through  OPANDA , presents the exhibition “The Moonlight Sonata” by Apostolos Fanakidis. The exhibition will take place from 28 March to 11 May 2025 at the Athens Municipal Gallery and includes mainly works from the last fifteen years.

The visual work of Apostolos Fanakidis is inspired by poetry and music (mainly classical), by the intersection of two or more arts. Not coincidentally, his solo exhibition at the Gallery begins with a large-scale portrait of Constantine Cavafy at a young age.
The poet is depicted simply and substantially, without unnecessary iconographic decorations and realistic details. Painted in charcoal on paper, which has been pasted onto a white-painted wooden surface, the figure of the poet is rendered in an abstract manner. Fanakidis’ Cavafy is made with memory as a guide. This portrait is memory as matter and matter as memory. The figure of the poet resembles a bare tree trunk. It is a completely earthly portrait. In the lower right, on the body of the figure, which is not discernible whether it is standing or sitting, the artist has “engraved” unintelligible words. The eyeglasses, Cavafy’s trademark, float in the void, as if they have fallen off his slightly turned head – has he fallen asleep and is dreaming? Designed in an understated way, they function more as an emblem that helps us to identify the depicted figure with the famous poet. One thing is certain: in this particular portrait, to cite Maria Boletsi’s recent study, Cavafy returns as a ghost. Here the poet belongs to the world of shadows. And, at the same time, in an oblique way, he is rendered hagiographically.

Fanakidis’ “Cavafy” is a painted portrait by an experienced sculptor. It was preceded by a white bust of the poet in polyester and red neon light, which was aptly chosen to adorn the cover of Boletsi’s book. The thin line of light running vertically across the left side of Cavafy’s face is also present in other works by Fanakidis, either in the form of red thread on black surfaces evoking space landscapes or in red or blue lines of light, continuous or broken, on surfaces bearing three-dimensional objects chosen by the artist, such as parts of chairs, sheet metal or fabric. Some of these lines are irregular and resemble cracks, as in the work that includes a photograph by Mstislav Rostropovich. Printed directly onto the wooden surface of the painting, the photograph of the legendary cellist demonstrates the importance of music in Fanakidis’ work and in his understanding of it. Rostropovich, with his supernatural playing, is now in Space, becoming a dark star, balancing between a bright blue crack and a subtle blood moon. Similar moons can be found in other wall works by the artist: they obviously function as symbols of contrasts (light-dark, day-night, mundane-unworldly) and submit an elegiac tone.

Fanakidis equates the artistic act, the process of creating a work, with the dream state. Hidden in his library, waiting for you, is “The Moonlight Sonata” (1956) by Yannis Ritsos. There the poet refers to the “strong moon”, which looks like “a hole in the skull of the world”, “a magnetic force that draws you in”, a “marble well”, and urges us not to look at it or we will fall in. Perhaps this is how light works in Fanakidis’ works, which are immersed in darkness, in an impenetrable deep black.

The exhibition of Apostolos Fanakidis culminates with a series of sculptures dedicated to motherhood, which are presented in the last room. Here the artist tells “a simple story” from the distant past, from his solo show of the same name at the AD Gallery in 1992, where he first exhibited this particular section. These sculptures, which can also be seen as erotic, interact with each other in a playful mood. They are accompanied by staged photographs showing them in motion, entering and leaving the artist’s then studio at the foot of the Acropolis. This is a lighter side to the sculpture of Fanakidis, who has accustomed us to dark works that express the stress of existence and the anxieties of modern man.

Curated by Christoforos Marinos.

The opening of the exhibition will take place on Friday 28 March 2025 at 19:00.

Duration: Friday 28 March– Sunday 11 May 2025
Opening Times: Tuesday- Saturday 11:00-19:00, Sunday 10:00 – 16:00, Mondays closed

Free Entrance

Athens City Gallery  (Building Α):

Myllerou & Germanikou, Avdi Sq.,  Metaxourghio

Information: 210 5202420| www.opanda.gr