Paraphernalia, meaning tools, accessories, household items: this is the title Andreas Vousouras chose for his latest body of work, in which he explores the concepts of time and loss and raises critical questions focusing on personal memory, ancestry, and Greek history. He approaches these themes with a uniquely critical and reflective perspective that questions and overturns symbols, established values, political and social conventions and realities. The artist proposes a coherent visual environment, one rich in meaning and connotations, open to multiple readings, capturing and documenting pivotal moments of a ravaging era, of a world in transition. In Endochora (Inland), photographs that were distorted by a flood in his studio are combined with the text from Giorgos Cheimonas' The Excursion, Greek flags are coupled with blind people's canes, pieces of X-rays, nails, and birds' nests, while processed negatives from old personal films and excerpts from Paul Auster's Winter Journal add a more personal, experiential character. The installation titled Jaegermeister ("Master Hunter") alludes to his roots in the village of Chrisso, in Phocis, consisting of three frosted glass doors, hanging family photographs –displaying, among others, the ruins of his paternal home that was destroyed during the Civil War– and the hunting backpack of his namesake grandfather. These direct and powerful statements, emotionally charged records, ambiguous and open-ended narratives, come together to form a comprehensive artistic proposal, which seeks and demands the viewer's engagement, complicity, and response.
 

Yannis Bolis
Art Historian