Incognito, a new series of works by Elias Kafouros, presents two simultaneous ideas that are ever-present yet often unspoken.
The first component looks into the fluidity of masks as a social lubricant manipulating atten- tion and attribution. Its different functions interfaced through a shared geographical space, Mykonos island, and projected through the digital realm everywhere. The secrecy of celebri- ties, the fake business smiles, the camouflaged paparazzi, the posing, the excess, the vanity.
The second component is the fleeting feeling of summer vacation. The fresh smell of the Cy- cladic winds rushing through the alleys, the warmth of bright sun act like an anaesthetic to the bathing bodies, the Aegean waters simulating neurotransmitters in splashing sheer joy into the brain.
Mixing these two components together is providing the grip that invites the viewer to experi- ence the works themselves as masks, projecting onto them their own personality, identifying, and looking through them back at themselves.
Of course, this is the function of every piece of Art that succeeds in moving its viewer. To point that out, Elias Kafouros has enabled a space, free from personality, to the place that usually the main character of the work would occupy. Instead, we find a hole in the drawing to be filled with a face, or toy glasses to masquerade oneself. Clearly, invitations for the visitor of the exhibition to mentally inhabit the works.
