Tempus Ritualis

Center of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, CACT & Galerie im Koernerpark, Berlin, 2014

Website:http://tempusritualis.weebly.com/

Works included in the exhibition: Metamorphoses is the only Grace offered

Christina Dimitriadis studies her living environment through her lens, arranged in concentric circles. Only at the first glance does there appear to be a clash in Dimitriadis’ works between her own identity, time and space. At the second glance, however, her work unfolds an entire field of conflict between the person and society, between the individual and the community.

Christina Dimitriadis’ most recent works deal with an interfamilial ritual, the process of learning the ground rules of games. Her photography installation features three different series of pictures. The first series portrays children on the beach playing the traditional Greek game of tsantalina mantalina (leapfrog). The strange gestures of the game create an enigmatic and compelling setting. The second photographic series portrays the artist with her parents building a tower with wooden blocks. All three are concentrating hard on making sure the tower does not collapse.

The third project presents abstract, unfinished concrete buildings. These building frames that are scattered across the Greek landscape bring to mind the many ruins that can be found throughout the country. However, the former represents the chaos of the present time, while the latter is an expression of a past civilization and culture. As in metagaming, Christina Dimitriadis arranges the images in these three series in a stair-like structure, raising questions about interfamilial relationships, learning and parlour games as ritual spaces for living: “The importance of games in the culture interests me, because games are a metaphor for life and familiarizes children in the early life with dominant cultural codes.”

Christine Nippe