The exhibition ‘Body, Remember…’ at Kalfayan Galleries is an eclectic study over the depiction of the human body in modern and contemporary art (*). Referencing C.P. Cavafy’s poem of the same title (**), the show brings together works by Lynda Benglis, Georgios Bouzianis, Konstantinos Dimitriadis, Dorothy Iannone, Konstantin Kakanias, Kalos&Klio, Yves Klein, Tracey Emin, Edouard Sacaillan, Lucas Samaras, Takis, Panos Tsagaris, Yiannis Tsarouchis and Raed Yassin among others.

From the oldest cave paintings currently known, that is of the Cave of Maltravieso in Spain (older than 64.000 years) and the Venus of Willendorf (d. 25.000 – 28.000 BC), the celebration of the human body in classical Greek and Roman art and the idealized realism of Renaissance artists to the performance artists of the 20^th c. who used their owns bodies to challenge socio-political and art historical norms, the human body has been a source of inspiration across time and cultures. The exhibition ‘Body, Remember…’ aspires to highlight the dynamic of the depiction of the human body by creating an open dialogue between works of different media (painting, sculpture, photography, drawing et al.) and illustrating a journey from the 1920s to today. In some works featured in the exhibition the naked body serves as a tool to praise humanity, love or the ancient Greek ideal of ‘Kallos’, while for other artists it becomes a vehicle to challenge the male and the female gaze in art and bring into light social prejudices and raise questions related among others to beauty, identity, human sexuality and gender.

*The exhibition is not appropriate for young children.

**For an English translation of the poem of C.P.Cavafy:

https://www.onassis.org/initiatives/cavafy-archive/the-canon/remember-body