Marianne Strapatsakis
T r i l o g y
BIRTH – LIFE – DEATH


The opening of the exhibition Invisible Places - The Vast White by Marianne Strapatsakis, presented for the first time in Greece, took place at the Contemporary Art Museum of Crete on Monday, September 6, 2010.
Marianne Strapatsakis’ work Invisible Places -The Vast White was the third part of the trilogy Birth, Life, Death, an artwork in progress which began in 1989 and was concluded in 2008.

The first part of the trilogy, which was also presented in a smaller scale, The Phantasm of the Mediterranean, and was produced for the 10th International Video Festival of Montpellier (1989) and had water as its main element as a reference to creation – birth. All drawings, paintings, sculptures and video footage were produced at the temple of Aphaia in Aegina.   

In the second part of the trilogy, the video installation Secret Passages – Lavrio (1997), the main element was the Earth and Lavrio, a site known since ancient times as a place where the earth was exploited. For centuries, within this solid space, humans have been creating the routes of an artificial world establishing the future pathways and structures of an industrial era.

The third part, Invisible Places - The Vast White (2008), was a three-way video installation. Its main elements were Air and Light and Death did not mean vanishing but acted as an alteration of the level of existence. The phenomenon of biological death is merely the metamorphosis of the awareness of human spiritual existence. Thus, death equals return to the primordial source, that is, the light. 

Marianne Strapatsakis is one of the most eminent European video artists. She has received many international awards and her works have been exhibited in the main museums of Europe. She is also an Associate Professor at the Department   of Audio and Visual Arts, Ionian University.    

A catalogue of the exhibition, translated in three languages, was issued. The exhibition ran through January 16, 2011.  

Guided tours were carried out and educational programmes will take place in the future.