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Nausica PASTRA : Points of Reference
by Emmanuel Mavromatis
6 / 6
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This text by Larnarche-Vadel contained an indirect proclamation of the new program of mobile relationships with the reference to "the intermediate space between the inductive, indicative recording and its conversion": where the work would aspire, not to the stable condition of an organization of relationships, but to the program of their transformations. Moreover, this is the meaning of the chapter "The Occupation of Space" from Nausica Pastra's 1991 discussion in the catalog from the Gallery 7 show, in which she formulates the two fundamental positions of her work: "The first is the abandonment of flatness at this historical point in order to focus on a shift from real relationships to fictive ones, and the second is the recognition of the real space of the mobile relationships where the artist has the potential to intervene by both analytical and real means." Henceforth her work followed these two directions from which we can now formulate the retrospective points and partially summarize the meaning contained in Haris Sawopoulos' preface to the 1994 Gallery 7 catalog: "The Violation of the Cohesion of Space."

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Rhythms and Relationships T. E., N° 1b, 2b, 3b, 1994
Oregon pine, iron, 71,5 x 38,0 x 8,5 cm - 71,5 x 45,0 x 23,0 cm

Thus we come to define the epicenter of these works as their special quest to verify and to correlate the arrangements of each space, which themselves will determine the development of the sculptural program resulting in the limitation of the authority or the primacy of the scale during the organization of the work. For example, although the system is the same, the passage from Analogiques 2 to Analogiques 3 is defined by the replacement of the smooth curves, the circular arcs and the simple geometric concepts of Analogiques 2 (curves that do not correspond to the conditions of the real space and are ideal concepts) with the parabolas, which from then on are utilized as an integral part of the work system. Furthermore, the non-necessity of scale in this work manifests itself from the moment the system is capable of realization in any of its dimensions, since the reasoning processes used in the correlation of elements are valid, regardless of whether the space they function in is on a large or small scale.

Thus the works can be of gigantic dimensions, such as the award-winning (out of approximately 100 entries) sculpture Synectron-Square-Circle (500 sq. m.) for the creation of Square with Well, in the Municipality of Montreuil in Paris (1976) or the other award-winning work, Synartisis VII (1989), from the 1989 Analogiques 3 series, in Vlissingen, Holland (Spuikom Models) which were intended to be executed on a vast scale. Finally, note should be made of the purely rational ability of this system to come up with figurative analogies when Pastra employed it (Art 9'78 Basel) to transfer to a drawn Synartisis -- for the poster and catalog for the exhibition French Art from the Time of Mondrian and Marcel Duchamp to the Present -- the interweaving and intersection of post-1960 art movements.22

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Rhythms and Relationships T. E., Relief N° 3, 1995
Oregon pine, iron, 185 x 216 x 59 cm
Mylos Art Gallery, Thessaloniki 1995

But when Nausica Pastra referred to the real space of the mobile relationships in the 1991 Gallery 7 catalog, and later in the catalog for the 1994 Bologna and Saint-Etienne shows, she had already initiated the transposition of Rhythms and Relationships (Analogiques 1, 2 and 3) in the direction of a supplementary spatial object and an object-key for the comprehension of its transformation: Larnarche Vadel noted just that in 1984 (Nausica Pastra in the Context of Our Century), when he referred to the shift from the organization of relationships to the program of its transformations. Furthermore, the Vienna Analogiques 2 and Analogiques 3 at Medusa Gallery included an installation of infinite mathematical points of reference in terms of the duration of each relationship which then constitutes, not the definitive installation of a correlation of relationships in space and the infinite spatial relationships of this correlation, but rather all the possible relationships arising from each transposition in terms of these mathematical relationships.

This is the notion of time in her work, the experience of the analytical perception of a retroactive and a perspective transformation of relationships or, in the words of Nausica Pastra herself, "the experience of the artist of his own involvement with the relationships of space, the space where relationships are correlated." This perception, found in the 1991 Gallery 7 catalog, was to form the basis of the exhibitions at the same gallery (1994) and at the Mylos Gallery (1995), where Relationships-Rhythms T. E. 1995 (Temps-Espace 1995) constituted the new rupture/threshold of the system seen in terms of the earlier rupture in the same system. Here it is not a question of shouldering the burden (by the establishment of relationships) of the mathematical points of reference of all the possible correlations that are specific to it, but the establishment of the system that defines the correlations; this is the issue of the relationships of space and time as a system of prompting of correlations that are confirmed in the directions (transpositions), that are defined as intensities at the point where these two concepts intersect.

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Rhythms and Relationships T. E., N° 4, 1995
Iron, 280 x 260 x 180 cm
Mylos Art Gallery, Thessaloniki 1995
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Rhythms and Relationships T. E., N° 5, 1995
Iron, wood, 280 x 120 x 140 cm
Mylos Art Gallery, Thessaloniki 1995
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Rhythms and Relationships T. E., N° 4, 1995
Iron, 280 x 260 x 180 cm
Mylos Art Gallery, Thessaloniki 1995

Two observations arise from our examination of the work of Nausica Pastra. The first relates to her indifference to the scale of a system; the second to the fact that in each stage of the development of a system in her work occurring as a rupture, a formulation brings all the principles that govern the system of organization of all the previous stages. Thus the work moves toward increasingly general recapitulatory expansions. Rhythms and Relationships TE. 1995 tell us how the artist perceives the relationships of space and time as the successive points in the shift of a continually intensifying and ceaseless variability of space. "The chessboard Adriano Baccilieri wrote of in 1994, referring to Pastra's work, has been set up and utilized for some time now. All we have to do is wait for the next move. "
E.M
(Translation: Philip Ramp)



Notes
01. Hahn, Otto: L'Express, 29/11-5/12,1976, Paris.
02. Lamarche-Vadel, Bernard: "Nausica Pastra, Amplitude fictionnelle et signes de définition," +-0, No 19, 1/1978,
3. 0pp. 30, 31. Genval-Lac, Belgium.
03. Mavrommatis, Emmanuel: "Nausica Pastra's Synectron," Design in Greece-Themata Xorou kai Texnon,
3. 0No 5/1974, pp. 147-149.
04. Null-Dimension, Kunst International-Konstruktive strömungen, 23.Vil-30.Xli 1988, Galerie New Space p. 66,
3. 0Fulda, Germany, Cat.
05. +-0, No 50, 6.1988, p. 33, Brussels.
06. Blank Page, No 2, 6/1989, limited edition, London,
07. Nausica Pastra, "Les Analogiques: Méthode et Relation," Mesures, Art International, No 4/1989, limited edition,
3. 0p. 2-7, Liège, Belgium.
08. Collection Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers, p. 82,1982-83, Poitiers.
09. Kowalska, Bozena "Nausica Pastra's Relationships," Projekt, No 178,11/88, pp. 54-59, Warsaw, Poland.
10. Heads & Legs, limited edition, 1990, Liège, Belgium.
11. Nausica Pastra, Analogiques, Editions Denise René,1976, Paris, Cat.
12. Nausica Pastra, Dessins et Sculptures, Cat. Editions Denise René Paris-Beaubourg, 1979.
13. Nausica Pastra, Analogiques, op. cit.
14. Brevet d'invention, 1970, France, Germany, Italy, Greece.
15. Lemoine, Serge: 25ans d'art en France, p. 80, Larousse, 1986.
16. Nausica Pastra, Analogiques, op. cit. 17. Lamarche-Vadel, Cat. essay Denise René 1976, op. cit.
18. Hahn, op. cit.
19. Cat. "Nausica Pastra, Les Cahiers du Triangle," No 3,1992, Institut Français de Thessalonique, Gr.,
3. 0Ecole des Beaux Arts de Saint Etienne, Fr., Comune di Bologna, It., Demosthenes Davvetas, Adriano Baccilieri,
3. 0Jean-Pierre Maury, Emmanuel Mavrommatis.
20. Sotriffer, Kristian: Die Presse, 28.3.1980, Vienna, Austria.
21. Sterk, Harald: Arbeiter Zeitung, 8.4.1980, Vienna, Austria.
22. Cat. Art 978, Basel, Switzerland.


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