: : One Hundred Words on the “Memory of Matter”
What remains of greatness, of courage, of virtue? Of the life that spends us while itself remains unspent, what endures? Where is the lost purple, the light, the gold, the beauty? The victories, the defeats, the glory, the passion? Where is the hidden strength? Pleasure, love? Desire? Anxiety, struggle, the loss that waits in silence—which body now shelters it? Who brings yesterday back before us, alive? Decay, rust, the trace of humankind, its art, lived matter, the fragment, the relic, the smallest surviving thing, memory preserved—what else do they mean?
Christos Bokoros
What remains is an ancient lock that opens a narrow slit of light into the darkness of oblivion, into the blackness of imagelessness; the wondrous blue of a weathered cloth transformed into painting; the little oil lamps and candles lit by the painter’s hand in remembrance, upon gold-embroidered silks and humble tobacco cloths; worn timbers with their old nails; rusted hinges; brightly coloured scraps of fabric submitting to the austere geometry of the Logos to become a labyrinth of joy; the lost purple rising again from the earth, borrowing from the setting sun its final grace… What remains is that rusted Pandora’s box, filled by art with radiant hopes and the many colours of dreams. What remains is the search for beauty, giving wings to the soul. The art of noble transformation, transfiguring the humble in its search for the sublime, opening the path toward inner elevation. What remains is devotion and love, drawing from the ancient spring, capable of releasing the memory of matter, of bringing it back to life and transforming it, revealing through action the way of transcendence. What remains is the art that saves.
In 1997 Christos Bokoros came to Aigai and, in an act of humble obedience, became the hand of his ancient fellow craftsman, helping to bring the royal chryselephantine couches back to life. Now, at the height of his artistic journey, he returns once more to enter into dialogue with the ancients. The Macedonians cherished painting—from Zeuxis and Nicomachus to Apelles—and Aigai had the privilege of knowing the work of the greatest painters of classical antiquity. Indeed, it is the only place where fragments of their masterpieces have survived to this day. A museum that aspires to revive the memory of the royal metropolis of the Macedonians cannot but continue this fruitful dialogue with art. It is our great joy and honour that Christos Bokoros has accepted to be the first to take up the ancient thread once again, opening a new path.
Angeliki Kottaridi
