Monitoring Solitude 2.0 An exhibition by Mania Efstathiou at the Consulate General of Greece in New York

“…How can you monitor solitude, how can you record it, solitude cannot be measured,

has no area or volume, yet it spreads out everywhere, like ether conquering both flora and fauna…”

Foreword by Calliope Rigopoulou

Professor Emeritus at Athens University

On February 7th, the Consulate General of Greece in New York hosted the opening of the exhibition “Monitoring Solitude 2.0” by the visual artist Mania Efstathiou. As the title implies, the exhibition revolves around the concept of solitude; that human feeling experienced in the metropolises, in situations of anxiety and pain, as well as around the way which solitude interacts with our perception of time and space. The artist said that she personally experienced these feelings during a health condition, which confined her for a period of time.

Presenting Efstathiou, the Consul General of Greece in New York Konstantinos Koutras referred to that odd familiarity one feels when looking at the spaces drawn on the pictures. These are spaces where solitude creeps in. “They resemble places I have not dwelt but they have dwelt my mind”. Speaking about the artist, Columbia University clinical psychologist Lena Verdeli stressed that human contact is the antidote to loneliness. Not just the common social contact, because a social person can be deeply lonely inside, but the contact that leads to connection. The trauma of loneliness comes from the separation, a poisonous feeling for the body and soul. “Therapy comes with what we do here, today: the art, the dialogue, the connection, the friendship”.

Mania Efstathiou was born in Athens, Greece in 1962. She studied Medicine and specialized in Nuclear Medicine in Thessaloniki, where she graduated from the city’s School of Fine Arts. She has been working as an artist ever since. Her works have been acquired by the National Art Museum of China, the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, as well as private collections in Greece and the United States. Recently, an extensive feature on her work was published in the American science and art Journal “E-squared Magazine”.

The exhibition runs through February 21st, Monday-Friday, 09 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

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