Heartbreak Q&A Chain - Christiana Soulou

The Heartbreak artists Q&A chain is a mini-interview series with the nine contemporary artists exhibiting in Heartbreak. Each interviewee raises a question from their own interests, which the next interview follows up on, approaching from their own perspective. Together, these linked interviews form a 'chain' that collectively asks, and answers, questions that cover a diverse range of topics: from artistic practice to the effects of geopolitics.

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How do you deal with aesthetics and time in your work?

Christiana Soulou: “Aesthetics is very much connected to beauty, but we must be aware of issues like formalism and of the desire to see aesthetics as an end in itself. We often we think that if we take something that is aesthetic in itself, then we will get a result that is beautiful. I don’t like aesthetising things.

But beauty is connected to ethics: knowing how to stand and how to behave are part of the means that the artist has at their disposal. Moreover, I’d say that aesthetics is more about knowing to find your place, and much less about marking your place. The artistic phase ‘create to leave your mark behind’ doesn’t speak much to me. Art is an operation of adjustment which is necessary and temporal. Often, aesthetic things are very marked - like make up - so aesthetics then would be a way to find your place, and be at ease. Paradoxically, for me that can be translated as standing on the sides.

Now time adds to this, since to find your place and be at ease you need time. But these days time is not respected as it should be. It is pulled, it is used, it is erased and denied. But there is no life without respecting time”