Curatorial Note 

Eva Anastopoulou’s photographic practice does not consist in creating images through processing, but in revealing an already present aesthetic reality that, until the moment of its capture, escapes notice. Through the observation of worn surfaces, altered materials, and random formations, the artist brings to light a visual universe that at times appears abstract, at times familiar, and always capable of provoking thought.

Her photographs, free of any intervention, invite the viewer to stand before them not as a passive recipient but as an active co-creator, since the very process of viewing shapes their experience.

The persistence of the gaze is crucial for deciphering her works. At first glance, Anastopoulou’s images may appear to belong to the realm of the accidental, a collection of deteriorated surfaces that at first seem devoid of meaning. However, through prolonged viewing, the gaze begins to recognize forms, landscapes, shapes, and entities that emerge from the chaos of the surfaces. This process is not merely a game of perception, but an act of recognition rooted in the shared structures of the collective unconscious.

Carl Jung introduced the concept of the collective unconscious as a deeper reservoir of archetypes and common psychic patterns that transcend the individual subject. Anastopoulou’s works appear to activate these archetypal structures of human thought, as through their organic and indeterminate forms the viewer retrieves common references that run through human experience.

An imprint on worn wood may resemble the outline of a face, a rusted metal surface might look like a desert landscape, while a crack in a wall could reveal something reminiscent of a symbol or myth. The tendency to seek structure within chaos is not accidental but linked to this preexisting collective pool of images that resides in the depths of our psyche.

Anastopoulou’s photography does not merely depict material reality, but invites the viewer to activate their gaze, to persist with the image until it transforms from an abstract surface into a field of interpretation and meaning. It is not the photograph itself that creates content, but the process of recognition that shapes the final result. This dynamic approach to viewing transforms the artwork from a static object into a living experience.

The persistence of the gaze, as the exhibition’s title, refers not only to the duration of viewing but also to the deeper human need to give form to the formless, to discover the familiar within the unfamiliar, and ultimately, to encounter the self through the image.

–Paris Kapralos, Art Curator
March 2025, Athens

“`