Vasilis Perros - Souls of Soul

Hera Papapostolou

Travels, new destinations, nostalgia for what we leave behind, memories, life decisions are some of the issues that Vassilis Perros has , with his suitcases the suitcase and the rooted houses. And it makes sense because his generation has wandered long enough to find its way, its place, its country. And so, on the occasion of the past, such as the destruction of Smyrna and the absorption of refugee populations by the Hellenic society - when a new view of the country was formed - or by well-known Greek writers and poets, the artist brings back the issues wandering and migration.

Wandering because many roam about looking for something. Immigration because many have left their country and settled in another country to improve their living conditions. Voluntary or forced, the migration of Vassilis Perou has been the cause and testimony of people trying to get rid of various factors that oppress their lives and their personality. 

His suitcase, beyond his journey or his reference to the art of Alexis Akrithakis , symbolizes what each person carries with him. It's just a can of soul. Sometimes painted with the photographic realism that characterizes the artist and sometimes lively, closed and painted or open and with content, the suitcase of Vassilis Perou is nothing but the wandering man.

As for its migration, it is about people and sometimes groups. Moreover, in the social sciences, the term immigration generally indicates any movement for permanent or semi-permanent relocation of individuals or groups. This is how works such as the herd of sheep are born or works depicting overweight naked people stacked in a suitcase. 

Without being limited to the dimensions of a canvas, the artist proceeds to three-dimensional representations of his subjects, utilizing various materials in assemblies full of imagination. The final result confirms the creator's power to realize his intentions and to paint his ideological relationship both with art itself and with the sense of his place and his people.The painting space is transformed into an interior setting in which the faces of the faces are described, while some features of the bodies are stressed with emphasis. While behind the paintings he draws, there is the painful search of a child who has come to deep research.

Critical note on the exhibition of Vassilis Perros "Feresian Memories" at the Skoufa Gallery.