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Images and Words: Aristotle’s Mimesis Revisited in the Unique Visual Work of Antonis Panagopoulos



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Katerina Mandroni

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DOI:10.17265/2159-5313/2017.04.005

My subject is the notion of mimesis as conceived and formulated by Aristotle, since his philosophical theory diverged from the metaphysical domain of platonic ideas. It is known that for Plato the sensible world is one of deception and lies; therefore, the artist does nothing but to imitate the imitation of sensible objects. He is a cheater who intends to delude humans by his ability to re-present reality mimetically. On the contrary, Aristotle approaches positively the mimesis of the sensible world because he considers it as a creative and productive action of the human soul. Sensible beings, according to Aristotle, including works of art, encompass in themselves their intelligible essence, so they don’t have to imitate any ideas outside themselves. Consequently, mimetic art in Aristotle’s universe of thought is an inherent inclination to poetics founded in truth and reason; it always elaborates consciously its objects; and it furthermore signifies a learning process demanding systematic knowledge and meticulous method, though its roots are found in human instincts. Taken all the above as granted, this paper is also an attempt to evaluate in aesthetic level the visual works of art by Antonis Panagopoulos, a Greek artist very much influenced by Ancient Greek Philosophy, mostly by Aristotle. Since the 1990’s, he has started an art project named “Éspace de Mémoire,” in which he examines and articulates various ways of perceiving and cognitively constructing a work of art on the flat surface of the canvas.

Aristotle, mimesis, poetics, Éspace de Mémoire