Vana Xenou was born in Athens in 1949. She has an extensive academic background covering diverse but complementary practices; she studied painting, mosaic and stage design at the Athens School of Fine Arts from 1968 to 1973; decorative arts at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1973; and free-hand sketching at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, from 1974 to 1978, all while educating herself on aesthetics and philosophy.
Her space in contemporary art is less one of geographical place, and more one of temporal positioning. Turning away from the forward-thinking imperative of the 20th and 21st centuries, she delves into the past to express herself artistically. As a Greek artist, Hellenistic history and myth make up a large and influential part of the cultural background and inspiration. She comfortably sits on the shoulders of figurative and literal giants — Gaia, Hades, Axis, Hecate, Narcissus and Persephone are all referenced and invoked in bronze or stone. Persephone in particular holds a personal place in Xenou’s corpus as the artist identifies with the figure. She explains, ‘everyone tells their story through artworks, seeks meaning in the sculptures. I am attached to the idea of passage, definition of the present constantly in motion. Our society, hungry for cynicism and vain conventions, is obsessed with the future. ‘The future is already here’, say the fathers of Greek religion. There are certain artists who decide today what will be the future. I do not believe that at all! On the contrary, it is necessary to stay in the present, to span the two worlds, past and to come, as Persephone lives between earth and darkness, to remain in balance as she floats above her closed room in a strict octagon which represents the sky’.
Reducing her contribution to mere representations would be very limiting, however. Through her extensive education, pen or pencil in hand, walking through the world’s most prestigious museums and collections, Xenou has internalised her cultural heritage and its familiarity and uses it to express her individuality and views on the art world.
Indeed, even as a teacher, Xenou does not encourage the artistic rat race towards novelty and a search for triumph: ‘I am against the cynical revolution of our time. The Dadaists were not cynics, they just wanted to destroy vanity. Contemporary art is often vain, decorative, not even radical or protesting, as the works of Marcel Duchamp or Joseph Beuys were’.
Positioned between eras and worlds, Xenou is in a privileged position to explore timeless and universal themes that have obsessed mankind since its inception: life, death, and the aspiration to eternal rebirth, interpreted through her own experiences and memories.
Xenou lives and works in her native Athens, which is her source of inspiration.
