Exhibition Overview 

 ARTFLYER presents the group exhibition “5-7-5”, featuring 24 contemporary Greek artists. The exhibition is inspired by the poetic form of the Japanese haiku, as well as by the literary and philosophical legacy of Nobel Laureate George Seferis and thinker Zissimos Lorenzatos. 

The title refers to the structure of the traditional haiku, three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, a form of clarity, simplicity, and inner awakening. 

At the heart of the exhibition lies a letter from Seferis to Lorenzatos, in which the poet reflects on a haiku by Matsuo Bashō and refers to Bashō’s advice to his disciple Kikaku: to reverse the structure of a poem as an act of reverence toward all living beings. 

From:

Une libellule / Enlevez-lui les ailes / Un piment

(a dragonfly, remove its wings, a pepper) 

To:

Un piment / Mettez-lui des ailes / Une libellule

(a pepper, give it wings, a dragonfly) 

This poetic reversal, from loss to creation, from gravity to grace, from darkness to light, became a guiding metaphor for Seferis, who, influenced by it, shifted the tone of his poem Thrush toward the allegro, and for the exhibition itself. 

The exhibition is hosted in the former residence of Lorenzatos, who composed 24 haiku, one for each letter of the Greek alphabet, later collected in the volume Alfavitari (Alphabet Book). 

Through a contemplative curatorial approach, the exhibition proposes a new visual alphabet: 24 works ( painting, sculpture, photography, installations ) each functioning as a meditation on light, transformation, and a shift in perspective. 

The works are organized into six thematic sections, inspired by Lorenzatos’ haiku: orientation, desire, ephemera, rhythm, metamorphosis, memory. 

Haiku in both form and spirit, the artworks engage in dialogue with the poetic and philosophical thought of both thinkers, allowing the timeless clarity of haiku to encounter the fluid language of contemporary art. 

 

Participating Artists (in alphabetical order): Olga Alexopoulou, Dimitrios Antonitsis, Zetta Antsakli, Astronauts (Danae Dasyra & Joe Bradbford), Alexandra Athanassiades, Eleni Bagaki, Manolis Charos, Nikolaos de Grèce, Maria Joannou, Evi Kalogiropoulou, Marina Karella, Aristides Lappas, Eugenie Livanos, Iliodora Margellos, Maro Michalakakos, Irini Miga, Olga Migliaressi-Phoca, Malvina Panagiotidi, Rallou Panagiotou, Angelo Plessas, Dimitris Polychroniadis, Kleopatra Tsali, Antrea Tzourovits, Kostis Velonis