In The Art of Patience: Seeking the Snow Leopard in Tibet, the author recounts his journey in search of the elusive snow leopard alongside a friend. Whether they would ever encounter the animal remained uncertain; many such expeditions end without success. Yet they persisted. Their task was made even more difficult by the snow leopard’s extraordinary ability to blend seamlessly into its surroundings, becoming almost invisible within the landscape. While reading the book sparked my first question: have we ultimately learned to camouflage our emotions? As if we perceive others as threatening, and therefore choose not to reveal parts of ourselves?
This thought led me to pay closer attention to the ways filmmakers portray characters who conceal their inner worlds. I became particularly interested in directors who embrace slowness, allowing silence, hesitation, and observation to reveal what remains unspoken. Through this cinematic language, emotions emerge gradually rather than through explicit expression. A similar sensitivity informed my approach to selecting the artists and works for the exhibition. Rather than focusing on the fragility of the materials themselves, I was drawn to each artist’s field of research and the ways their work engages with vulnerability—whether social, political, or existential.
The exhibition Masking at Zoumboulakis Galleries explores the notion of fragility, and I believe it’s important, especially in the current political and social climate, for this concept to come to the forefront. Through research and reading, I realized that this topic has been explored for decades — and I wanted to bring it back into focus, as I see it as a timeless condition. The exhibition brings together eleven artists — Elli Antoniou, Giorgos Avgeros, Kostis Velonis, Marina Gennadieva, Panagiotis Kefalas, Marilena Kranioti, Xenofon Bitsikas, Malvina Panagiotidi, Nefeli Papadimouli, Stefanos Rokos, and Kostas Christopoulos — whose practices engage in dialogue through different media and approaches, including painting, sculpture, and installation.
Part of the curatorial text
“At the moment of writing, societies seem vulnerable, disguised in their resilience. We have learned to live in a present where everything is changing and everything we took for granted is subverted. Byung-Chul Han’s observation that very aptly characterises 21st century society as the “society of performance” assigning it the limitless verb “I can”, contains that illusion of resilience. When people feel that they constantly need to be more capable, more prepared, and when the social unconscious is nourished by and revolves around productivity, is there any space for one to appear or to feel vulnerable? To show different aspects of their emotions? To take off the mask of social oppression? Along the same lines, Zygmunt Bauman remarks that relationships between people are becoming increasingly feeble and ephemeral. Flexibility and the readiness to change tactics and attitudes, avoiding any commitment, contribute to the fact that the individual becomes a “meta-citizen”: They avoid conflict, they don’t remember, they only feel an inner exhaustion which, however, they do not share.
The exhibition entitled Masking unfolds through multiple readings and interpretations, bringing out the “fragile” not merely as a physical attribute but as an existential and political condition, illuminating stories – sometimes personal and sometimes social – that show “vulnerability” as the most integral element of our collective identity”
Zouboulаkis Galleries present the group exhibition “MASKING” curated by Katerina Nikolaou
April – May 2026
Photos: © waveL art team
