EVENTS

The exhibition “Nature-O-Therapy” 1995-2023 Athens, London, Paris, Hanoi, Brussels, Rabat, Hydra, is dedicated to Platon.H (Plato Alexis Hadjimichalis), hosted by the Historical Archive of Hydra Museum from 3-30 June 2023. It will be the first exhibition in Greece of the restless and multifaceted artist, who created his rich and interesting work in brilliant artistic metropolises of the world, such as those mentioned in the subtitle of the exhibition.

Coming from an artistic family of three generations, Platon.H and growing up in a French and Greek cultural and intellectual environment, lived in the circles in which both his grandmother, the well-known folklorist and writer AngelikiHadjimichali and his parents (an architect and archaeologist) moved, and grew up among artists of different nationalities who lived and worked in Paris and Athens between 1950 and 1970. All these people surrounded Plato. H from an early age with their ideas and creativity, shaping his personality and his art. Great artists such as HadjikyriakosGikas, YannisTsarouchis, YannisMoralis, Yannis Pappas, GiorgosMavroidis, Kostas Koulentianos, ThanasisTsigos, Jason Molfesis, DemosthenesKokkinidis were his mentors and teachers, while Francois Morellet and Vasarely influenced his inspiration and style.

He is described as the “child of Mataroa”, the famous ship on which more than 130 Greeks boarded and departed for Italy and France at the beginning of the Civil War.
The completely original works that he presents at the Historical Archive-Museum of Hydra, he created exclusively with materials and elements that he has drawn from nature.

Platon.H’s artistic gaze is constantly focused on almost miraculous natural creations, from which he draws inspiration, then transforming the natural materials into bold works, sometimes sculptures, compositions, constructions or photographs, always through a completely unconventional approach. He celebrates nature in a creative and therapeutic interaction with art, which gave the eloquent title to the exhibition at the Historical Archive Museum of Hydra. His striking works, full of pulse, tension and lyricism, become a continuation and extension of nature and acquire new life in each of his compositions, as for him nothing is lost. Platon.H can with his work bring still life to life, glorify and honour every part of nature. As noted in the exhibition catalogue by ConstantinaAdamopoulou, Head of GAK / Historical Archive-Museum of Hydra, An. The author of the article is the Head of the GAK /Archives of the Argosaronikos: “Platon.H presents in this exhibition an indicative and at the same time representative subset of his collection of works whose imprint is deeply engraved in his artistic vision. Everything Plato.H does is done with thoughtful creation, with boundless imagination, with the expression of a multitude of emotions. And as he himself says: “the Sea, the Earth and the Sky are my building blocks and source of inspiration…” This deeply philosophical artist, I would spontaneously call him “a master craftsman of the beautiful and distinctive natural element”, has managed, with the diverse and anarchic thematic set of his works, to arouse an unexpected and profound interest in any viewer, who, however, is called upon to rely on his own reflection, his own ability to perceive and evaluate this wonderful, impressive collage of art and technique by Plato. H and to be overwhelmed by the emotions that flow all around him in the exhibition space, which you undoubtedly take in as a visitor.

It is an exhibition that undoubtedly aspires to function as a field of observation of art and the technical mixing of elements and materials of nature, freeing up comparisons, reductions, correlations, but also a personal interpretation for each person of these wonderful visual stimuli in each work of Plato H.”, concludes Ms. Adamopoulou.

For his part, sculpture historian Charles Avery, who was fascinated by Plato H.’s work, in a note about him, extols his Greek soul. As he writes: “He is a charming, Greek personality, an appealing one, and a pair of eyes and a pair of hands that can observe and make: he reminds us of his ancestors, Daedalus, the craftsman of mythology, who made wings of wax so that his son Icarus could fly. It is the Greek psyche at its best and most fertile, open and expressive. Platon.H’s art is sensitive, subtle and allegorical and its products are mesmerizing. His imagination carries within it the fruits of the eternal Greek experience: the elegant groove of the Doric columns of the Parthenon, their subtly bulging curves that manage to make their sides seem exactly parallel instead of diminishing in the blinding Mediterranean sun, the curling horns of a ram on an Ionic capstone, the gorgeous sprigs of acanthus…”