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"Windows" is the title of the retrospective exhibition by Greek artist Mihalis Katzourakis. He presents old and new works created from 1974 to today.

Windows and openings have been present in the works of the artist since the 1970s. However, they appeared as a title only in 1998, when Katzourakis organized an exhibition of photographs of shop-windows in Berlin.

The title "Windows" is just a play upon words because the theme is the windows and the artist is willing to associate his works with a contemporary term. The exhibition is not associated with the well-known computer operating system. So, from the exhibition in Berlin to today, whenever Katzourakis creates a similar series, he uses the same name and adds the year to it, thus composing the titles "Windows '98", then "Windows 2000", 2001 and so on to 2013.

His previous exhibitions include photographs of shop windows that master builders paint on the inside to hide the interior of the site during the repairs. The artist has captured inscriptions and random shapes, which drew his interest, and their development, deletion, colouring.

His inspiration is the real environment but what he presents are the traces of a past time: ruined walls, sealed doors and windows of abandoned houses. The earlier works by the artist did not show them or it was hard to find them at least.

Later, however, he began to use the primary almost raw "material," which is evident in both his photographs and the notes to them. Katzourakis writes:

"Good painting or at least the painting I like is always abstract... The theme may or may not be specific, but all stages in the artistic process are apparently abstract. A work of art is a journey to the unknown. When it starts to turn into a work of art, it becomes a process of creating a work of art. You start from somewhere, from a particular topic, which stops drawing your attention during the creative process and you turn to something else ... or you go where you wanted to go at first, you never know how you will complete it. Often, the work of art itself is your guide. A mistake or a minor event takes you to another road. A chance – it depends on whether you see it or not. Happy are those moments when you see it."

Michalis Katzourakis was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 1933 and studied in Paris in the 1950s. He presented his works in many individual and collective exhibitions, and a large number of his works are displayed in public places in Greece and other countries.

The exhibition "Windows 1974 - 2013" will be presented at the art gallery Kapatos (12 Athinas Street, Monastiraki underground station). The opening of the exhibition will take place on 11 April and it will run until 24 May 2013. The gallery is open from Tuesday to Friday from 12:00 to 20:00 and Saturday – from 12:00 to 16:00.