Georgia Lalé: “Εν Τούτω Νίκα” – A Journey Through the Pain, Strength, and Solidarity of Women

The gallery a.antonopoulou.art presents the new body of work by visual artist Georgia Lalé, titled “Εν Τούτω Νίκα” (In This Sign Conquer).

Known for her activist work and as the creator of the Pink Flag, Lalé invites us on a journey through time into the struggles and pain of women-guided by Anna, a figure from the first-grade Greek school reader Alfavitario (1955).* Anna’s journey begins in antiquity and reaches the present day.

Using the visual language of funerary steles, Lalé traces Anna’s path from the Great Relief of the Eleusinian Mysteries (440–430 BC), where the mother –Demeter, the goddess of harvest and a victim of rape and her daughter –Persephone, the goddess of the Underworld and a victim of femicide-bless her pilgrimage. The journey with Anna continues through two funerary steles from the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

On the Stele of Aminocleia, Anna helps her mother prepare for her passage to the underworld. In the work Pietà, we see Anna dead in her mother’s arms -a tribute to all mothers who lose their children, whether to the armed hand of a partner, to state negligence, or to the cruelty and hatred of war.

Through this journey, Anna-every Anna-witnesses and experiences the pain of loss, sexism, and the culture of victim-blaming. At the same time, she learns that unity and solidarity can break the chains of silence and abuse. Holding tightly the hands of her grandmother and mother, she looks us straight in the eye and declares: “Εν Τούτω Νίκα!”-In this sign, conquer!

The works in the exhibition are created from bed sheets donated by women and feminine-identifying individuals living in Greece, on the condition that they had rested upon them and dreamed of a just world.

Lalé, a Greek-born artist based between New York and Athens, became widely known in the U.S. for her Purple Flag installation-an emblem of immigrant identity and collective belonging, created from the garments of hundreds of migrants and refugees.

*The exhibition draws visual references from the 1955 Alfavitario, illustrated by K. Grammatikopoulos.

The gallery will be accepting bed sheet donations throughout the duration of the exhibition.