Collage series
5 collages on paper, dimensions variable
First presented in the solo exhibition [in]visible territories, Kalfayan Galleries, Athens, 8 October – 14 November 2015
Curated by Dr Kostas Prapoglou
https://wsimag.com/art/17673-aikaterini-gegisian-in-visible-territories

The Black Line is part of a trilogy of works (which includes The Red Line & The Blue Line) produced out of the same pool of images as A Small Guide to the Invisible Seas, sourced from Greek, Turkish and Soviet Armenian tourist catalogues, from the 60s to the 80s. Instead of weaving together the diverse found material in an invisible new topography, the trilogy questions the construction of national identities by exploring specific recurrent symbols associated with each of the nation states.  Where A Small Guide to the Invisible Seas unearthed new topographies through gaps and layering of images, the new works abstract, they take over through lines and colours what has already been constructed. Referencing both the censorship line and the visual language of constructivism, the insertion of the line is also a humorous dismantling gesture. 

The Black Line moves through ancient temples and sunny seascapes (signifiers of the national and tourist image of Greece), tracing the landscape like a sunray touching the skin. The two recurrent motifs in the construction of Greek national identity, the ancient Greek heritage and the bright sun, merge and mirror each other, only to be separated again by the black line of censorship.