Paul Saroglou, born 17.11.1969 in Munich, spent his youth alternating between Germany and Greece. He currently resides in Greece and works as a freelance artist and designer.
Paul received his artistic education at the university of applied science in Munich. He began studying industrial-design, but subsequently graduated as a certified designer from the faculty of communication-design.

Parts of the OPENING SPEECH OF THE GERMAN VICE AMBASSADOR AT ATHENS
HERR GUY FAUX DE LA CROIX
AT THE VERNISSAGE OF THE EXHIBITION FLOATING BY PAUL SAROGLOU
IN ATHENS ON NOVEMBER 24, 2006
FINAL VERSION 25-11-2006

Of Greek-German parentage, brought up in Munich where he also studied the arts of communication, we find in Paul yet another personification of those special ties between German and Greek culture, ties which altogether form a close knit network of friendship, cooperation and mutual inspiration. We find, in this network, distinguished lawyers, distinguished academics, lively Greek-German families, and, I am happy to say, artists.

If art is a discipline dealing with individual and collective identity and identification, as I venture to suggest, then Paul Saroglous works challenge us to see if in some way they express the dual national identity into which he has been born. True, art in the 20th century has more and more developed into a global language, its expressions being globally understood which is especially true when art reaches so high a level of abstraction as do Paul Saroglous paintings.

And yet, art still speaks many different dialects around the world. Every artist conveys to us his own socialisation. To detect and appreciate such local or national origins of creativity is an essential part of global understanding and of our interest in the artist. If and how a special dialect is present in Saroglous works, a Greek dialect, a German dialect or even a Greek-German dual dialect, may tonight be a special challenge to you as guests of this vernissage [...].

Paul Saroglou has chosen the term of Floating to be the title of the present exhibition.
I believe that this reflects very poignantly the point I made earlier on that art by nature is indefinite. Art must float. Where law must close the door at the end of the day, Saroglous images open up doors and windows for new perspectives into the unknown, into what Carl Gustav Jung called the parallel worlds of our existence. But what we may perceive as a new outlook is, in fact, an insight. The art process is of necessity an introspection, and the result an alienation (Entusserung) of the artists insights.

Looking at Paul Saroglous works will remind the spectator that the parallel worlds, on the existence of which there is a large consensus between theologians, philosophers, scientists and the common sense human individual, that for these parallel worlds we should not look to far away galaxies, distant by millions of light years, but within ourselves. The act of art is to share such insights of an individual with his fellow human beings.

Brush strokes, graffite engravings, traces: A person walking across a beach will leave traces, for a while. A person walking through freshly fallen snow will leave footsteps, for a while. At Paul Saroglous paintings we may look at as traces, traces of his insights, an enlightenment of insides. Certainly the way he is painting, his paintings are interiors.

But obviously, as little as an unphysical spirit would leave traces in the snow, could an artist without his body. In leaving traces the artist cannot but rely on his body. In this sense Paul Saroglous paintings are very corporal traces indeed. They are spiritual interiors, of vision and of states of mind, or had I not better say: traces of states of soul?

In the creative process, it is at the stage of translating spiritual states of being into traces that skill takes its importance. In Paul Saroglous works you will notice the skill of colour, the choice of material, the courage of his brush strokes.

I am particularly impressed by the corporality of his pen strokes, by the deep engravings which his graffite pen cuts into thick paint surfaces. More so rather than in straight lines which by nature represent a deviation from human anatomy and from how our bodies move, Pauls curved lines bear witness to the swing of his arms. In his states of artistic trance his entire body seems to move in the curves of a dance. In the completed works which we see today, brush strokes and graffite curves have become documents of his physical presence and action in past moments of creation [...].
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