Something Holds Me
Programmed by A- - -Z X CYPHER Athens
March - April 2025
Billy Klotsa
With a special ShowReel, Prayer For The Rain, throughout the exhibition feat:
Babeworld x utopian_realism, Jordan Baseman, Tarek Lakhrissi, Marios Stamatis, Iria Vrettou
Cypher Gallery invites A- - -Z to curate a solo show by Billy Klotsa, a multidisciplinary artist who’s practice weaves together film and painting practices. Opening 21st of March and running until 16th of April, this exhibition of new works, reimagines the myth of Icarus, transforming it into a meditation on power dynamics, desire, loss, and hope.
The exhibition looks at the two protagonists, the father and the son, as symbols signifying the limitations imposed by societal structures, and the precarity within the embrace of the familiar. The sun becomes a symbol of desire and longing. While the traditional telling emphasizes Icarus's impulsive nature and tragic demise, Klotsa delves deeper, questioning the foundations of the father's cautionary wisdom. The artist asks: What fears bind the father from reaching for the same incandescent heights?
Instead of succumbing to the traditional narrative of death, Klotsa's Icarus endures. He confronts the weight of loss, not as an ending, but as a catalyst for transformation. From the depths of his fall, he rediscovers a defiant strength, and determination to transcend the perceived safety of the old familiar found in the embrace of the father. He turns his gaze once more towards the sun, not with reckless abandon, but with a newfound understanding of the unknown and its transformative power.
This exhibition is not simply a retelling of a myth; it is a poetic exploration of vulnerability. Through the interplay of film and painting, Klotsa invites us to contemplate our own desires, our own fears, and our own capacity for resilience. It is a testament to the enduring power of hope, even in the face of profound loss, and a poignant reminder that the pursuit of freedom and love is a journey worth undertaking, no matter the cost.
A—-Z has programmed a screening in response to the show.
The works presented in the screening explore the ideas of loss, transformations, embracing of darkness to light – the moving image works will be running on a showreel for the duration of Klotsa’s show.
Prayer For The Rain
Screening, approximately 49 min long
- Billy Klotsa, Icarus, 2024, 6min44
- Babeworld x utopian_realism Love is Real, and it’s Inside Of My Computer, 2024, 13min29
- Marios Stamatis, Instar, 2021, 1min17
- Tarek Lakhrissi, Coeur Brillant, 2023, 14min09
- Jordan Baseman, Why is the Sky So Dark?, 2023, 7min47
- Iria Vrettou, Eros Walks, Volcanic Conjuring, 2023, 5min53
Prayer For The Rain
You shatter me, your grip on me
A hold on me so dull it kills
You stifle me
Infectious sense of Hopelessness and prayers for rain
I suffocate, I breathe in dirt
And nowhere shines but desolate
And drab the hours all spent on killing time
Again all waiting for the rain
(The Cure)
Billy Klotsa – AKA Vasiliki Antonopoulou – is a filmmaker based between London and Athens. Klotsa obtained an MA in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art in 2018.
Klotsa’s practice ranges from film to painting with a deep interest in the emotional bonds and dynamics which emerge through the lived experiences within urban space. With themes ranging from love, loss, desire and internal conflict, the images revealed in paintings and film, borrow from myth, literature, and scouted locations. These manifest in poetic narratives that choose to have faith in imagination, emotion, and the other, as a means to challenge the expected behaviours, rules, and physics framed by the built environment.
International exhibitions include institutions such as Matt’s Gallery, London, Mimosa House, London, The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Michael Cacoyannis Foundation in Athens, Artnight London, NARS Foundation, New York and the MIX New York Queer Experimental Film Festival. Projects have been supported by Arts Council England, and featured in ACNE Paper, Frieze Review, and the Queer Direct Publication, amongst others.
https://www.instagram.com/billy_klotsa/