Naoki Karathanassis
OUT OF MIND
8.OCT.2025
					
				
			
		
	
OUT OF MIND
8.OCT.2025
They don’t know. 
The meme They don’t know... shows a character isolated at a party or social gathering, often leaning against a wall, with a melancholic or detached look.
In the text, They don't know... is followed by a thought that the lonely character believes only they understand or carry.
They don’t know it's still winter
They don’t know I released
a mixtape in 2014
They don’t know the real plot
hasn't even started
They don’t know I can code in r
They don’t know I was right all along
They don’t know the heat death
of the universe is inevitable
They don’t know the silence
is part of the song
They don’t know I am an artist
The individual is presented as the sole holder of information or truth that others are unaware of, creating tension between the subject and others, between their knowledge and the social surface. They experience something that their environment does not reflect, illustrating an ambivalence between the frustration or loneliness of the one who knows and a form of pride—or self-criticism of this stance. The image acts as a commentary on what is at stake, particularly with regard to our affects.
     
When I sleep and am tickled, the dream does not ignore this sensation: it integrates it, envelops it in its own logic. This is an example of affect, an interaction between thoughts and bodily presence—a trace of what is transforming. The world passes through me, and I pass through it. What I feel, what I think, what I say or project—all of this gradually transcends the limits of my skin. I am affected by my surroundings. This diffusion allows ideas to cross the boundaries of each individual: into images, words, signs. Our affects define us, transform us, and in doing so, even our environment is affected, contaminated.
The meme They don’t know... shows a character isolated at a party or social gathering, often leaning against a wall, with a melancholic or detached look.
In the text, They don't know... is followed by a thought that the lonely character believes only they understand or carry.
They don’t know it's still winter
They don’t know I released
a mixtape in 2014
They don’t know the real plot
hasn't even started
They don’t know I can code in r
They don’t know I was right all along
They don’t know the heat death
of the universe is inevitable
They don’t know the silence
is part of the song
They don’t know I am an artist
The individual is presented as the sole holder of information or truth that others are unaware of, creating tension between the subject and others, between their knowledge and the social surface. They experience something that their environment does not reflect, illustrating an ambivalence between the frustration or loneliness of the one who knows and a form of pride—or self-criticism of this stance. The image acts as a commentary on what is at stake, particularly with regard to our affects.
When I sleep and am tickled, the dream does not ignore this sensation: it integrates it, envelops it in its own logic. This is an example of affect, an interaction between thoughts and bodily presence—a trace of what is transforming. The world passes through me, and I pass through it. What I feel, what I think, what I say or project—all of this gradually transcends the limits of my skin. I am affected by my surroundings. This diffusion allows ideas to cross the boundaries of each individual: into images, words, signs. Our affects define us, transform us, and in doing so, even our environment is affected, contaminated.
An avatar is not simply an image or a username that one chooses; it is a vehicle for emotions, a digested and redistributed form of who we are—or who we seek to be. Both familiar and detached, it becomes the site of an existential shift, a relay between being and appearing, between inside and outside.
Long associated with divine incarnation, today's avatar has become an object of identity, a malleable figure, often cool, sometimes derisory. Personalised, it is the trace of a self projected into a space that constantly demands more presence, performance and visibility. It acts as an emotional operator, filtering what affects us and responding a little better to the perpetual demands of a world saturated with presences and signs. We willingly entrust the avatar with the task of existing in our place, so that the body can withdraw—in its slowness, in its vulnerability, in the temporalities specific to embodied experience. When everything is a stage, the avatar is the permanent façade of a self in continuous performance. It is a shell as stylish as a carefully selected seashell on the beach.
The avatar is not simply a public image: it becomes a tool for exploration, an experimental projection, a disguise in the face of what reality makes impractical—the avatar is the signature of the game. It absorbs our images, synthesises them, condenses them, redistributes them, often without us being fully aware of it; more mobile, this is perhaps where something essential comes into play—in its interchangeability.
This staging of the gap between the social avatar—what we show of ourselves—and our inner experience opens a door to a singularity and intimacy that is tangible, sensitive, desiring, and loving. This gap between appearance and interiority is precisely what the avatar allows: a visible, controlled, sometimes artificial presence, behind which stands a complex subject.
The avatar is not just a social mask or a technical extension: it is a stage where our relationship with emotions is constantly negotiated. A filter between what we feel and what we show; an attempt to maintain a link between who we are and who we want to be. And the mask is often so well glued on that we can continue to believe that we are all exceptions.
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Sleeping Velocity, a multiple, has been published to mark this exhibition.
LIST OF THE ARTWORKS
Naoki Karathanassis
out of sight 1, acrylic on cotton, 50 × 70 cm, 2025
out of sight 2, acrylic on cotton, 50 × 70 cm, 2025
out of sight 3, acrylic on cotton, 50 × 70 cm, 2025
out of sight 4, acrylic on cotton, 50 × 70 cm, 2025
out of sight 5, acrylic on cotton, 50 × 70 cm, 2025
out of sight 6, acrylic on cotton, 50 × 70 cm, 2025
ANALOG PHOTOS Raphaëlle Serres & Eléonore Bonello
SUBLIMES PHOTOS Delphine
BAR Eléonore & Raphaëlle
MUSIC, INSTALLATION Anaïs
SUBLIMES PHOTOS Delphine
BAR Eléonore & Raphaëlle
MUSIC, INSTALLATION Anaïs
Sleeping Velocity, est le multiple est édité à l’occasion de cette exposition.
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