Through a series of inscribed marble pieces, oil paintings, drawings and photos, Yiannis Melanitis in his solo exhibition "Hunter of Light" at DepoDarm [22/04-27/05] surveys the conditions and forms necessary for the possibility of a "conceptually minimum quantity of light" to materialize as an art work and a concept.

In an attempt to approximate a possible form for the “ultimately conceptual artwork", Melanitis proposes a definition of the latter as a photon on a surface, apropos of painting, or, concerning sculpture, as a photon in a predefined space.

"I call the minimal concept, necessary for light to function as an information carrier, One ARTBIT", Melanitis writes. As a consequence, the posture of the artist in the atelier, shifts. The artist becomes an observer of light. Conditions of detection become very intricate.
The “ideal”, it follows, can only be observed indirectly -by means of a hunting and trapping mechanism.
The artist as a "photon hunter", the term Melanitis coins to describe his practice, adopts the technique of a three-phases-hunting process applied on a moving target. He describes it as follows:
"Waiting, swing along and targeting".

This translates in the exhibition space into a central structure displayed in the showroom which represents the reflections of light and the mechanics of targeted photon hunting.

To hunt a moving target, hunting manuals write, the hunter often points at vacuum space, hypothesizing the movement of a bird, taking into account the trajectory through pre-acquired experience. (Technique of pre-targeting by swinging along the target or pull-away). Past information can be viewed in the future as a functional pattern; as the artist-philosopher can trap a pray, an idea, by targeting in vacuum space, awaiting its move. Moreover, the idea is changed once we confront it, maneuvers as an independent entity. On the optical field plane, the hunter’s diagram includes an overview of the scene: the trajectories and straight lines of the diagram should be matched with nature’s image in order to accomplish a successful shot.
Yiannis Melanitis was born in Athens in 1967. He was elected a Lecturer in Fine Arts at the Athens School Fine Arts in May 2010 where he is based and teaches Sculpture. Melanitis is also a Phd candidate since 2005 at the School of Architecture of NTUA, Athens.

His solo exhibitions and work shown include among other venues shows hosted by the National Museum of Brazil, the Biblioteque of Brasil, the Tongeren Museum and Praetorium (Belgium) and HUG (Switzerland). His work initiate mainly from a conception referring to the epistemological framework of art while particular intentness on their creation has the effect of conceptualization of his artistic strategies. His writings have been published in conferences, publications and books in Greek and English language.

Translated by Assimina Kaniari, 2015