Dodona, 2002
He was born in Thessaloniki ,Greece in 1954 1973-1978 studies in printmaking and stage design, in the Fine Arts School of Athens, Greece. He graduated with honours in 1978.From 1981 till 1985 he continued his studies in painting in the E.N.S.B.A. of Paris, France.At present he is Professor of Printmaking in the Fine Arts School of Thessaloniki University.He was awarded with the XIX Alexandria Biennial, Egypt, prize for printmaking and he was awarded the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki prize for excellence, regarding the international recognition of his artistic work.He has exhibited in 53 solo exhibitions in Greece and abroad and he has taken part in many international triennials and biennials of Printmaking
For the exhibition/tribute to the Ioannina region, Xenis Sahinis produced a plexiglass cube, the logic of which comes from the series 'Outposts of Memory', of 1999 - 2000. Plexiglass is a hard material, capable of satisfying the traditional function of engraving, but at the same time it is also a diaphanous one, penetrable by light. On the cube's upper surface he engraves the form which he wishes to depict, and the form is projected in the manner of a shadow on the background of the cube. The subject which he has chosen is derived from the recollection of a visit to the site of the theatre of Dodona and the appearance there of snakes. This new process of creation involves many features of the research and the enhanced 'slide' of Sahinis's art into new fields of the production of an entire, complete, self-sufficient work, over and beyond the conventions of engraving. What he creates is a three-dimensional space. The maximisation of the importance of the act of engraving through tracing is conveyed to the imprint by the projection of the form as a shadow. The print becomes a shadow which ceases to exist with the absence of light. The action of the shadow and the reproduction of the image through the specific system of art is only ephemerally established in the space. The print-shadow takes on a character of uniqueness, far removed from the elementary function of the act of print-making through multiple reproduction.
Τhe work was created for the exhibition 'Sketching out Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday. Young Greek Artists: A tribute to Prefecture of Yiannena".' held at the Averoff Museum of Modern art, at Metsovo in 2002.
