Last year, on a beautiful and sunny day, early in the Athenian autumn, I visited Opy Zouni's studio in Palea Penteli. . The natural light which saturated the space and was diffused as if it were a supplement of clarity was perfectly integrated into the white of the paintings. It was then that I perceived something simple yet not so evident, like all simple things: the entire work of the artist is a reflection of this analytic light which has been tormenting her eyes since her tender childhood. The structures and the geometry-geared perspectives are no more than proposals for a course; organized routes which tend to enclose this impalpable clarity which signifies the free diffusion of energy in space. The intervention of colour and the emergence of a motif are merely secondary effects derived from the initial idea, from the fundamental intuition.
It has been more than ten years since I first met Opy Zouni in San Francisco and since then I have been following the development of her work regularly. Throughout these years I have been struck by her rigorous control over architectural volumes, which she mastered through the grid of the design. It was not until 1992 that I managed to reach a conclusive clarification of the self-evident misapprehension which conditioned my vision. The structural attitude which characterized her works underlined the architectural dimension, as approached by the modulating spirit of group work of the programmed Italian ad, so cherished by Argan sometime in the late 50's and early 60's (1959-1963). This, however, proved to be merely one aspect!
The reason we can speak of architecture, beginning with Zouni's compositions, is that we think of Yves Klein and his celestial architectural designs. The void is where energy dwells and, throughout the spectrum of her phantasy, Opy Zouni puts forward the great village with the houses of the void. Opy Zouni has been initiated to monochrome painting and has fully grasped its message. Her paintings are structural representations of saturated spaces: saturated with cosmic energy which is the basic language of sensibility. Yes, Opy has managed to retain this essential lesson: energy, this fundamental element in our sensibility, is from where life emanates, the prosperity of everyone and of no one. Our sensibility, which determines our being, does not belong to us. We are merely leaseholders When using it, we are bound by rights and obligations and under no circumstances can we regard ourselves as its proprietors.
Opy Zouni is conscious of this and works in the utmost humbleness: her paintings are the screens of the void and the magnetic fields of energy. Her message is now absolutely clear to me.. it is a secret hymn, dedicated to the immanent and profound reality of life. And the most beautiful moments are those when the lightning trace of the cosmic elan is incarnated in an angular fragment of eternal poetry.

Pierre Restany
Milan, March 24, 1993