(photos by Elias Joidos)

An art installation that pays tribute (homage) to the Pine tree as a symbol of resilience and regeneration. The Pinus Pinea tree is an integral part of the Mediterranean ecosystem and even more so of the coastal area where the ekies resort is found in Chalkidiki, Greece. Seeing one of these trees slowly die made me think of how important it is to preserve it, while transforming it in a symbol that represents the importance of these entities, but also its connection with fire.

Without its pine needles and branches (which will become soil that will feed new plant life) the pine tree finds new life as a reminder for human beings of its value in the natural space but also as a warning on the danger of wildfires. The main body of the tree was first stripped of its bark and then burned on the surface in order to preserve the wood from decay. This is an ancient technique used in diverse parts of the world in order to preserve wood and especially widespread in Japan where it is known as Yakisugi.

The memory of the foliage is in turn substituted by a golden-red fabric-like mesh composed of copper and brass that will be altered through oxidation in time and become green-brown inverting in a sense the process of fire itself. The Pine tree finds thus new life after it’s apparent death, living on as a symbol but also as an active member of the ekies community (of humans and non-humans) that owes a lot to these silent giants.

A permanent installation at the Museum of Modern Greek Culture (ΜΝΕΠ), located beneath the Acropolis in Athens. A symbolic door that serves as the conceptual entrance to the museum complex itself comprises a series of independent buildings—restored neoclassical houses—forming a small neighborhood. The installation, is entitled ΚΑΤΩΦΛΙ (KATOFLI), which means “threshold” in Greek, intended both literally and metaphorically as the demarcation line for entering another space.

Every house worldwide begins with a door. In Greece, the concept of the door has held particular significance and has been meticulously shaped since antiquity. This form has been translated through the ages and remains evident in all neoclassical buildings. The free-standing installation is encased in a simple iron frame, holding the door as if in the process of being opened, thus inviting visitors towards the museum’s interior. Simultaneously, the upper wooden panels of the old door have been replaced by two mirrors that reflect the people entering the museum, transforming them into both participants and actors within the Greek culture they are about to experience.

The realm of ΑΘΑΝΑ (ATHANA) presents a vision of a world seen from the outside where the viewer is elevated to a privileged position that allows him to perceive the whole and the specific at once: each artwork a fragment of the whole but at the same time the whole itself [Olofragment]. The very fabric of this realm is similar to the one that describes our natural world, the one we call spacetime, but in a more encompassing sense. In the ΑΘΑΝΑ realm Time takes the leading role, shedding its linear geometry and together with a notion of space in continuous transformation becomes a framework of reference able to transcend classic human perception, at least in representation.

The installation illustrates a representative model of the AΘΑΝΑ Timespace where the fundamental notions that constitute it are depicted through a series of layers that construct each individual Olofragment but at the same time connect each one of them under the geometry of the Timespace itself. The moment of perception within the realm is a manifestation of an observer moment at any given point within Timespace while all other possibilities equally co-exist. Welcome to the realm of ΑΘΑΝΑ where the ‘true’ nature of time is revealed through a dreamworld in continuous flux and where space assumes a cosmic dimension reflected all the way to its constituent quantum elements.

Eternal beginning,
of slow time.
Timeless piece of relentless transformation.
A part of matter,
That is all matter itself.
A fragment.

(text by Anna Longo)

Time is the moving image of eternity. This is how Plato, in the Timaeus, defines time in our world, punctuated by the regular movement of the stars. The cosmos created by the Demiurge is a living organism whose temporal existence is marked by repetitive cycles that animate it like pulsations and breathings. But this transitory world is nothing but the reflection of eternity, of Aion, time that does not itself pass but allows for the existence of our time which does pass. According to the myth narrated in Timaeus, the world was created by a divine artisan, artist, philosopher and scientist: an artist in being able to give a sensitive form to the idea, to give it substance in matter; a philosopher for the speculative capacity to contemplate the ideas, truths abstract and eternal; a scientist for the mathematical rigour of the laws that govern reality and render it intelligible. But in what spacetime does the Demiurge operate? The proposed hypothesis is that the Realm of ΑΘΑΝΑ (ATHΑΝΑ) is the interstitial dimension of creation, the liminal space-time between the a-temporal eternity of Aion and the empirical transience of its image, namely Chronos.

Therefore, as a philosopher, the demiurge accesses the eternal idea and, as a scientist, provides the laws that allow the succession of events to unfold according to a certain necessary order in line with a set mechanism that follows certain rules or laws that ensure its functionality. But it is as an artist that the demiurge has the possibility to choose the perceptible appearance and the rules of the world that are realised as an image of the idea, or in other words which film, of all possible films, will form the most appropriate image of the intuition. In fact, the same idea, as a virtual one, can be embodied to a plurality of worlds, or rather its image can.

In this exhibition therefore, we are offered the point of view of the demiurge’s interstitial dimension, the present between eternity and sequential perception.  The works presented, do not reproduce in fact the chronological sequence of their production, as in a retrospective, but the exhibition makes explicit the sense of creation as the production of a moving image of eternity.  Contrary to what happens in a retrospective exhibition, that allows us to look into the past according to the incidence of the facts (order of perception), here we access the present which is the condition of creation of each past and, for this reason, the images overlap without respecting a chronological order. From the point of view of the demiurge, to which we find ourselves elevated, the various frames are shown in the simultaneity of the present, a present which is the moment of creation for the entirety of the series, rather than the present of the perception that would last a sensible encounter. The exhibition makes us aware of the fact that our personal history, the sequence of events that we have experienced subjectively and the things we have done, is a series of frames necessarily linked together according to the rules and laws that render it coherent in its totality as in a film, a cosmos which nonetheless, like all other things, does not have in itself any necessity.

ΑΘΑΝΑ therefore, is not a retrospective exhibition but a short-circuit of sorts, thanks to which we can intuitively access the ideal conditions of the exhibition’s creation as a temporal dimension in which we are observers. We are called in fact, to elevate ourselves not only to the perspective of the artist who produces the spacetime of our own perception of the exhibition, but to go further, to look beyond the mirror and see that on the other side eternity is reflected.  ΑΘΑΝΑ is the present of creation that makes possible the duration of perception but which also makes us aware that every creative act is, in reality, the production of a moving image of eternity.

First comes the composition of the firewood in a structure that allows the fire itself to arise and then gradually grow. Then when the fire has started consuming the logs and the right moment arises, comes the recording of that instant. The impression of a continuously shifting entity that is in constant transformation while maintaining the ability to sustain its newly found existence by consuming itself, little by little. When everything is consumed the memory of the fleeting moment remains and the mind adds the rest in order to create a composition that is past, instant and extension in one drawing: a fire.

Few of us have any conception of the enormous timescales in our planet’s long history, and this narrow perspective underlies many of the environmental problems we are creating for ourselves. Deep time is a term related to the concept of geologic time which entails huge changes over the age of the Earth. A deep understanding of the history and processes of our planet provides us with the inspiration and the guidelines for our own effective functioning as individuals and as a species on this ‘pale blue dot’.

This series of photographs is a small selection that depicts one of Earth’s biggest geological calendars located in the -unjustly named-  Death Valley National Park. The oldest rocks in the area  are extensively metamorphosed by intense heat and pressure and are at least 1700 million years old. These rocks were intruded by a mass of granite 1400 Ma (million years ago) and later uplifted and exposed to nearly 500 million years of erosion.

Death Valley’s landscape has been changing for millions of years. It is changing now, and will continue to change long after we have departed. Erosion slowly carves away at the ancient rock formations, reshaping the surface of the land. The basin continues to subside and the mountains rise ever higher and our understanding of this fact can affect the future of this planet of which we are at the present moment part of.

Following a meticulous research with the team of CTRLZAK studio, a number of emblematic cases were analysed and a series of artworks were created reflecting upon species extinction as a result of human intervention. A compendium booklet was also created that aims to inform on the subject, utilising creative expression (drawings, collages, songs, stories etc.) as a filter. The exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) of Lissone, became a moment of encounter and a point of reflection on the problem of species extinction and its’ possible repercussions in the near future, as well as the role of humankind on earth.

Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things that exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the structure of the web. —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, iv. 40.

Two entities intermingled with each other. Tree & Stone. A primordial relationship that happens ‘naturally’ without apparent benefits but with ‘deep’ significance. The tree embraces the stone and the stone alters the tree’s existence in a continuous slow transformation for both entities. Organic and inorganic become one creating thus a new entity that characterises the surface of this planet. Parallel structures that find similarities in their external form through the alteration of time revealing a common past & future.  A symbiotic co-existence that becomes the paradigm of a profound union laden with meanings.

A photo study inspired by the forests of Lao which grow on the banks on the river Mekong. An immersion to the colour green seen from the outside, from the point of view of a spectator. Nature just as colour-chart?

Having as a starting point the phrase by famous Italian architect Franco Albini – ‘There are no ugly objects, you just need to know how to exhibit them’- a site specific exhibition was created where the real artwork is the exhibition itself. Starting from an idea by Alberto Zanchetta (art curator & critic) we selected artworks from the Bianconi gallery depot and enriched the exhibition with other pieces and objects that we borrowed from artists and designers while we also created some artworks specifically for the occasion. The result was a contemporary ‘Wunderkammer’ where each area was a piece in itself while all the works where positioned in a way where new meanings emerged from the interaction of one work to the other.

A project commissioned by a Chinese banking company for their new offices. Bank organizations often use the tree as a symbol of stability (roots), growth (branches) and trust (a recognizable nature-related image). In this case the trees are contorted, twisted and seemingly the indicated way-out is not certain… Welcome to the jungle.

Alice is molested. Alice has lost her innocence. Alice is no longer a child and she has learned that the hard way. Alice lives in a male dominated world. Alice is living/leaving her fantasies. Alice is discovering her real nature. Alice is a woman. Or not.

A project about the improbability of very probable objects. Items from the IKEA catalogue are mingled with each other to form new objects that serve no obvious function whatsoever; fantastical constructions that are made of real pieces of very pragmatic objects. The whole process of their assembly is shown and presented like a normal instructions booklet -similar to the ones you get with every IKEA object.

A land of wonder that makes you wonder about the nature of its very existence. Human vanity coupled with business speculation give rise to ghosts of fables long surpassed, becoming a land of oblivion. A land of projected amusement becoming a monument of humanity’s empty symbolisms, charged with structures doomed to perdure beyond their creators.

There’s a peculiarly Chinese form of accelerated entropy. The moment anything is built by China’s vast army of manual labourers, it begins a rapid descent into a state of grimy disrepair. Meanwhile many urban citizens live provisional, precarious and strangely rural lives under the feet of the brand-new high rise ruins whose interiors they’ll never see. The cities of China have grown up fast, but the other part of the deal is that they plan to fall down again the moment everyone’s backs are turned.

Created in 2008, and based on a real chinese amusement park map, the illustration represents current architecture megastructures that can be found in contemporary Beijing, showcased like a gigantic urban funfair.

The explosive construction growth of contemporary China has lead to a number of mundane buildings where people are encouraged to move in. It becomes their dream to own a box apartment in one of these tall cement buildings, prived of identity and personal taste.

Blue in contemporary China is the colour of factories, construction sites, transport vehicles, company logos, the police, the factory workers’ clothes etc. It is also the colour of capitalism (as opposed to red being the colour of communism). In other words blue is the colour of industry and construction, the colour of politics and the so called ‘progress’. In a sense China is living its’ blue period…

′Anatomy revised′ is a duality, a dialogue between opposites as well as a confrontation between classical anatomical images (Western) and Manga comics (Japanese) in an attempt to find similarities and at the same time extreme differences. By utilising a fixed pattern (the Manga images appear always on the right) and by creating a single reading level (negative prints create a fluctuation of the white marks against the black background) both elements are de-contextualised and the end result emerges as an unusual correlation. The elimination of the dialogues and the unsettling presence of the empty balloons urge the viewer to actively engage with the images by creating new narratives.

The catalogue (an integral part of the exhibition) underlines the scientific element of the whole body of work by organising in sections the succession of the images as in an anatomy atlas. Last, but not least, the titles (′revised table I′, ′revised table II′ etc.) divulge the detached and sterilised approach with which the entire research was conducted.

We are sorry… There were no matches for the word peace in our toys department. A bitter irony of the truth. An installation of ten digital prints depicting real war toys, available on the internet, accompanied by their original price and promotional text. Each one of them is subtitled by its’ market value which corresponds also to the real value of all of them.

A photography book on space and how humans alter it through their presence in diverse ways. A selection of photos and photo projects realised between 2004 to 2009 focusing on structures, constructions and situations around the world without showcasing the actual human element but presenting instead the results of our actions. The book was curated and designed by Huang Yang design studio and contains texts by Thomas Pfister (photography & cinema critic) and Alistair Gentry (writer & artist). The book title is the result of each individual title given by the aforementioned people involved in the project and the artist himself, while its graphic design reflects the idea of space transformation starting from the classic space grid representation.