In the still sleeping town the force that drives the trees is the midnight noise that empty rooms may make, 2005
Wood, veneer, acrylic, felt, clay, canvas, seeds
Variable Dimensions
In 2010, a few months before he passed away, Nikos Alexiou (1960-2011) donated to the Benaki Museum his rich contemporary art collection that he created with great dedication and patience, along with his artistic work. It is a unique set of artworks by contemporary Greek and foreign artists, which reveals a special aspect of Alexiou’s the multifaceted activity, that redefined the artistic practices in Greece in the late 20th and early 21st century, with a long-lasting impact.
The exhibition presents this donation, introducing it as part of the artist's own practice but also as an example of an artist-collector capable of contributing not only to the reflection on the artistic production of twenty years (1990-2010) but also to the creation of existential worlds and unexpected constellations of meaning.
The corpus of these 236 works by eighty-four artists can also be understood as an "open work" that Alexiou constantly rearranged in his places of residence, multiplying synapses and narratives.
This ensemble is governed by certain recognizable characteristics: a preference for the minor event or gesture, craftsmanship and fleeting personal traces, an obsession with paper, transparency and lightness, an interest in the relationship of line to space, webs and grids, a delicate balance between disorder and order and, above all, a prominent attitude of artistic solidarity. All those things that we could call a passion for creating and interweaving worlds (referring to the Greek dia-kosmos, meaning ornament but also – literally- inter-world).
The multi-layered and at the same time imperfect character of the Collection makes it a functional unity and proposes a tactile and physical experience emerging from a special in situ installation in collaboration with the architectural office AREA. Curated by: Polina Kosmadaki, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis
Artists:
AIDS-3D (Daniel Keller, Nik Kosmas), Alexis Akrithakis, Andreas Angelidakis, Andisheh Avini, Vassilis Balatsos, Carmen García Bartolomé, Dikos Byzantios, Gustav Ceder, Bernhard Cella, Yannoulis Chalepas, Panos Charalambous, Manolis Charos, Adam Chodzko, Kostas Christopoulos, Daniel, Stephen Dean, Katerina Diakomi, Dimitris Foutris, Pavlos (Dionyssopoulos), Werner Moser Dorfmann, Jimmie Durham, Jack Early, Dora Economou, Kostis Velonis, Naya Frangouli, Vasso Gavaise, Alexandros Georgiou, Voula Gounela, Elias Kafouros, Eleni Kamma, Irene Karagiannopoulou, Apostolos Karakatsanis, Apostolos Karastergiou, Polydoros Karyofyllis (Poka-Yio), Stathis Katsarelis, Anne Kern, Panos Kokkinias, Haris Kontosfyris, Daphne Kostopoulou, Kostas Koulentianos, Antonis Kyriakoulis, George Lappas, Spyros Litinas, Pieretta Lorentzatou,Jason Meadows, Deanna Maganias, Jörg Mandernach, Caitlin Masley, Voula Masoura, George Mavroidis, Michael Michaelides, Christos Mitas, Christina Mitrentse, Amy O'Neill, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Maria Papadimitriou, Leonidas Papadopoulos, Dimitris Papaioannou, Aemilia Papaphilippou, Nina Pappa, Enoc Perez, Simon Periton, Elena Poka, Marie Françoise Poutays, Mantalina Psoma, Mary Redmond, Rémy Rivoire, Vicente Rojo, Georgia Sagri, Yorgos Sapountzis, Kai Schiemenz, Minas Semerdjian, Jim Shaw, Irys Schenker, Alex Slade, Danae Stratou, Stephen Sutcliffe, Philip Tarlow, Yuken Teruya, Gert & Uwe Tobias, Nikos Triantaphyllou, Alexandros Tsadilas, Nanos Valaoritis, Ino Varvariti, Kostis Velonis, Lydia Venieri, Vangelis Vlahos, Pae White, Manolis Zacharioudakis.
Warm thanks to Popi Alexiou and the Association ‘Megalos Kipos: Nikos Alexiou Archive’ for their support, the access to archival materials and the loan of the unique Filing Cabinet of the artist.
