Four acts on synergy

2017


Four projects that occurred in Thessaloniki, Greece, are focused on the interactions within a neighborhood. In these works the artist explores the possibility of enrichment or differentiation of these interactions, maintaining the expected context and role he would have as a resident, neighbor, or consumer. These four projects define an overlapping of fiction, rumors, facts, and misunderstandings.

Unreliable narrators



Aerated concrete block, paint, fabric, rope.



The artist created a peculiar gift by tying a pink cloth on top of a concrete brick. He then boarded a taxi holding it, heading for the city center. When the artist was asked for whom this present was, he started narrating an imaginary story referring to fictional names and places; a story that seemed somehow real though. The taxi driver then started telling stories about gifts he had given in the past. However, he couldn’t remember further details in order to describe them thoroughly; something that made his stories no more credible than those of the artist. Having these unreal and insufficient narrations as the starting point, they continued talking during the ride.

Myth generator





The artist had been ordering food from the same restaurant every day for 15 consecutive days, and at the same time he placed a different sculpture in the corridors of the block of flats he lived in. The strange yet irrelevant objects were carefully placed on places where they could be easily seen by the delivery staff and they were then moved away, when the delivery men left the building. Each employer’s experience and his personal interpretation could be a topic of discussion with his fellow employees. Every single person had the ability to narrate, elaborate or even distort what he experienced, making it possible for mutual narrations and imaginary stories to be created. In the core of this small group of people, the creation of a myth regarding this odd house was then possible.



Aerated concrete blocks, paint.



Aerated concrete blocks, paint.



Involuntary participation



Lamp, power cable, metal, wooden beams.



The project focuses on the contribution of the artist's apartment as a visual entity, among the corresponding ones of the other apartments, to the co-configuration of the night urban scenery. For this reason, he chooses to highlight the rather unintentional until then character of this participation.

For this action, a metal component was attached to both ends of two wooden beams, in order to hold a lamp above the street. A cable coming from the inside of the house was supplying electricity to the lamp and a chair was holding this construction back. The light coming from the house at that night was slightly brighter than the usual window lights.

Potential square




Mavilli square, Thessaloniki, Greece.


The work examines the results of a change, and the way its impact can go beyond the original alteration itself. How an observed change can be an initiative for the realization that a change in general can occur? Can a piece of art trigger this realization? Can it act almost as a stimulus?

The artist constructed a concrete sculpture and installed it in the centre of Mavilli square, in the western suburbs of the historical centre of Thessaloniki. Afterward, he went towards the city center where he got in a taxi heading for the Mavilli square. When they reached their destination, the new image of the area attracted driver’s attention, making him seem doubtful about this new alteration. Despite his disagreement, the possibility of the area’s reformation was then obvious. The driver suggested ideas and proposed further and alternative modifications for that place, creating a potentially new square.



Aerated concrete blocks, paint.