⁰¹ Sioux, 2018. Collection of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belgium.
⁰² Pleased To Meet You, 2019. Commission for the exhibition Just a bowl of cherries curated by Nicolas Vamvouklis at the 7th Thessaloniki Biennale.
⁰³ Monroe Springs, 2020. Exhibition view at Base-Alpha Gallery, Antwerp.
⁰⁴ TELL ME, 2021. Design for sculpture in public space. Design: Yorgos Maraziotis & Sofia Panagiotopoulou.
⁰⁵ Untitled (What You Give Is Always What You Get), 2021
⁰⁶ Untitled (Marleen), 2022. Installation view from the group exhibition Ballroom Project #4: The Grotesque curated by Ilse Roosens.

NV: Yorgos, you are one of the artists I have worked with regularly over the last five years. From the exhibition How to Fall with Grace (2018) at K-Gold Temporary Gallery to Just a bowl of cherries (2019–20) at the Thessaloniki Biennale and various unrealized projects we planned together that I hope will find their way soon. How has your practice evolved during this period?

YM: Back in 2018, when you invited me to create a new artwork in Lesvos, I was completing a master’s degree in sculpture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, and I was in the process of intense engagement with diverse materials and forms. Moreover, I was trying to bring sculpture and painting together in space, as my starting point for creating a new work is always painting, no matter what form it may take in the end. Since then, I have disengaged myself from materiality; I don’t work in a studio, I write a lot, I don’t produce many works throughout the year, and when I do, I collaborate with artisans or other artists. In other words, I aim more at a discursive process rather than being the one who creates the work alone. I also spend most of my time in artistic research, where I study the use of dialogue as an artistic medium.

NV: Personally, I admire your insistence on constructing sculptural environments where you invite or even challenge the public to navigate through them and think physically. To invest in some way by participating. There is an enigmatic feeling approaching these works; the seemingly intimate and warm is actually inhospitable, almost dangerous, up close. What are you aiming for with this transition, and how do you consider visitors in the process of creating these ‘landscapes’?

The materials I use to construct my sculptural ‘landscapes’ are mainly industrial, such as copper, swimming-pool tiles, stainless steel pipes, glass, marble, PVC, etc. This creates a sense of familiarity and security for the viewers, who approach them with ease. But when they explore them closely, they realize that what they initially felt changes; the familiar becomes unfamiliar, and the safety condition turns into a dangerous one. So I rely on the dual nature of things and situations, and I always try to leave enough space for thinking to the visitors of my exhibitions. But I require both their gaze and their bodily engagement. This is why I often define specific paths in the space they must follow to fully interact with my art.

NV: For several years now, you have been living and working in Antwerp, a city known for its experimental approach to fashion and beyond. You initially went there to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and eventually decided to stay in Belgium. Can you tell me more about this experience?

YM: The reason I came to Antwerp in the first place was not the postgraduate course but the need to get to know and live in the city. The master's degree gave me time and space to concentrate on my practice and connect with other artists, writers, academics, etc. Furthermore, Antwerp is located centrally in Europe; I can travel cheaply and quickly to other major cities, while indeed, as you mentioned, it celebrates contemporary art and fashion at a strong pace. What keeps me there, besides the fact that the artistic work is treated (collectively) as actual labour and not as a side job, is my collaboration with Base-Alpha Gallery as well as the development of my research practice. This year I have a researcher’s position at the Academy of Antwerp, where I am pursuing a long-term project about the educational, social, and cultural character of this historical institution. Essentially, I am trying to create a portrait of the Academy based on the stories and narratives of its staff (students, professors, technicians, models, etc.). I have been working with Base-Alpha Gallery for three years, and on May 11th, my second solo exhibition, Hard Desires, opens there. The installation I will present is a direct reference to the dynamics of the flesh, the necessity for human touch, and the value of being present — physically and mentally — in a capitalist society that puts human relationships in second place.

NV: But you continue being directly connected to Greece and, more specifically, to your place of origin. I am thinking about your research on the post-industrial history of Patras, where you turned personal narratives into monumental light installations and placed them in the city’s urban fabric. Who did you give voice to through the project TELL ME (2021), and why did you choose to present it in the public space?

YM: The research I am doing this year is a continuation of the project I carried out in Patras in 2021. There I studied the post-industrial character of the city through the oral histories of members of its working class. Let me emphasize here that it is not only about past stories but also about future plans and aspirations. So, in addition to workers who were involved in the past, I also talked to younger people who are active today. In collaboration with students of the Architecture Department of the University of Patras, architect Dimitris Theodoropoulos, and museologist Georgia Manolopoulou, the documented narratives were translated into sculptures and a soundscape-podcast curated by tenor Nikolas Maraziotis and radio producer Zakelina Kyroussi. I think that the public space in Greece is ailing: the way we perceive it individually, the lack of collective management, and the state’s indifference to its cultural, architectural, and educational prominence make it really problematic. This is why I tried to transfer the recorded speech to the city’s everyday life. After all, the myths — or truths — that I collected are the ones that (co)shape the city.

NV: I want to know more about your relationship with fashion. You recently participated in Uniformed Bodies (2022), a new collective publication by CLOTHESLINES that examines the sartorial element of uniform. If I remember correctly, you've collaborated once more in the past with the book’s co-editor and fashion designer, Eleftheria Arapoglou.

YM: I’ve known Eleftheria for many years, and she is one of my few solid collaborators in Greece. I admire her sculptural and ‘architectural’ approach to clothing while our research practices coincide. Fashion, as a process of research, creation, and presentation of clothing, concerns me deeply since it is directly connected to how we behave in space, what identity means, and how class differences are formed. We have collaborated for theater and dance performances, her Digitaria collections, and exhibitions such as Tramontane, curated by Alexios Papazacharias at the Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center (2016).

NV: To close, I will pick a question from the celebrated Proust Questionnaire for you. I just learned that it is not actually his, after all. Instead, it’s a 19th-century parlor game that survived as Proust filled out the answers in a friend’s confession album. So, which talent would you most like to have?

YM: The talent of being able to eliminate the importance we give to … talent! I think it would be more appropriate to focus on the day-to-day work that goes into what we do and is essentially what empowers any talent or flair.


Yorgos Maraziotis (1984, Athens) is an artist and researcher. His works have been presented in solo and group exhibitions internationally. He lives and works in Antwerp.
Nicolas Vamvouklis (1990, Mytilini) is a curator and the artistic director of K-Gold Temporary Gallery, while he collaborates with international art institutions. He lives in Athens.