Their artistic scope is clear of any hands-off zones; as if an ever-flowing source of ideas is always at hand.
The Callas
When making art it feels like playing
Text: Dimitra Kehagia
Athens, Amsterdam, Thessaloniki, London, Vienna, Hydra, New York, Thermisia of Argolida. “The Callas” art duo, brothers Aris and Lakis Ionas, based in the historical center of Athens and employing every art form possible, craft their singular art universe, which they present to the entire world for two decades now in the exact same way they used to play when they were kids.
The two siblings grew up amidst art and handicraft. Their father, who worked as a photographer, collaborated among others with the National Theater of Greece and the Greek National Opera, while their mother embroidered and knitted; they were surrounded by colors, threads and needles. At school, instead of doing their homework, they read poetry and literature, listened to music, played football, went to the movies and to football matches, “living a beautiful vagabondism,” as they admit today.
Their artistic influences and references are numerous and various. Sonic Youth, The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Television Personalities and The Jesus and Mary Chain all the way to Syd Barrett, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Jim Jarmusch, Frank O’Hara, Etel Adnan, Aki Kaurismäki, Superstudio, Takis Zenetos, Mike Kelley, Édouard Manet, Marcel Duchamp, Vassilis Tsitsanis, Sotiria Bellou, Konstantinos Parthenis, Epaminondas Gonatas and Nikos Pentzikis. Since their childhood days they knew how to mix these references together and how to team up with other people, just like they did when they chose which team to join according to whom they had the best of times and got along with. That’s how they conduct themselves in their artistic career, following their heart and instinct. “Our core guideline has not changed ever since. What interests us is which ‘players’ are best suited for a high-spirited team. When making art, it feels like playing.”
All these years they have shown this kind of attitude and mentality in their approach towards the professionals they have teamed up with, such as Lee Ranaldo, Jim Sclavunos and Thurston Moore. “We invite them to get acquainted with our universe. For instance, we love all the bands Jim has been in ever since 1976. Therefore, when we reached out to him he realized that we could work together and create something that would satisfy both sides.” However, the structural ingredient for their creative evolution is no other than honesty and selflessness towards the people they join forces with. “Whatever they offer us, we offer it to them too, whatever we receive, we will give it back in return. In other words, we do not abide by a strictly professional logic or a profit mentality. Every partner of ours is talented in some field and we seek to find ways for everyone to give their best as a part of a whole.” Their basic need is to fulfill the sense of community. To lean on one another, Aris on Lakis and the other way round, and both of them on all of their partners and friends.”
What interests us is which ‘players’ are best suited for a high-spirited team. When making art, it feels like playing.
The multileveled and versatile Callas universe includes a steady network of a few dozens of people: Dio Horia Gallery that represents them, curator Nadja Argyropoulou, several musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, dancers, choreographers, graphic designers, editors, even their mother and aunt who craft the embroideries that have become a trademark of their visual art identity.
Their artistic scope is clear of any hands-off zones; as if an ever-flowing source of ideas is always at hand. As their lifelong partner and friend Jim Sclavunos (drummer in bands such as Cramps, Sonic Youth, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and years-long partner of Nick Cave) eloquently put it in the two-language edition L.S.D.- Notes on Love Solidarity Death: “Callas are a band that grasps the art of happening and multimedia art event-performance, playfully mastering the notions of time, space and body, feeding off the dynamic interaction between the artist and the audience.” Callas’ inexhaustible creativity is expressed through embroideries, paintings, videos, sculptures, music, films, often coming in inventive combinations, “musical and visual compositions of explosive colorfulness,” as described in the L.S.D. edition by Nadja Argyropoulou.
Callas have eight albums (the ninth is underway), exhibitions in Greece and abroad, tours alongside Chrysanthi Tsoukala (PapithedogTV) and Christos Bekiris (Bhukhurah), the two other members of the music ensemble, concerts and four full-length films under their belt. In 2023, they celebrated the 20th anniversary since the start of their artistic journey at Onassis Stegi with the exhibition L.S.D. (Love – Solidarity – Death). This umbrella title covers their full creative range over the last three years, which includes embroideries, paintings, sculptures, clothes, music, performances, but also a book that was released in early 2024 in selected bookshops and record shops. They often use titles that encompass entire periods featuring artworks of all kinds, inspired by the same state of mind.
Their fourth film titled METS, starring Vasso Kavalieratou and Nancy Boukli, was screened at the 64th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, whereas all of their films are available at the Cinobo platform. Their upcoming plans for autumn 2024 include a new album, a new film, as well as several live concerts in Greece and abroad. Last March an individual exhibition of their work was hosted in Vienna, at the Spark Art Fair, while every year (either in June or in July) the Velvet Festival takes place in Thermisia of Argolida, their mother’s homeland, an all-day-long fair/event/exhibition. This festival, revolving around a different core theme each year, sums up their multifarious activity, as well as the multifaceted talents of their partners: on that day new roles are assigned and one can find a well-known sound mixer to display astonishing cooking abilities. Moreover, the shooting of their fifth film was carried out in the wider region of Thermisia.
They feel equally at ease in Thermisia and in New York, but they would never give up Athens as their working base. They may have studied at London’s Chelsea College of Arts, making the best out of everything the British capital had to offer them on an artistic level, but they could never, for practical reasons, develop their network of people, ideas or creativity in any other part of the world. “We would not have been able to build this sense of community elsewhere,” they add.
