Through his work, visual artist Kostis Velonis explores the emotions, ideas and conflicts that shape the human experience, while putting forward the comic and awkward role attributed to objects within the context of this narrative.
Kostis Velonis
Sculptural manifestations
Text: Evi Kallini
The sculptures, the paintings and the large-scale installations created by Kostis Velonis are intricate architectural edifices endowed with allegorical interpretations and different layers of aesthetic and political reading, while entailing various and contradictory elements of history, issues of social class, nature and human relations. He takes a great interest in sculpture and large-scale constructions, as they allow him to broaden and delve into the study of mankind’s ties to reality, due to their common three-dimensional perceptiveness. As he explains: “My desire to explore the way the material can be transformed and declare its independence from its passive entity, as an expendable product with a particular identity, is an important motivation.” Moreover, the large scale enables the visual artist to define artworks that interact with their environment and immerse the viewer into an experience, where he “cohabits” with them. These sculptures make part of a wider system. As he points out, in all larger-scale constructions the viewer is integrated into a wider whole, in which he converses with the aggregations of matter and the architectural arrangements, so as to lose any dominance within the exhibition’s space and become a part of it.
The visual art narrative of Kostas Velonis is connected to the trend of deconstructing the works of 20th century modernity and visual avant-garde. Through his work he seeks the exploration of the emotions, ideas and conflicts that shape the human experience, while putting forward the comic and awkward role attributed to objects within the context of this narrative. As he mentions, “in art constructions, the way we cope with certain emergency issues, the resourcefulness of an improvised solution, the specificity of the object, how it interacts with or mirrors the human agent, as well as the deviations from the “robust” gait, the swerving and the risk of balance in structures ready to collapse, are in the core of my work.”
He draws inspiration from many sources, from the observation of everyday life all the way to the exploration of the methodology of ideas stemming from pre-Socratic philosophy. “I am particularly interested in the interaction of matter with the birth of an idea and the way the creative process is influenced by experiences that come our way effortlessly through the unforeseen evolution of events,” he explains. Randomness plays a vital part for Velonis, as well as the notion of “weathering” as he calls it, which can be interpreted both as the change of weather and the shifts in one’s mental mood and idiosyncrasies. The way this experience is reflected becomes palpable in works defined also by the weather conditions, such as the cypress trees in the Hydra slaughterhouse or the cypress tree placed by the artist as a wind-compass behind a shipwreck, in the port of Elefsina.
My desire to explore the way the material can be transformed and declare its independence from its passive entity, as an expendable product with a particular identity, is an important motivation..
A perfect example of the multiple readings of Velonis’ works is portrayed in his recent large-scale installation “Straw falling on concrete floors”, showcased in Elefsina, within the framework of the “2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture”. This work is a study on randomness and fate that thematically alludes to the Ancient Greek mythology and the goddess Dimitra, remaining in situ to serve as a pollination hotel for birds and insects. Moreover, it invites the viewer to a different reading of the vertical ax that has marked sculpture ever since its birth. As he lays down: “The upright and fenced vertical anthropomorphic field οf the construction does not pertain only to the surface of the Earth and the height of a fragile large-scale construction, but also to a reverse trajectory, where the height can be conceived as the utmost depth.”
What is the underlying thread that binds together the various elements that are entailed in his work as a visual artist? According to his reply, the human experience and the quest for meaning and identity in the world could serve that purpose. “The structures of architecture and design concern me and are implemented in a very different way, revealing the hierarchy relations and to which extent these respond to the human demand for freedom. The socio-political references may reflect the challenges and the contradictions of contemporary society, but these varying features usually interplay with each other to generate a critical relation on the audience’s side. Provided they desire and accept it, the viewers are encouraged to a dialogue highlighting the various interpretations and meanings within the work itself. The emotional attachment to the work, however, fascinates me more than its intellectual counterpart.”
BIO
He was born in Athens, where he lives and works. He has studied Cultural and Humanitarian studies (MRes) at the London Consortium-Birkbeck College, ICA, AA (MRES) and Arts Plastiques/Esthétiques at the Université Paris 8 (D.E.A.). He is also a a PhD holder from the School of Architecture of the National Technical University of Athens. Since 2019 he has been an associate professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts. He has showcased his works in a series of exhibitions, among which we selectively mention the following: “Straw falling on concrete floors”, 2023 Eleusis Eleusis European Capital of Culture and 2022 Aeschylus Festival, Old Elefsina Oil Mill (2022), “My Boat Roofed Shed”, Zina Athanassiadou Gallery, Thessaloniki (2021), “199” DESTE Foundation Slaughterhouse Hydra and “Ghost Beggar”, Kalfayan Galleries, Athens (2020), “Landlord Colors: On Art, Economy, and Materiality” Cranbrook Art Museum, Michigan, “Life Without Tragedy”, Democracy is Coming Onassis Festival, Public Theater Astor Place, New York and Governor’s Island (2019), “WunderMoRE: progetti mai realizzati”, MAXXI Museum, Rome (2018), “A Puppet Sun”, NEON-City Project, Athens (2017), “Urgent Conversations: Athens-Antwerp, Part III”, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Antwerp (2017), “Antidoron – The EMST Collection”, documenta 14, Kassel, Germany (2017), “The Memory of Revolution”, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2017) και “No Country for Young Men”, BOZAR, Brussels (2014).
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