Works: White Space, Topos, Aquatic Verticality, Homage to Niki, Energy 8, Tetraclinon-Cypress, Labarum of the Void
George Sfikas introduced to the Cyprus pavilion a series of minimal drawings, photographs and installations, which investigated notions like ‘matter’, ‘energy’, ‘light’, and ‘time’ or ‘timelessness’ in a positivistic, mathematical fashion. This work, drawing on principles of conceptual art and using methods and styles echoing the practices of Sol Le Witt and Seth Siegelaub in the late 1960s, posed questions around human existence and the need to transcend the rigidity of systems on which the world operates. On a more intimate level, it also condensed memories from the artist’s childhood in Cyprus. The overall installation was designed by visual artist Niki Liodaki; so was the bilingual (English-French) catalogue, which had been conceived as an integral part of the project and was one of the most innovative publications of the Cyprus pavilion. Sfikas, now based on the island of Syros, Greece, has reconstructed for this show part of the Venice installation, incorporating all the fundamental elements of the work and repaving his minimalistic path into a dense world of concepts.
Arsenale