“Shut your Eyes and See”: Nakis Panayotidis New Exhibition

Panayotidis has been exploring the concept of time, which he perceives as flow and pause, moment and eternity

The Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens unravels all the different aspects of the work of Greek-born, international artist Nakis Panayotidis at the retrospective exhibition “Shut your Eyes and See” that opens its doors on November 27, 2024 and will run to March 2, 2025.

Nakis Panayotidis’ work is defined by the use of simple and very different materials, that range from stones and tar to neon and photographs, as well as very different techniques with which he has experimented throughout the years, without adhering to specific forms. The retrospective exhibition organised by the B&E Goulandris Foundation presents more than 40 works, representative of all the technologies and the materials he has used in the course of his career.

He is known for his photographic depictions of industrial landscapes and seascapes, visuals containing words, three-dimensional sculptural objects and installations that address philosophically existential questions from antiquity to the present. His designs and constructions are controversial while his indifference regarding technique is a strategic choice: Panayotidis believes that technique stands in the way of any vision that goes beyond established conventions and expectations.

A self-taught artist, as he did not graduate from any school of fine arts, Panayotidis grew up in Kypseli and went to Turin when he was 19 to study architecture. While in Turin he quickly became part of the young artists community and became acquainted with the Arte Povera movement. It was in Turin that he also first presented his own experimental works, in 1971, as part of a group exhibition held at the Piemonte Artistico e Culturale center.

His recent work is dominated by paintings, but not in the conventional sense: in 2017-2018 he started experimenting with visuals containing words, a process of glueing written messages that give food for thought on large surfaces. During the pandemic, he focused on landscapes and interiors, creating images that manage to be inherently bright without external lighting.

Throughout his career, Panayotidis has been exploring the concept of time, which he perceives as flow and pause, moment and eternity. At the same time, he firmly believes that a complete work of art can never be fully understood from a fixed point of view. Life and death, hybris and vanity prevail in his work, while he seeks to rediscover Greek myths, to show that historical events might change yet existential conflicts remain the same.

Nakis Panayotidis lives and works in Bern, Switzerland.

During the exhibition “Nakis Panayotidis – Shut your Eyes and See” guided tours as well as creative workshops for children will be taking place.