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Palindrome II Goethe Institut, Athens1982 Palindrome III Hotel Athenaeum Intercontinental Palindrome III Hotel Athenaeum Intercontinental, Epidaurus 1989
Stills from Installation - Performance Athens 1983 Athens 1983 Console on wheels and wall mirror
With Nikos Zouboulis View of Installation in hotel lobby Untitled 1982 Plate glass top and shelf,
Sculpture MDF frame in aluminum lacquer, mirror
Fiberglass sculptures, white lacquer,
photograph transparency in double Plexiglas, Fiberglass, white lacquer, slide projection 150x35 h200 cm
slide projection 200x100 cm
On floor plaster sculpture, sand, tinted water Stills of Installation - Performance in hotel elevators
covered with polyethylene sheeting, electric light With Nikos Zouboulis and Titsa Grekou
Columns of wood and stretched white latex,
electric light
Music, Gunther Becker
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Epidaurus 1989 STUDIO METAPLASI showroom Drawings 1992-1995 Fluxus 1993 Rethi 2003 End table
Stool Kolonaki Athens 1985 Colored pencil Coffee table Solid oak top with geometric design on stainless
MDF frame veneered in bubinga, black lacquer, Interior view on paper Plate glass top and shelf, steel pedestal and base 40x40 h50 cm
seat upholstered in leather Fulmine 1984 Mirror MDF frame Pylos I 2002 Coffee table
35x35 h45 cm MDF frame in green and pink lacquer, mirror in reconstituted veneer Plate glass top, MDF frame veneered in oak,
Nikos Zouboulis with Epidaurus 1989 Stool 80x80 h40 cm stainless steel fittings 130x130 h45 cm
84 h60 cm
Fluxus 1993 Aesop 1999 Coffee table
Coffee table Plate glass top, stainless steel frame,
MDF frame MDF shelf veneered in wenge 60x60 h43 cm
veneered in poplar burl, Pylos II 2002 Coffee table
plate glass shelf Plate glass top, MDF pedestal and base
120x80 h40 cm
veneered in walnut, stainless steel fittings
65x65 h55 cm
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Form into Practice
For three decades Nikos Zouboulis and Titsa Grekou have explored In 1983 Zouboulis and Grekou founded the furniture and interior design firm
the ways in which the human body fits and moves within delineated spaces. Studio Metaplasi, in tandem to their performance and installation projects.
Partners in life as well as in work since 1976, they went from their early They then applied this knowledge and awareness to practical purposes
studies in interior design into the field of visual arts. Nikos began in the everyday environment: how the body fits into furniture, say,
the endeavor in 1972 with his first Happening and his investigation into and how it moves through a living space. Early furniture designs,
new materials. After joining forces with Titsa Grekou, the couple went on such as Dias 1984 (tables and chairs) with its fluted columnar shapes,
to create a series of highly innovative projects that combined sculpture, echo the forms and structures of installation-performance pieces
installation and live action (performance) – relatively new art genres of the same period, such as Retroaction (1981) and Palindrome II (1982).
worldwide and virtually unknown in Greece at the time. Each piece of furniture created by Zouboulis and Grekou is a sculptural
Characteristically, these projects included some form of architectural investigation that integrates novel forms with unexpected materials
environment, such as columns or walls. To serve their structural and colors, whether it references ancient Greek art and architecture,
and conceptual requirements Zouboulis and Grekou invented the folk art of other cultures, pure geometry, or the natural world.
a medium/material – latex sheeting – a pliable, elastic surface that In their interior projects they continue to apply their sculptural principles
could adapt itself to and/or record physical movement and shapes. It could to create unique works that blur the boundaries between fine
also be stretched and draped to create or cover architectural elements. and applied arts. Zouboulis and Grekou have translated their objects
The performative act typically took place behind the latex surface, of sculpture into useable sculptures that serve our esthetics,
which was animated and acquired form through the movements our senses and our daily needs.
of the participants’ concealed bodies. Influences of classical art are evident Andrea Gilbert
in the columnar forms, the fluted and pleated surfaces, the integration
Athens, June 2005
of sculptural figuration, and the pervasive whiteness.
In their installation-performance projects they observed how the body
moved within the confines of a sculptural construction, how it acted
and reacted within a specific environmental framework and against various
surfaces and materials, and how it displaced and reformed the space
around it. Their extension of this discourse to the parallel realm of interior
design and furnishings seems a virtually organic outgrowth
of this quintessentially anthropocentric enterprise.
Drawings 1989 Coffee tables Ajax 1989 Coffee table Venus 1989 Console Venus 1989 Form into Practice
Pencil on paper Computer generated drawing Collage forms on paper Console and wall mirror Essay
Plate glass top and shelf, by Andrea Gilbert
Ajax 1989
Coffee table MDF frame Athens, June 2005
Plate glass top, MDF frame in red lacquer in black lacquer, mirrors
Plate glass top, MDF frame veneered in bubinga 140x35 h180 cm
Plate glass top, MDF frame in black lacquer
120x80 h40 cm
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Action - Reminiscence - Transpositions II Action - Reminiscence - Transpositions II Action - Reminiscence - Transpositions II The Portrait Athens Art Gallery Hilton
Ancient Theatre, Volos Greece 1980 Ancient Theatre, Volos Greece 1980 Ancient Theatre, Volos Greece 1980 Athens 1973
View of Installation - Performance Preparing the Installation - Performance Untitled 1980 View and stills of interactive Installation -
Iron and wood structure, stretched white latex, Spectators watching performance Sculptures Performance
plaster sculptures, white lacquer, electric light With Nikos Zouboulis Plaster, white lacquer Nikos Zouboulis
Music Theodor Antoniou 110x90 cm White paper backdrop, chair, stretched
Views of Installation - Performance
yellow latex in period picture frame suspended
from ceiling, electric light
Polaroid camera was used to take portrait
of participating spectator who received the photo
signed by the artist
Participation of
Yannis Simiriotis and Christos Tzivelos