Professionally trained as an architect, Athens-based artist Andreas Angelidakis studies the architecture of the ancient past as a way of deconstructing life in the present. In October, Angelidakis presents Center for the Critical Appreciation of Antiquity (2022), commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary, an immersive installation based on the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens. Under the white concrete dome of Espace Niemeyer, architect Oscar Niemeyer’s 1965 vision, realized between 1969–1980, for the Paris headquarters of the French Communist Party, the artist presents recreations and reconsiderations of Greek ruins in the form of digital video, soft sculpture, and furniture, resulting in a playful rendition of a traditional study center.
‘The environment is a hybrid construction site and archaeological excavation that offers a direct, physical experience for the visitor,’ says Denis Pernet, curator at Audemars Piguet Contemporary, describing Angelidakis’s sculptural columns that can be dismantled into furniture as a focal point of the exhibition. ‘Part of what attracted Audemars Piguet Contemporary to Angelidakis’s practice is that it offers many layers and entry points for different audiences,’ he adds. ‘You can literally play in the space.’
Ahead of his first solo exhibition in Paris, we spoke to Angelidakis about ruins in the popular imagination of the digital age and the ways in which history is constantly being rewritten.
Janelle Zara: Your starting point was the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, the architecture of which is essentially the opposite of Espace Niemeyer’s – it’s the textures and grandiosity of an ancient religious space, versus the sleek efficiency of Modernism. What did these buildings have to say to each other?
Andreas Angelidakis: Espace Niemeyer came into the conversation because of Audemars Piguet Contemporary. It was actually Denis who suggested that space, and it made total sense. As a 1960s Brazilian Modernist, Niemeyer’s architecture of sensuality and total design imagined a future that was never realized. Today our public service buildings don’t look anything like that. On the other hand, the Temple of Olympian Zeus contains a lot of subjectivity in its history, where archaeology presents its own version of the past. Bringing together a future that never came about and a past that might have been otherwise, we’re creating a sort of energy vortex.
JZ: And it’s important to note that this is the study center for the critical appreciation of antiquity.
AA: My general practice is about offering a critical point of view on established notions. Let’s say the Center for the Critical Appreciation of Antiquity was to look at the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens. Something that really fascinated me was the fact that there was a mosque inside the Parthenon from the Ottoman Empire. You’re not supposed to know about it. Archaeologists decided to hide the mosque instead of presenting it as a critical history, because Greece was part of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years. That part of history cannot be raised, so I ask, why hide the mosque? That’s the kind of critical thinking that the Temple of Olympian Zeus is perfect for. It’s seen as a monument of the past, but it’s been destroyed by fires, and rebuilt and redecorated by various emperors, making its story much more complex.
JZ: I’ve seen you describe this in the past as queering the space.
AA: It’s queering the space by presenting fake antiquities in a sort of realized future and providing a different point of view. It’s not judging the past by today’s standards but understanding it. I’m using the temple as a vessel, or a Trojan horse, to speak of other things.
JZ: Denis Pernet described the exhibition as a hybrid between excavation and construction site, as well as a study center. Can you describe what that’s going to look and feel like?
AA: We’re creating an atmosphere that people will have a hard time placing. Do people study here? Is it daytime or nighttime? The space shifts between an archaeological site, a nightclub, and a study center with just a tweak of the lighting. That refers to the fact that Greek architecture as an aesthetic has been used in everything from gay bars to summer discos by the beach, to museums and parliaments. But don’t come and expect to study.
JZ: Central to the exhibition experience is your new suite of sculptural furniture. What was your approach to design and construction, and how did that shape visitor interaction?
AA: For visitors, this is an exhibition that’s immersive and experiential, a spaceship of fake antiquities that you can sit on and rearrange. There are texts that were written for the show and published in the form of a chair – imagine a book that’s actually an armchair with pages you can flip. The furniture is part of a larger series called ‘Soft Ruins’, which are made from foam with a digitally printed cover. It’s a whole system designed for a stylite, a type of monk from the early Byzantine Empire who lived on top of a pillar. But if the monk wanted to be comfortable, instead of standing on the pillar, he could take the pieces apart to make a sofa, a bed, a desk, a bookcase, or an armchair. They’re all soft and lightweight, and you can play around with them. It actually treats archaeology as a game. This is an environment that plays a bit with the borders between what is an exhibition and what isn’t. If you can move the artworks around, are you part of the display?
Andreas Angelidakis’s Center for the Critical Appreciation of Antiquity (2022) will be on view from October 11–30, 2022. Commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary, the installation transforms the interior dome of the historic Espace Niemeyer in Paris. The work marks the artist’s first monographic exhibition in Paris, and it is the first artwork commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary to premiere in Paris. For more information, please visit: Audemars Piguet Contemporary: Andreas Angelidakis’s Center for the Critical Appreciation of Antiquity
See also Andreas Angelidakis, DeForrest Brown Jr., and Isabel Lewis reflecting on ‘Rave New World: Clubbing, art, and resistance’ during the Paris+ 2022 Conversations program.
Janelle Zara is a freelance writer specializing in art and architecture. She is the author of Masters at Work: Becoming an Architect. She currently lives in LA.
Captions for full-bleed images: 1. Andreas Angelidakis. © Dimitri Bourriau, Espace Niemeyer. 2. Studio Andreas Angelidakis. Photo © Vassilis Karidis. Courtesy of the artist. 3. Andreas Angelidakis, Domesticated Ruin (pink). Private collection, Monaco. Courtesy of the artist.