Curated by Christoforos Marinos
Vassilis Gerodimos’ work is characterized by the dialogical coexistence of heterogeneous materials. In his solo exhibition Horizontal/Vertical (2015) we find relief collages where processed paper is combined with wood. In the exhibition Hiatus (2017) the artist presented sculptures in which he married marble with paper, wood with polystyrene, steel with rubber. In his latest solo Stellen (2020), he focuses on the concept of fragmentation and creates compositions of autonomous sculptures made from different materials (silicone, metal and paper) that as a whole form a homogeneous landscape. In an implicit and systematic way, Gerodimos explores the relationship between materials, the associations, connotations and possibilities that are generated when they are brought together. Space in his sculpture is polysemous, permissive, always open to interpretations and readings. Already since his bachelor thesis at the ASFA in 2010, he had constructed a “space-object” from layers of cardboard, cut in such a way as to create three walls in the shape of a Π, where inside and outside define each other (hence the title “In Out”).
The exhibition “Three Loci”, at Potential Project, marks the return of Vassilis Gerodimos to places that activate his memory and senses. In this particular case, “site” is threefold, intimate and metaphorical, referring to the three materials with which the artist has worked extensively. These materials are stone, marble and paper, representing respectively his place of origin (Epirus) and his two places of apprenticeship and study (Tinos and Athens). Through the encounter of the materials, their unification and fusion, Gerodimos “sculpts” an experienced materiality, as when he assembles fossilized corals collected from Tzoumerka into a snow-white marble of Thasos. In the central sculpture of the exhibition he is concerned with the theme of fixation, as expressed by the careful connection between cardboard and marble. It is a construction based on the interdependence of the materials, testing their strengths; it could extend in height until it collapses. It is reminiscent of Jenga, the classic balance game, as well as Richard Serra’s tangential sculptures. Gerodimos’ works, including the relief collages he shows in frames, are fragments made of other fragments. In the face of this abstract sculpture, characterized by an earthy color palette, viewers are invited to return to their own “sites” of reference.
The exhibition Three Loci by Vasilis Gerodimos is part of Potential Project’s exhibition program which resulted from the team’s roundtable discussions that took place in the years 2019-2020.
With the support of NEON Organization for Culture and Development.
Photos by: Guram Chachanidze