‘iolas shelter’ is a lightweight structure conceived as an archive of biographical data and tailored as a garment for the human body.
Conceived as a cross-over between an archive, a boudoir, a cenotaph and a hideaway this temporal interactive installation is a tribute to the polyvalent personality of Alexander Iolas. Also known as the man who discovered Andy Warhol, Iolas was an ambassador of the arts, a prolific collector, a cosmopolitan merchant, an epicurean networker and an intellectual Maecenas.
Clues that determine the conceptual structure of the installation are found in his biography: universality in an era before globalization, Hellenic heritage as a starting point for cosmopolitan placelessness, his contribution to the momentum of the Avant-garde, his affection for surrealist painters, his early career as a dancer.
These are expressed in the coexistence of archetypical shapes such as the column, the pyramid and the orb, with complex geometries, synthetic materials and ready-mades composing a translucent architectural body in suspension.
‘iolas shelter’ is a lightweight structure tailored as a garment for the human body that explores the architecture of textiles.
Alexander Iolas prolific persona is expressed in the golden interior of the paraboloid funnel whose swinging metal frame is lined with emergency blankets.
The double surface of mylar; heat-absorbing gold on one side and reflective silver on the other, is an image all too familiar in the recent refugee crisis that conveys multiple and contradictory significations. Wealth and glamour are juxtaposed to unsettlement, precarity and displacement.
Wrapped like an overcoat around the funnel, a circular cloakroom refers to the once luxurious and now ruined villa Iolas in Athens in whose basement a precious collection of garments was kept. Four hundred nylon garment protector bags become the canvas of experimental writing, the narrators of a spectral presence. Instead of clothes, we find an archive of drawings and texts, portraits, heirlooms and quotes.
‘iolas shelter’ was created during the parallel events of the exhibition ‘ALEXANDER IOLAS: The Legacy’ on show between 6 October 2018 and 31st March 2019 at the MOMus – Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece. The installation’s design and implementation were investigated as a participatory project in collaboration with students of the Department of Architecture / University of Thessaly and the School of Visual and Applied Arts / Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Plans
Facts & Credits
Curator Thouli Misirloglou
Architect Sophia Vyzoviti
Design Team Dimitris Lazaridis, Sophia Karasavvidou, Krystallia Klonara, Michaela Litsardaki, Alexandros Papadopoulos, Nikiforos Papoutsopoulos, Yiannis Tompoulidis, Kostas Tsakiris and Xenia Zorpidou
Photography Stefanos Tsakiris
Video HappyEnd
Iolas Shelter from HappyEnd on Vimeo.
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