“Color is my blessing. It pervades my entire being. It flows in my blood in all shades. Even the smallest,” says artist and sculptor Kostis Georgiou.

Our conversation takes place on the occasion of the Enigma 2 exhibition, which opens on the first day of September at the Hellenic World of the Greater Hellenism Foundation. The exhibition is retrospective and enriched with works from all periods of the artist’s long career, as well as recent works of painting and sculpture. There are 160 large and small paintings and 40 sculptures in total. In all works, color – intense, violent, often provocative – characterizes the work of the visual artist.

“To be precise, I would tell you that color defines my margins and imperialistically dominates my box,” he comments. “He is a giant who lives and exists in colored meadows, as well as in the bowels of the earth. She emits rays of light from her mouth and at any moment can turn into a mermaid, a warrior, a saint. In my painting, the color determines the form and distributes orders in its space. He is the archon who holds my hand and masterfully guides it to successive waves that must be tamed in order for the desired harmony, passion, drama, euphoria to exist. Only then does he remain silent until the right moment comes again to arm me again.”

Kostis Georgiou is a special case of an artist. He has established himself with his “thoroughbred paintings,” as technocritic-semiologist Haris Kambouridis writes in the central critique of the album accompanying the exhibition, but his artwork transcends visually and aesthetically the boundaries of painting. “However, it is his plastic compositions that expand the two dimensions of the painting into three-dimensional space, and the “plastic gesture” as a derivative of real physical situations,” adds Mr. Kambouridis, who also refers to “installations”), which claim all the available areas, exhibition and wider.

“The coexistence of my painting and sculpture is a field of exciting double action axis,” says the artist, commenting on how he divides his work between the two arts. “They can and do work in good collaboration, but also individually. The code is general. Only the environment changes. The interesting thing about painting is that even though there are only two dimensions, you create the third as an illusion, unlike sculpture where you work with all three real dimensions,” he explains.

The retrospective exhibition features 160 large and small paintings and 40 sculptures.

And he adds, answering our question about how he chooses the means of expression each time. “Sculpture in relation to painting has a different reason, although they have a common code of existence – creativity. Each of them has different perks as well as different resonances. So painting, being more introverted and introverted, leads you to work that suits it. However, many times he also pushes you into the arms of the sculpture, because perhaps some of the elements inside him are trying to break out of their box and take on a three-dimensional existence.

His monumental sculptures have been installed in Belgium (St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brussels), China (Vanke Shopping Center, Iya Yuan Gardens, etc.), Canada, Miami, many places in Athens, Thessaloniki, Alexandroupolis and other places. He himself describes to us his experience of creating sculptural installations for public space: “Sculpture is a very important action. It imposes itself with its volume and acts imperialistically on the landscape around it. There is no room for jokes in sculpture, as amateurs often do in painting. From prototyping in clay to the final result requires knowledge and a lot of time. A lot of sweat was shed from start to finish,” he comments.

Among the sculptures that will be presented at the exhibition, there are sculpture installations with famous red acrobat dancers, for example, from the Meteoron project, recently installed on the beach in Thessaloniki. Also for the first time in Athens, his large sculpture installation “9 Muses” inspired by Greek mythology will be presented. His installation “Birds in Dreamland” – a 10-meter multi-faceted work consisting of 6 paintings, will also be on display at the museum.

A documentary film about the journey of Kostis Georgiou over the past 35 years will be shown in a special area of ​​the museum.

Enigma 2, Greek World, until September 20th.