Athanasios Kanakis

Tracing, 2026 (Ongoing, Site #7) 25 x 35 cm, Mixed Media "Tracing engages with landscapes undergoing constant transition: sites marked by construction, abandonment, and renewal. At its core, the series examines how images can function as sites of encounters where material processes, spatial (hi)stories, and human presence converge." #athanasioskanakis

STATE OF EMERGENCY 2023 | MYSTERY 166 As part of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture, Athanasios Kanakis presents an installation titled State of Emergency (2023) at Old Machine Works. The work is inspired by the disastrous and historically unprecedented flooding which hit the western suburbs of Attica in 2017, drawing from the personal experience of the artist and his family in Mandra, Attica —Kanakis’ birthplace and one of the main areas affected by the disaster. The work showcased here constitutes a fragile monumental topography, subject to constant, threatening oscillations. The resulting glass landscape is sensitive to external forces, ever changing, constantly vibrating, deteriorating, cracking, with parts of it being destroyed everyday. What will be left after the destruction-exhibition? What fills the space between what we strive to salvage and what finally manages to survive? In the state of emergency, everything reverts to a single organic matter: the living, the human material, all crystallize into a volume orchestrating a deceleration of its cycle of existence. State of Emergency stages the climax of an ongoing drama: the outbreak of a natural disaster and the exact moment of declaring the state of emergency —right when all other natural elements are seen as posing a threat to human life. The tragic realisation of a preordained mass retreat: the painful dichotomisation of a holistic ecosystem giving rise to an unbearably simplified juxtaposition opposing man to nature. The memory of the trauma of a violent separation, the sense of truly missing the time when we used to be “one” Film: Spyros Skandalos @to.spark.a.scandal Text: Christina Petkopoulou @chripetko Translation: Natassa Sideri Production: WILDREEDS (Panos Giannikopoulos & Georgia Liapi) @wildreedsprojects @panosgnk @gia_lp Project Coordination: Zoi Moutsokou @zoi_moutsokou , Director of Contemporary Art Commissioned by 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture @2023eleusis A special thank to everyone who contributed to this work but also to the residents of Mandra who trusted me those precious objects and allowed them to stay with me and be part of this work. 🖤 R.I.P 15.11.2017

🇵🇹❤️

Tracing, 2025 Shredded B/W Print, 100 x 290 cm Currently on "Common Ground" at @big_table_athens Curated by @chripetko @simone.niarou @big_table_athens @romanebourg Among many other friends and colleagues! The show is on till the 11.10.2025 Agiou Orous 25, Votanikos Athens part of @acollectiveofcollectives festival Images 3/4 by @bmin0r

Tracing, 2025 Dimensions Variable, Mixed Media Currently on view at the group show: “All The Wrong Places”  " … The exhibition approaches withdrawal through the concept of space as a perpetual issue to be managed and negotiated. It culminates in “wrong” inhabitations as open invitations for new discoveries. The artists reflect on geographical location in relation to time, digital acceleration, the mnemonic functions of space, and its social and environmental destruction conditions. They focus on “representations” of landscapes and forms in an era that seems to have alienated us from place and time within an unstable environment that appears increasingly uninhabitable. …  Athanasios Kanakis (Athens, 1983) works at the intersections of materiality, memory, and space, creating compositions that combine photography, sculpture, and prints. He focuses on traces—both natural and intentional—that embody presence and absence, opening a dialogue on how images transform into objects. By transferring photographs onto plaster or concrete blocks, he creates sculptural objects resembling artefacts, challenging the boundaries between natural decay and deliberate intervention. This process allows the image to acquire material substance, offering a multi-layered, tactile experience. Kanakis’ compositions reveal the concept of inhabitation not as a static state but as an ongoing negotiation with space and time. The artist invites us to reconsider the relationship between image and object, representation and reality. His works exist as forms suspended between creation and erosion, reflecting on the nature of the traces we leave behind and the shaping of the landscapes we inhabit. ..." curated by Panos Giannikopoulos @panosgnk at @batagianni.gallery The show in on till the 22.02.2025 Tue-Fri 16:00-20:00 Sat 11:00-15:00 🙏🙏🙏

Digging up some old works and archives. Studio diary from "Sehnsucht" 2015/2016 Cement cast 20x30 cm #athanasioskanakis

PASSA CÁ EM CASA // INHABITING GESTURES Athanasios Kanakis com Alexia Alexandropoulou e João Lourenço 📍Rua de Moçambique, 44, 3.º dto., Lisboa Inhabiting Gestures explora noções de lugar, história, memória, sinais de habitação, o conceito de hospitalidade e examina a forma como podemos fomentar comunidades e relações de cuidado e confiança, através da partilha de histórias e troca de objetos em espaços informais e familiares como uma casa. Ao mesmo tempo que reflete criticamente sobre a rápida transformação das cidades e as suas dinâmicas complexas, especialmente em tempos em que a mudança através da gentrificação altera e corrói a identidade e a diversidade, o projeto pretende, com as suas diferentes ações, destacar vestígios e gestos do passado antes que estes desapareçam completamente. Os participantes são convidados a trazer uma pequena lembrança ou um objeto da sua casa em troca de bolos caseiros e histórias. Ideia e criação: Athanasios Kanakis com os convidados Alexia Alexandropoulou e João Lourenço 📷: @beatriz.pequeno @uma_revolucao_assim @goetheinstitut_portugal @culturgest

"Inhabiting Gestures" explores notions of place, history, memory, signs of habitation, the concept of hospitality and examines how we can foster communities and relationships of care and trust by sharing stories and exchanging objects in informal and familiar spaces such as a home. While critically reflecting on the rapid transformation of cities and their complex dynamics, especially in times when change through gentrification alters and erodes identity and diversity, the project aims, with its different actions, to highlight traces and gestures of the past before they disappear completely. Participants are invited to bring a small souvenir or an object from their home in exchange for homemade cakes and stories. The intervention will be presented during "Passa Cá em Casa" in October, with contributions from João Lourenco @j_pl_r and Alexia Alexandropoulou @alexia_allex as part of the "Uma Revolução Assim" @uma_revolucao_assim festival by Culturgest - Fundação CGD @culturgest and Goethe-Institut Portugal @goetheinstitut_portugal curated by Julia Albani @juli_albani #umarevoluçãoassim #habitação #athanasioskanakis

Desolation/Consternation 2024

Les Choux de Créteil, Gérard Grandval ... bound into the design was the following, a refusal to create urban spaces lacking in identity (a warehouse for humans, in a no-man’s town). A refusal to accept the dichotomy between mineral and vegetable. A refusal to deny residents an outdoor and yet nonetheless private space. A refusal to create an unsafe space for the residents or foist on them a high maintenance programme... 📸 27.01.2024 #créteil #gerardgrandval #leschouxdecréteil #urbanism #research