Life Without Democracy, 2009
Wood, plywood, acrylic, spray paint
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Donated by the artist 2010
Monument to Collective Utopia, 2010
Wood, acrylic, watercolour
He Remained Alone with His Star, 2005
Wood, acrylic, metal
Sickle Without Hammer, 2007
Wood, acrylic, felt
The Shape of Things to Come, 2011
Wood, acrylic
Courtesy of the artist
Kostis Velonis’s works often address desire, failure, loss, and melancholy in relation to the utopian ideologies of the past. In the works of this section, Velonis focuses on the promises and shortcomings of democracy, modernism, and the political ideology of socialism. In Monument to Collective Utopia, the artist commemorates the Russian avant-garde, the Bauhaus, and the May 1968 uprisings, as well as other instances of collective devotion to utopian ideals throughout the history of humanity and art. Works such as The Shape of Things to Come or He Remained Alone with His Star allude to the tensions between society and the individual, private and collective life—a large red star overshadows a small, humble stool—casting these binaries as sources of loneliness and existential anguish. Sickle Without Hammer is a scathing commentary on communism and the quintessential symbol of communist ideology: what is a red sickle without the literal and symbolic power of the hammer? In Life Without Democracy, fragments of tiered seating reminiscent of the ancient theatre—a cornerstone of a society considered to have laid the foundations of democracy—become elements of a black architectural sculpture; here, democracy is fragmented and ominous. What is the fate—Velonis seems to ask—of social, political, and cultural institutions in a changing world?
Kostis Velonis’s artistic practice combines sculpture, installations, and architectural references to explore historical narratives, utopian ideals, and everyday life. Using wood, metal, found objects, and handcrafted elements, he creates poetic sculptures, often modest in nature, that address personal and collective memory, the utopias of the past, and the social and political realities of the present, prompting reflections on labour, the working class, cultural identity, and more. Velonis revisits the major failures and collective disappointments of the historical past, attempting to establish new correlations with the present and new connections with contemporary institutions, while simultaneously examining the relationship between the individual and the commons.
Kostis Velonis was born in 1968 in Athens, where he lives and works.
