Untitled, 2016
Installation, 77 overpainted wood carvings
ΕΜΣΤ Collection
Donated by Florica P. Kyriakopoulos, 2025
This artwork emerges from a collaboration between Theodoros Papaconstantinou (1913–1999) and his artist daughter, Leda Papaconstantinou, intertwining personal memory with modern Greek history. Rooted in Theodoros’s life as a naval officer, political exile, and self-taught woodcarver, the work draws on the handcrafted figures, tools, and memorabilia he created after settling on the island of Spetses with his wife, painter Litsa Papaconstantinou (1922–2000). Leda recontextualises these objects within a contemporary installation, transforming them into a living archive of family experience, resilience, and social change. Carved figures of sailors, priests, and women evoke a disappearing world of folk craftsmanship and everyday heroism. Through the dialogue between father and daughter, the artwork bridges generations, preserving cultural memory while exploring the intersections of art, history, politics, and identity in postwar Greece through deeply personal visual narratives.
As Leda Papaconstantinou noted, “With this project, I present traces of their lives,, works, bits and pieces from their studio, objects, tools, their books, along with some of my own works that seem to relate to them, a temporary museum where the three Papaconstantinous—Theodoros, Litsa, and Leda—meet again.” The inclusion of her father’s wood carvings in her own exhibition cannot be understood merely as a gesture of appropriation; rather, it should be seen as a profound act of recognition and a prime example of intergenerational sharing of knowledge. After all, Papaconstantinou herself has consistently engaged with craftsmanship and materiality, a practice that seems inscribed with memories of the work her artisan parents devoted themselves to for more than fifty years.
Leda Papaconstantinou was born in Ampelonas, Larissa, in 1945. She lives and works on the island of Spetses.
