Constantin Xenakis’ 6 minutes video titled “Labyrinth Hellas (No way out)” exclusively available on s[edition], was derived from Xenakis’ 1973 action at Alexander Iolas’ Gallery in Athens during the period of the Greek junta. Participants had to try and find the “Way out” of a labyrinth made of symbols.
Internationally recognized, Constantin Xenakis is one of the most important contemporary Greek artists. Born in Cairo, he settled in Paris where he rapidly became involved in avant-garde trends such as abstract expressionism. Gradually he found his own “expressive voice” and developed a singular visual language borrowing from the omnipresent symbols and codes of everyday life such as traffic signs, alchemy, the zodiac, mathematical and chemical symbols and the letters of the alphabet, including Egyptian hieroglyphics.
A D.A.A.D. scholarship in 1970 permitted him to work in Berlin. In the 70s he experimented with the possibilities of “environments’, creating settings with cones and ultraviolet lights In the years that followed he crystallised his personal language to create vividly colored works with signs and symbols that investigate the processes of communication.
He has received the title of “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” from France and the Delmas award from the Institut de France. He has exhibited worldwide including Egypt, Japan, France, Germany, Denmark, USA, Greece.
