Everything Thanasis Totsikas creates originates from a particular set of conditions—conditions he has conceived for himself, nestled alongside and within nature, which he observes as it eternally transforms, creating, re-creating, and offering itself as a service to time. This universe of creation translates into a pocket “constellation” of residences-cum-studios, each serving a distinct function. Unbound by rigid architectural principles or aesthetic conventions, they were built in the spirit of a machine, composed solely of elements essential to their purpose. The first residence, the artist’s base, is located on the outskirts of Larissa, a city spreading across the Thessalian Plain in Central Greece. The second, an hour’s journey further, rests on a lush hillside beside a small stream flowing into the sea. The third, an outdoor platform with minimal infrastructure, sits in the woods. More than mere sites of creativity, these residences actively shape the artistic process, not just as sources of inspiration but also as co-creators—foremost, they are works of art in their own right.

Following his studies in Athens and Paris, as well as his journey to India, Totsikas chose this environment as his primary site of creativity since it is here that nature reveals its raw dynamism to him. Whether it is a colour seen exclusively here, the immediate imprint of nature on his palette of materials—such as rust—or the energy it harbours, these forces emerge solely under certain conditions and form the foundation upon which all technological achievements are built. The energy that permeates nature—its latent systems, fluctuations, and sequences— finds new form through Totsikas’ artistic interventions, transmuted into objects, compositions, and mechanical constructions. He grew up on these very plains—a confluence of agricultural and industrial areas—where he witnessed firsthand the interplay between man and nature and the pivotal role of machines in this relationship.

Often, Totsikas creates utilitarian objects, tools like knives, which transform into instruments that serve his needs under the influence of the proper human energy. These may be displayed as works of art; however, when he is back there, he uses them to clear the branches that seal the paths leading to his homes. Similarly, he builds, repairs, or employs machines not merely for functionality but to bestow, as he puts it, an “honour” upon the technological feats they embody. Among these machines are the motorcycles and tractors he salvages and collects, as well as the famed Ducati motorcycle (1). Then there are the self-devised machines he constructs to meet his practical needs—machines for sharpening knives or providing power to his mountain home by harnessing water pressure. Everything is a potential artwork.

For the needs of this exhibition, he introduces one such machine from Thessaly—a “tank,” as he calls it. Running on a Stihl motor, it was, once again, first tested there, in the rugged and unforgiving mountain terrain to transfer heavy loads. He pays homage to these machines as fellow travellers in his journey, each born from his impulse toward functionality and his need to construct a machine that is the brainchild of his calculations, one that will come alive through a joint choreography with his body.

However, beyond all these, Totsikas sees in the creative act a gateway that leads him away from the formalities and mannerisms of sculpture. He pursues a holistic way of life and labour, using it as a lever to disentangle himself from the rules of art and society. In this light, he applies his own definitions to sculpture, knowing that an object carries only the meaning he imparts to it when he presents it as art. In the same manner, the marbles he collects in his region seem to hold a deeper significance— not merely as materials but as reflections of the landscape itself. Their veins mirror the mountain ridges, visually rendering the terrain. Placed atop a rusted construction, these marbles converse with smaller stone finds that allude to a site of archaeological excavation. Gathered during the artist’s walking routes, these stones stand as mementoes of geological change while further quoting the fluidity of all matter.

Another recurring motif in Totsikas’ oeuvre is the blanket (2). Large and small craft industries and workshops in the extended area of the plain become incorporated into his works: everything that surrounds him filters into his creative sphere, such as, for instance, his collaboration with local automotive paint shops, which led to a series of artworks using car paints on sheet metal (3) or his self-portrait before the Biocarpet factory, (4) a memoir of his industrial monuments. The blanket—crafted from a local workshop and included in the exhibition as a soft base for the artist’s makeshift machine—is not featured as a sample of regional handicraft but as an ode to the union of natural materials, such as wool, with industrial procedures.

The works featured in the exhibition originate from Totsikas’ universe—and it is there they shall return. There, under their own laws, the works exist all together in a permanent state of semi-exhibition. There, some of these works retreat to inertia, each one subscribing to its own temporality. When left outdoors, they accept nature’s interventions, welcoming the effect of weather conditions. At the same time, their transformations are attuned to the artist’s moods, whether he chooses to re-appropriate a work or a part of it or modify it, paint it, and incorporate one into another. In this process, even canvases are treated like gears—tools that cater to a broader purpose. Although this accumulation of found or generated material may appear vast and chaotic at first glance, it does follow an internal rationale. It is through this material that Totsikas forges his own system of “birth,” one that serves a different kind of eternity—that of his idiosyncratic rebirth.

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1 Thanasis Totsikas represented Greece at the 47th Venice Biennale of Art with his work Totsikas-Ducati (1997), under the curatorship of Efi Strouza.

2 In the work The Rules of the Game for the group exhibition De la main à la tête, l’objet théorique at the Domaine de Kerguéhennec Art Center (Brittany, 1993), curated by Denys Zacharopoulos, as well as in the work Untitled for the group exhibition Hyper-Product, held at Club 22 (Athens, 1988) and curated by Haris Kampouridis.

3 Thanasis Totsikas began creating this body of work in 1994 and has presented it in various group exhibitions. In 2000, he showcased another series of pieces featuring automotive paints on metal sheets in his solo exhibition THANASIS TOTSIKAS at Unlimited Contemporary Art Gallery in Athens.

4 It was featured in the catalogue Hyper-Product: Current Greek Art and the Post-Industrial Society for the group exhibition Hyper-Product, curated by Haris Kampouridis, which took place at Club 22 in Athens in 1988.

Text: George Bekirakis