Christos Tzivelos (1949-1995), one of the most talented Greek artists of the 1980s and 1990s used light as his materia prima to create symbolic installations as magical signs in relation to architectural space.

Tzivelos’s first retrospective exhibition, entitled Modelling Phenomena (the title derives from the homonymous work) aims at presenting the most important phases of his artistic production while illuminating lesser known and even unknown aspects of it. It includes works from 1977 to 1995, beginning with the representation of an interactive installation that was exhibited at the group show Mito e Realtà in Bari, Italy, and ending with an incomplete drawing from the series Lights-Fossils.

The exhibition underlines Tzivelos’s relation to semiology, Greek mythology, philosophy, alchemy, cosmogony, cosmology. It leads the viewer through different stages of his work, emphasising the three-dimensional self-luminous installations, for which he became best known. The exhibition also includes Tzivelos’s immaterial projections of insects on the wall, glass globes, sculptures, photographs, and drawings from the series Lights-Fossils. A selected part of the artist’s personal files will be on view in showcases (sketches, drawings, hand-written notes, invitations, catalogues, etc). The exhibition includes a short film documenting Tzivelos’s early in situ installations in group shows of vanguard Greek artists abroad (courtesy of Diohandi).