Costas Tsoclis

Costas Tsoclis (Atene, 1930 – )

Giuliano Gori encounters Costas Tsoclis in the Greek Pavilion at the 1986 Venice Biennale, dedicated to the theme “Art and Science.” In the pavilion, Tsoclis exhibits the video work Pesce fiocinato with the integration of a three-dimensional element that seems to penetrate the projection wall. The power of this installation, combined with the dramatic images of the end of a fish’s life (actually filmed at a local market), becomes the subject of a legal case for animal cruelty, from which Tsoclis will be fully acquitted. In fact, in the filing decree, the film is recognized as “an artistic expression of great quality that […] arouses not only interest in the aesthetic fact but an inseparable understanding of the human measure.”

Shortly after the Venice encounter, the artist is invited to Celle, where he chooses a secluded space in the farmhouse, once used as a saddlery and consisting of two contiguous rooms. In the interior space, without windows, he rearranges the installation from the Biennale, while in the larger space, where a thread of light filters through small windows, he creates Luna, a work made with stones, mirrors, and tempera on the wall. The lunar landscape that extends along the wall is full of amusing trompe-l’oeil “deceptions.” In 1991, the work Genesi is born from the skillful modeling of two large masses of styrofoam, to which a surface of sifted earth is glued, making them look like giant eggs hatching on the bed of hay below. The environment is completed with the inclusion of an antique pendulum clock, from which the artist removes the hands before hanging it on the wall. The work is initially placed in the location of Pesce fiocinato, and then, in the presence of the artist, it is installed in the former stable of Cascina Terrarossa.

“Although Genesi may take inspiration from the large ovoid and spherical stones that abound on the coast of the Greek island of Tinos, it seems to re-propose the Nativity of Christ in the form of two large earth-colored ovoids, surrounded by straw. The larger ovoid resembles an enormous breast, while the smaller one has an ambiguous and organic form. Placed in close proximity to an antique clock without hands but with a magnificent brass pendulum, the event appears both timeless and mysterious. Some of the straw used for this piece still contains seeds that could be construed as a symbolic harvest.” — Robert Hobbs in Arte Ambientale, Umberto Allemandi & Co., Turin, 1993, p.52.

Works by the artist

Genesi

For more info:

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