Untitled 2014, Contemporary Art Center Ileana Tounta, Athens 2014

For this installation I placed two rows of chairs opposite each other. They touch, forming a corridor. They support a wall and build a meeting without foundations, they restrict access and vision. They don’t permit dialogue, work, communication.

“Manolis Baboussis invites the viewer to think, feel and wonder about spaces that have to do with memory whether it is collective, individual, social or existential. However, the main concern of Manolis Baboussis is the existence of the wall that dominates in his body of work. The wall as a notion and as part of a structural system…The work Untitled comments on the solid and profound social relationships where communication is a plasmatic process. He constructs a large scale sculpture from cement blocks and a set of chairs. He blocks the space between the seated persons thus preventing any kind of social interaction that could hypothetically be developed. The assemblage of the cement blocks creates a peculiar spiritual space and stretches the idea of an unrevealed situation as well as the need for something to be discovered. The choice of simple rough building materials (like wood and cement) enhances the architectural concerns of the artist…” (Katerina Nikou, curator).