Rooted in the urban landscape as well as more traditional references, Panos Profitis’ multidisciplinary artistic practice expands across sculpture, kinetic installations or performances in gallery exhibitions and asite specific artworks (e.g. Clouds, Vitoriza, 20218). Through his creative language Profitis is aiming to establish an essential dialogue with the place the artworks are exhibited. Casted aluminium, metal, iron, epoxy, plaster or concrete are some of the industrial materials that the artist uses. The manipulation of such industrial materials embodies Profitis’ work with symbolism and delicacy that activate the viewer’s tangible imagination. His sculptural body of work reveals significant tactile qualities and an unexpected immediacy, although many of his artworks reveal dual or even ambivalent interpretations.
Carefully smoothed metallic surfaces characterise his sculptures thus putting a greater emphasis on his figures’ expressions and establishing a deeper contrast between the materiality’s subtle use and revealed expressive appearance of his sculptures. From industrial machinery sculptural arrangements to video performances, including installation (Akashic Fields, 2020), Profitis enriches his sculptural vocabulary with the interplay of new materials. He also experiments with newer concepts and ideas about the essence and ecology of his selected materials, whilst more traditional techniques juxtapose the artist’s contemporary motivations and personal subjectivity. Between austere form, control and discipline, the artist’s works imbues intrinsic attributes to sculpture, such as stillness or corporality, which contrastingly disclose freedom of mind. In his sculptural language, the artist’s body of work pays attention to aesthetic modes and how pre-determined aspects of comprehending sculpture allow him to establish a solid ground for his new aesthetics in this field.
More particularly, in the Breeders’ gallery, the artist’s exhibition featured his most recent sculpture series that pointed out Profitis’ ongoing exploration of how materiality and imagination shape his sculptural forms in attractively metallic varieties. Sticking on the industrial contemporaries and properties in combination with their imbued cultural significance, the artist set up a polymorphic installation where he gathered various sculpture examples in a coherent manifestation of his imagery that evocatively intersects some remarkable biomorphic and other abstracted sculptural inventions, which underline the multidimensionality of the material.
Besides the material qualities, Profitis’ larger scale sculptures, ‘Demagogue’, (2023) or ‘Sharp Scythe I and II’, (2023), encapsulate issues of a thorough craftsmanship or cautious engineering converting regular materials into aesthetic structures that often bring up traditionally technical references, but also a contemporary approach in the field of sculpture. An evoking aluminum luminosity as well as ambiguous metal-carved design often enhances the silvery reflective version of gray that usually populate his recent body of work. These monochromatic hues render a more machinery touch, while his biomorphic associations create a seemingly playful handle with his geometric forms and shapes. His characteristic structures make the viewer wonder regarding the after-life of materials in the contemporary world; yesterday’s aloof and stiff aluminum material may yet be transformed into tomorrow’s artifact based on
the artist’s imagination and desire.
Words: Yannis Kostarias
Can you tell us about the process of making your work?
Usually I’m starting from the paper, even if is a performance or a sculpture, or something else, I’ll start from the paper. For example if is a performance I’ will write , I will make storyboards, I will do some sketches about the movement and so on, or if is a sculpture I will do drawings, while some times they can be many of the same idea or they may have slightly differences. In every case, they help me to build the idea before I built it with the materials. Then the process again depends to the medium: if is a performance we have to do rehearsals, if is a sculpture/installation I have to do the clay models, molds, castings, constructions while some times I’m doing them all together. In my mind there aren’t so many big differences, I feel that my process is like a tool box, the are different tools but they are coexisting in the same place.
How would you define your work in a few words (ideally in 3 words)?
Recently someone told me that my work looks like ruins, parts are missing, the supporting elements are visible etc. I found quite interesting this explanation so I would say (adding something more, including the perfomative aspect of my practice); my work is a ruined theater scenery, hahaha!
You currently presented your new solo exhibition, “ΚΩΜΩΔΙΑ/COMOEDIA”, at the Breeder Gallery in Athens; How was the experience of showcasing a greater and wider selection of artworks in one place creating a more unified sculptural language?
It was a great experience, and as you said it helped me to create a more unified sculptural language! To put things in some order, the title of the exhibition refers to a term that characterizes a form of theatre. At the same time, metaphorically, it characterizes a condition in everyday life, where the comic can often be identified next to the tragic. This concept is something that permeates the exhibition to some extent, that is, how the acting/initiative art escapes from the theatrical context that make up the natural environment and intrudes into the political or social discourse. How are these masks presented in the exhibition as sculptures can be transformed located in another way on a political, social, and cultural level?
The works that formed the backbone for the development of the exhibition are “The Divine Comedy”, “The Frogs” and by Brecht mainly the play “The brass market”. These three works have some structural and temporal differences between them, but in a paradoxical way they also have some meeting points that I was encouraged to use so that I could see what visual effect they could bring to the surface, a kind of experiment.
In particular in the “Divine Comedy” and the “Frogs” there are characters such as “Charos” or “Hades” that the heroes meet in both works, common places that in some way were visited by Dionysus, Xanthias and Dante. In both works there is a transition to levels and spaces, a journey of catharsis into a more metaphysical dimension. In Brecht’s work this metaphysical dimension does not exist, but his work is characterized by a theatrical approach through the prism of dialectical materialism. However, there are elements that we can see in the other two works as well. These elements are mainly related to the role of the creator and art: indicatively in the “Frogs” Dionysus organizes a poetic competition between Aeschylus and Euripides, in the “Divine Comedy” the poet himself, Dante, describes an imaginary journey in Hades, while in the “Dialogues from the Copper Market” characters appear on the board who are professionally or theoretically related to the theater and art, the “Actor”, the “Dramatologist”, the “Philosopher”, the “Illuminator”, the “Stage Worker”.
All three works raise questions about the work of art and how art could provide solutions, attempt to provide solutions, or where it has already failed. In the “Frogs” Aeschylus ascends to the upper world to save the Athenian democracy, in the “Divine Comedy” Dante through an arduous course subduing his passions ascends to heaven showing the way to the perfection of the individual, Brecht from another perspective makes protagonists not only the creator or the authority but all those who are involved in the cultural work as a whole. As the exhibition is a paradoxical hybrid of three different texts, inevitably the works also have a hybrid nature, they can evolve in other directions, or they can be activated with the help of the body. So sometimes the perspective of the performance of an organic medium arises, with movement, voice, gesture. It is a part that I include in my practice and in the way I create some works, treating the space with a scenographic eye. The architecture of the Breeder Gallery played such a role: the concrete staircase that dominates the basement is also repeated in some sculptures. Industrial metal ladders function as pedestals or as part of the sculpture “The Demagogue” where the ladder is in a horizontal position as if it has been overturned, while its original use cancels itself.
How did you come up with the idea of ‘Demagogue’ (2023)? Is there any story behind this artwork?
The first “Demagogue” I made was on 2017. It was a smaller ceramic sculpture, but the idea is something that interests me in general in my work, because it companies the hypocrisy, and the political action creating a theatrical figure, almost a caricature . Even from the interpretation of the word we can understand few things. Demagogue is a Greek word and means a popular leader, a leader of a mob from δήμος (people) and αγωγός (leading, leader), defined as a politician skilled in oratory, flattery and invective, evasive in discussing vital issues promising everything to everyone, appealing the passions rather than the reason of the public and arousing racial, religious, and class prejudices—a man whose lust for power ,without recourse to principle, leads him to seek to become a master of the masses. He has for centuries practiced his profession of ‘man of the people’. He is a product of a political tradition nearly as old as western civilization itself.
In both works you can see the element of ascent and descent. especially in the first work the beard is turned into steps leading to the mouth, in the last version we start from the mouth, and it probably ends in the stomach(?)In both cases the mouth is a gate, it is the organ that reproduces the speech of the delusion and consumes what it will pass the gate. Maybe for this reason, as I placed the work in the Breeder gallery, the face of the “Demagogue” is facing the work “Torso”. the stomach area is absent, but the aluminum has been polished in such a way that someone could see his idol dimming.
Deeper, the act of eating is a union of the body with the nature – the nature that settles in the human body where it is consumed and renewed at the same time. Thus somehow the work is still connected to death and resurrection – the continuous recycling of life, eating means death because it presupposes the slaughter of animals and the destruction of fruits. “Eating,” writes Bakhtin, “the body escapes from its limits, swallows, devours and devours the world, takes it inside and grows under its weight. The encounter of man with the world takes place within the open mouth, which crumples , devours and chews is one of the oldest and most significant themes of human thought. The human tastes the world, feels the taste of the world, introduces it into his body, makes it a part of himself.”
Various sculptures such as ‘The open eyes of the dead women’ (2022), ‘Old demon, new earring’ (2022) or ‘Sibyls and Harpies’ (2022) seem to have a particular emphasis on the representation of the eye and also seems to be a consistent and repetitive motif throughout your imagery. Is there any sort of fascination, or a deeper meaning or interest behind this particular motif?
You spot it right, the eye for me carries various aesthetical, philosophical and symbolic interpretations. I deliberately exaggerate by making it larger than normal, referring to depictions of the organ that have to do mainly with a spiritual or a metaphysical dimension. Characteristically I call it the “Biblical eye”, it is something that you can find in different historical periods, i.e. portrayed with an exaggeration. It is like a gaze that crosses history, tracing it in Assyrian, Hellenistic, Roman sculptures, in Byzantine art, in Soviet art (monumental art) even in the sci-fi art, you know aliens with huge eyes and the art of manga for example. Beyond the above, I believe that the gaze is something very powerful, even in a time where technology surprises us, there are human behaviors that are almost primal and animalistic. Think for example when someone looks at you nervously or intensely, don’t you feel threatened or somehow uncomfortable? it is a type of communication which is happening without words. I have an almost obsessive relationship with this motif, I remember how impressed I was when I read long time ago the “Story of the eye” by George Bataille, where at some point Simone (one of the book characters) puts an egg into her vagina. Beyond the erotic element, it was an imaginative description, I thought how powerfully Batille created an eye but at the same time a whole world of symbols, deconstructing the banality, the conventional and playing with fetishes!
Human-like characters visually showcase a sort of biomorphic and powerful appearance in artworks such as ‘Callas into Medea’ (2023), ‘Uovo’ (2022) or ‘The way the things are going II’ (2022). If that applies to your artistry, what does really motivate you to get involved into this body representation of such ambiguous protagonists? Rejecting traditional forms or bringing up new or more intimate sculpture techniques or language for example?
Studying the history of the human race, from the depths of time, we could notice that it evolves simultaneously with the history of technology (first weapons, tools, etc.). The element of biomorphism is something that was always present Let’s think about the longest used tool, the hand axe, which is a prehistoric hand tool, a piece of carved stone. The prehistoric man held it in the palm of his hand. In a way that the flint and the hand became a tool, a sharp extension of the hand. In today’s version the hand has been replaced by a wooden handle and the stone by a piece of metal, giving man’s tools like the axe, the hammer the shovel and much more. So at one level the relationship between organic-body and inorganic is a very old story presented in all stages of evolution, reaching today where electronic devices have become an extension of the individual and even his thinking.
I try to emphasize this relationship sometimes in my works by creating sculptures that have a hybrid relationship between the work of art and the utilitarian. So they are forms where the body co-exists with the mechanized universe, as in the work “The way the things are going” (2021) where strictly identical portraits ride a series of sharp gears, creating a chariot that drives to progress? or is this progress fictitious and could lead to the stalemate of war and destruction?
So the works for me are in advance anti-heroic and indeed and as you mention in the question, they are ambiguous protagonists. Even if sometimes monumental elements are presented, (mainly due to the scale and materials (metal, casted aluminium)), again I I deal with monumentality with sarcasm and irony. Some works can be used as tools or weapons like the works I presented at Breeder (Sharp schythe one & two), where their head was missing, and it had been replaced by a sharpened blade. Usually, monumental works are inaccessible, and you can’t touch them, in my case you can take my works and use them to cut a tomato. In an imaginary scenario if these works were in the public space and an uprising occurred, the crowd could remove them and use them as weapons! in a humorous mood i take the phrase “art as a weapon” literally haha! In general, my goal is to make works that are meteoric over time and that it is not clear where exactly they belong. I usually don’t want to direct the viewer to a very specific aesthetic period. That’s why I’ve heard people say that my sculptures look like sci-fi creatures or as someone told me during the opening of the exhibition that they remind him of movie sets from Cinencitta haha! But I also play with this element, that is to say, the works do not completely belong somewhere, and depending on the origins of the viewer they are transformed.
Do specific artworks have been created by random experiments in your studio or do you always come up with a particular concept or narrative in the very beginning?
As I mentioned in the first question, I usually start my ideas from the paper, certainly this does not mean that I do not leave the element of randomness to shape many of the works. Often many ideas remain only on paper as drawings, trapped in the paper or in the computer, but many others arise by playing in the studio, without a specific plan. Surely the factor of randomness is something that I consider very important in the creative process, that’s why I take many decisions at the last moment. I always leave a window open for some element that might appear unexpectedly, I certainly don’t start with a specific and strict concept from the very beginning, it’s something I do on purpose because I largely connect the personal experience with the art practice. It is difficult for me to find a beginning and an end and to decide that I will fully deal, with a specific narrative. Personally, I consider one-dimensional to be strongly gripped by something because even in life we are not just one thing. I believe very much in the enigmatic nature of the work of art, the works can describe something, but at the same time they hide it, just as music is enigmatic and obvious at the same time. Also, in the most performative works there is the factor of the uncharted because even when I rely on notes, during the rehearsals things evolve autonomously and ideas emerge along the way.
Can you mention any artists you, lately or generally, take inspiration from?
While I am interested in contemporary art, the artists who inspire me do not strictly belong to this context, they come from a wide chronological spectrum and not only from the field of visual arts. indicatively; Goya had made a great impression on me, with the ritual atmosphere in the work “Witches Sabbath” (1798), Gustave Dore’s engravings, especially those he created for John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Divine Comedy, the work of Jacob Epstein, in the sculpture “Rock Drill” (1913) we see this fusion of man and machine, we see it repeated in the works of Bruno Gironcoli where he also inspires me. The painting of the Belgian Gustave van de Woestyne 1881-1947 the expressiveness he gives to his portraits is something else, connecting them with religious art (Romanesque, Byzantine etc.) which is another source of inspiration for me even though I’m an atheist haha! On an artistic level, a great inspiration for me is the cinematic universe especially the baroque element and the critical examination of sexual taboo that you can find in Federico Felini’s Casanova and Satyricon or the socio-political approach of Pier Paolo Pasolini (Decameron, Theorem, , etc.), the theatrical gaze of Teo Angelopoulos which often presents a darker Greece, never sunny, a muddy province, far from the clichés of a country bathed in light where everyone dances syrtaki. However, there are artists that I also used as a basic reference for the exhibition Κωμωδία/Comoedia that come from the spectrum of theatrical literature and poetry, but I won’t expand further because the list could go on.
What about the place where you work? What’s your studio space look like?
My studio is not so down town, it is located in New Philadelphia, an area with a refugee past. Most of the residents are from Philadelphia of Asia Minor, a place where my family also has roots. The studio, therefore, is such a refugee house, without many comforts, without telephone or internet, bed, or comfortable chairs. This definitely helps me to concentrate, to go there and work without distractions and then leave. The space is given over to chaos, it’s usually very messy because of the materials and the way I work, however I always clean whenever I finish a project. Until I start the next one where again a mess is created, a vicious circle! Hahaha! however, you are always welcome!
Which are your plans for the near future?
The only immediate thing I have as a plan is that soon I will start shooting a performance video in my hometown (a place at the foothills of Mount Parnassus) it will be something like a short film but without a strict narrative, the participants will be all amateur actors from the village. On the other hand, I refuse to make more long-term plans, I don’t know if I can rely on the idea of the future, in many parts of the planet the future and life has been abolished, the Mediterranean is once again in the heat of war, innocent lives are the kindling. I hope the near future on a collective level to be fairer, peaceful, and meaningful.
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All images courtesy of the artist