Vasilis Papageorgiou
5000 Euros (2020)
Casino chips are symbols and manufactured systems of value definition. Their image alone constitutes part of a code and value correspondences. Papageorgiou employs all the connotations of a chip’s image and adds new readings to them. Beyond the value of the symbol, he attributes and examines the value of the material itself – in this case, of marble – whose price is always determined by its color and place of origin. All chips of the same color have the same price, regardless of their shape or weight. Consequently, the surplus value created by the introduction of the work into the institutional maelstrom gives each sculpture their title, which is none other than its original selling price. Papageorgiou creates a palimpsest of values that determine and, at the same time, are determined by the art market and the market in general.
photography and text: courtesy of Callirrhoe, Athens.
18:18 (2023)
The series of hanging ceramics is rooted in Papageorgiou’s quiet observation through the window, where he contemplates the brief pause between distraction and leisure—a space free from the need to think or act. Each artwork is titled with the time of sunset on the day it was completed. The series includes both single and double compositions—some capturing only a single sunset, others pairing two different moments. In the double pieces, sunsets or sunrises are paired with a second time of day, with both times reflected in the title—the second, often the completion time, appears on the right side. These temporal intersections capture the core of the artist’s practice, echoing the broader rhythms of working time.
photography and text: courtesy of Callirrhoe, Athens.
Vasilis Papageorgiou Biography
Vasilis Papageorgiou (b. 1991) is an artist working and living in Athens. Latest solo shows include Birds! At UNA Galeria in Mila and his first institutional solo exhibition Sunseekers at the Salzburger Kunstverein in Austria (2024). In 2023, he was a resident at LUMA Arles and in 2022 he was awarded the Matteo Viglietta Award in Turin, Italy. His work is part of various collections such as the Onassis Foundation Collection and the Collezione La Gaia. He is the co-founder of Enterprise Projects, a project space functioning independently and periodically since September 2015 in Athens.