Onassis Stegi presents two new works by Nikomachi Karakostanoglou in the neighborhood of Neos Kosmos

“Flux,” in its digital guise, is the continuation of a physical work by Karakostanoglou that was first cast in bronze in its original size­—a total length of 18 meters—albeit a work that we will never behold in its material form; an insurmountable urban planning restriction led to the sublimation of the project into a video. Therefore, following its creation, the sculptural work “Dourgouti” was installed for a single night only on a wall that simulated the walls of its initial location and was then filmed by Dimitris Poupalos in order to convert it into an immaterial entity that will later travel in the flux of history. This is how “Flux” came into existence. On this axis, the work functions as a living organism, a fluid-cast mass that breathes and pulsates, "flashes on and off” across eras that carry memory and experience. In reference to the notions of transitivity and displacement that artistically engulf this triptych of works, “Flux” amounts to the ceaseless flux of the memory of a place, people, and remembrances, serving as an interval before rebirth and transformation. The journey of “Flux” included a stop at the Castle of Ioannina, as part of the Plásmata ΙΙ: Ioannina exhibition, and later concluded in Athens, where it found its permanent home.

Starting from Dourgouti, Nikomachi Karakostanoglou tells the stories of refugees who settled in this area, initially from Armenia in 1914 and then from Minor Asia in 1922. In Nikos Koundouros’ film “Magic City” (1954), which takes place in the said neighborhood of Neos Kosmos, then called Dourgouti, harmonious coexistence is portrayed as a unique case: Greek internal immigrants and refugees coexist harmoniously with repatriated Greeks and Armenians. Through this conceptual lens, Karakostanoglou initially forged an 18-meter horizontal sculpture in the form of a liquid-thick mass that resembles a path, traversing horizontally and unifying all the experiences of the people who took root in this neighborhood and cemented conditions of unity and solidarity, leaving their mark eternally, like a golden line on the horizon.

In the final stage of the described triptych, following the digital documentation and transformation of “Dourgouti” into “Flux,” the recasting into its third form takes place: the original sculpture “melts” and then morphs into a new work, “The Drop of Knowledge." With a poetic gesture, Karakostanoglou sublimates three distinct phases of the displaced memory and history of the refugee experience within Greek identity into a final sculpture installed in the offices of Onassis Stegi. The artist renegotiates the present through the past with “The Drop of Knowledge,” like a tear that flows in tribute to history and the uprooting of a now-lost homeland. The specific work serves as a dipole: on the one hand, the distillation of the historical past as a torch passed between generations, and on the other hand, the cultural imprint carved by the Foundation itself on the Greek locus—abundant, unconditional, and inclusive.The two works, the precious “tear” and the restless “flux” by Nikomachi Karakostanoglou, act as new landmarks for the city. The golden line and the golden drop of Karakostanoglou (to remember Michel Tournier’s titular book), with their “glorious brilliance and appearance,” in a sense enter into a dialogue with the rest of the artistic interventions of Onassis Stegi in Athens: the spare “The Kiss” by Ilias Papailiakis in Avdi Square, the neon “The Talisman of All Beings” by Angelos Plessas on Alexandras Avenue, “The Wave“ by Sofia Stevi in Mavili Square, and the funky “She Who Protects” by Aristides Lappas in Omonoia Square.