Artist, architect paint town red
What would Athens look like if road signs were in the shape of birds or flowers, if bus stops were painted in red or yellow patterns and if building facades looked like paintings? Painter Alekos Fassianos and Tassis Papaioannou, associate professor of architectural design at the Architecture Department of the National Technical University of Athens, tried to answer these questions in their exhibition «Painting and Architecture.» Fassianos and Papaioannou worked together for four years on this exhibition, which opened recently at the Athinais Cultural Complex (34-36 Kastorias, Votanikos). The two of them put forward their own particular ideas about what the city should look like. They launched a different version of architecture, simple and functional, and refused to use anything fancy or pompous. They thus fused painting and architecture, working on small units where particular attention has been paid to light. The exhibition consists of small and large-scale models of buildings, pencil drawings, oil and charcoal works and photographs. All the proposals to upgrade Athens’s image are rooted in the uniqueness of Greek architecture. This is not Fassianos’s first collaboration with an architect. Sixteen years ago, he presented, together with Kyriakos Krokos, the book «Architectural Landscapes,» which emphasized the buildings’ locations without undermining nature’s role. Currently, Fassianos suggests artistic interventions in spaces where his particular style can create attractive visual contrasts. Papaioannou, having studied Greek landscapes in depth, makes an active connection between his architectural proposals and artistic creations. The ideas he puts forward regarding architecture and life in a city focus on mental well-being and intellectual freedom, with the aim of benefiting people. The «Painting and Architecture» exhibition is organized by the Athinais Complex and the Pieridis Foundation and will run to May 30.
