Athens (AFP)

The internationally renowned Greek sculptor Takis, known for his kinetic works exhibited in Paris, New York or London, died at the age of 93, announced Friday its foundation and the Greek Ministry of Culture.

From his real name Panayiotis Vassilakis, Takis was considered together with the American sculptor Alexander Calder as one of the fathers of kinetic art and moving works often including electromagnetic elements.

He who liked to define himself as a "Dionysian" enjoyer has established himself in the world of contemporary art by combining elements of nature and physics in his works.

Its "signals", long aerial iron rods inspired by railway signaling and cosmic powers, have adorned many metropolises, from Paris, to New York, via London and Athens.

A retrospective is currently underway at the Tate Gallery in London and is expected to last until the end of October.

On the Esplanade de la Defense, in Paris, 49 multicolored lights that seem mounted on springs sway gently in the wind over the basin that bears his name, echoing other signals sent to the level of the Grande Arche.

Born in a suburb of Athens in 1925, Takis lives a childhood marked by years of misery, according to the Greek political context: Nazi occupation (1941-1944), during which he engages in resistance, civil war (1946) -1949) then tormented political period in the country.

"At the end of 1953, Takis joined the Brancusi workshop for a few months," according to the biography published on his foundation's website.

At the time, he lived between Paris and London, two cities that will become the main sources of inspiration for his first kinetic works.

- Radars, antennas -

Impressed "by the radars, the antennas and the technological constructions which decorate the station of Calais" (north of France) where he waited for a train, the artist "creates his first Signals, which are rigid at first and then contain signals bright on their summit, while gradually changing shape, "adds his biography.

Having lived mainly in Paris but also in the United States where he is invited to teach at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Takis returned to Greece in 1986 where he founded his foundation, the Research Center for Art and Science, on the slopes of Mount Gerovouni, in western Athens.

A prolific sculptor, he is also a pioneer in the creation of scenographies, musical arrangements for plays and collaborations with the Franco-Greek filmmaker Costa Gavras or the Korean-American artist Nam June Paik.

The artist also immerses himself in the "beat" culture of the 60s. During his first trip to the United States in 1961, he meets Marcel Duchamp, who later becomes a good friend.

Regarded as one of the most prominent contemporary sculptors in Greece, with Pavlos Dionyssopoulos deceased in June, the country's political class honored him. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis praised this artist "avant-garde, unconventional and inexhaustible".

"For more than 70 years, Takis has been an avant-garde artist who still has an insatiable curiosity for the powers of the universe," Lina Mendoni, Greek Minister of Culture, said in a statement.

"Influenced by classical sculpture and modernism, her works were the fruit of a relentless search around technology, magnetism and light," she added.

The brief statement from the Takis Foundation does not give details about the date or place of his death, to preserve the privacy of relatives of the deceased, who, according to the Greek media, was suffering.

© 2019 AFP