Athens (AFP)
The internationally renowned Greek sculptor Takis, known for his kinetic works, died at the age of 93, according to his Foundation and the Greek Ministry of Culture.
"It is with great sadness that the Takis Foundation announces the loss of the international sculptor Panagiotis Vassilakis, said Takis," the Foundation said in a statement on its Facebook page.
No details were given immediately on the date and place of his death. A retrospective of his work is in progress at the Tate Gallery in London.
Considered with the American sculptor Alexander Calder as one of the fathers of kinetic art, Takis, whose real name is Panagiotis Vassilakis, has established himself in the world of contemporary art by combining elements of nature and art. physical in his works.
Its "signals", long aerial iron rods inspired by railway signaling, stand in the public space of many metropolises (Paris, New York, London ...).
Born in a suburb of Athens in 1925, Takis had a childhood marked by years of misery crossed by Greece. During the Nazi occupation (1941-1944), he joined the resistance. Then came the civil war (1946-1949), and the tormented political life of his country.
Impressed "by the radars, the antennas and the technological constructions which decorate the station of Calais" (north of France), while he waited there for a train, "he creates his first Signals, which are at first rigid then comprise luminous signals on their summit, while gradually changing shape ", according to his biography published on the website of his Foundation.
"For more than 70 years, Takis was an avant-garde artist who still had an insatiable curiosity for the powers of the universe," said Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, quoted in a statement.
"Her works were the result of an incessant search for technology, magnetism and light, influenced by classical sculpture and the deduction of modernism," added the minister.
Having lived mainly in Paris but also in the United States, where he was 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, near Athens.
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