Takis - The Fourth Dimension by Axel Vervoordt Gallery

Takis - The Fourth Dimension

Takis - The Fourth Dimension Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp, 25 October â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2 December 2012

Communicating Energies Takis on magnetism, truth, hope and water. An interview between Takis and Jenke Van den Akkerveken, Athens, October 8th 2012.

Your work has always involved properties of the natural phenomena. Could you tell us how you see the relationship between science and art? You must know that I am a scientist as well as an artist. I was an invited guest fellow at MIT for three years, in the late sixties. I have made inventions. For me artists and scientists are very similar. Artists know the marble, how to treat it, and they understand the scientific dimensions of the material. If you engage in questioning, you are a researcher. Take a painter, a simple painter, it’s the same: he does research, about the colour, how to apply it, what kind of colours to use, what chemical reactions they will have. I have this combination in my work as well. I work mostly on magnetism. For some fifteen years now, I have been working only with magnetic fields.

I have felt spatiality through magnetic fields. That is my instinct. I am an instinctive savant. But Pythagoras spoke before I did. Energy is everywhere. Energy floats, it is circular, it spirals, it surrounds us. And with my work I wish to vitalize spaces with energy. Takis, 1993, speaking about The Music of Spheres

Do you think scientists and artists ask the same questions that have different answers? They are not the same questions exactly, but they all ask questions. The moment you are questioning the world, you are like a scientist. Both scientists and artists are looking for answers to their questions; but what answers are you looking for? Are you looking for a universal truth with your art? Do you believe that art is able to reveal a part of universal truth? Universal truth; that is a very big question. All of the philosophers have been dealing with that. I believe that Atlantis did exist; I believe there was a real Atlantic civilization. It is established that there was an ancient civilization that was far more advanced than our own. The Egyptians said we need a book to write about Atlantic time, one book. The Greeks made hundreds of books about the truth. Truth is… I don’t believe there are too many things to say about the truth. You don’t have to write; I agree with the Atlantic civilization. The truth is much simpler than the way it was presented after the Egyptians. You don’t need to talk about it so much. Personally, it’s the same thing. I don’t believe you have to look at a tableau and expect the tableau to tell you a lot of things. You just get a feeling from a piece of art. It doesn’t say much. It is a potential. My kinetic things don’t say much; they just go inside you in their own magnetic ways.

Are you saying the question of truth is irrelevant? No, it is not very relevant. I believe the Egyptian whose view reached this civilization, via-via. But to find the truth, you have to follow your fantastic health: the moment you do a lot of exercise, the moment your body is free from pain, from illnesses, all of a sudden your mind opens and you discover everything else was wrong, and you are facing a truth, which is very free and beautiful.

«Ἀριστοτέλης δὲ καὶ Ἱππίας φασὶν αὐτὸν καὶ τοῖς ἀψύχοις μεταδιδόναι ψυχῆς,τεμαιρόμενον ἐκ τῆς λίθου τῆς μαγνήτιδος καὶ τοῦ ἠλέκτρου.» “Aristotle and Hippias say that he gives soul to the inanimate objects, relying on the magnet stone and electro.” Aristotle

Without having to put it in words? Yes. If you have really good health, you can get it. That’s all it takes. People today spend hours watching television and using the computer; they don’t even spend two hours a day on their own health. We are completely absorbed by the details around us. The moment you have strong health, these come to have less importance. Is your work more about energies than about matter? No, my work gives energy; it brings a balance to your body. It gives energy. And this energy gives something to you, because you already have energy. And your energy and the work’s energy come to be in harmony, without your having to think. But this does not cancel out all the beautiful things that you can see. It’s a manner of approaching: it’s just the magnetic field that is radiating and that harmonizes your own magnetic field. I am not interested in the visual, I am interested in energy. This is your magnetic field, it makes you feel happy. In fact, I cure people with magnetic fields, and after all, I am not the only one today. There are hospitals that use magnetic rays to cure you. There is a lot of promise in that direction. If our civilization is better than that of Atlantis, it is because we have made tremendous technological progress. We don’t know if they already had that at that time, we cannot find any instruments. But it is scientifically proven that there was a big civilization. So with your work, it’s more than just communication? We have the viewer entering into dialogue with the work, the work talking back with energies, the energies mixing … No, it’s not just that. My works are a proof that we are communicating, you and me, now, we communicate through magnetic waves. This is really me: I discovered it through my experiments and my communication with young scientists, with everybody. My communication with the objects is through magnetic waves. It happens that I have this gift, which is why they invited me to MIT. I am very sensitive to any magnetic fields around us. I have the gift of telekinesis. I can pass my thoughts to you even if you are on the other side of the earth. It is proven that telekinesis can travel in the past and in

(left) Magnetic Wall, 2004, magnets, canvas, paint and iron wire, 280 x 140 cm

Διοτίμα λέγει: ‘ποίησίς ἐστί τι πολύ· ἡ γάρ τοι ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ ὂν ἰόντι ὁτῳοῦν αἰτία πᾶσά ἐστι ποίησις’. Diotima says: ”Creation is something very general; every step anyone takes and every reason that turns nothing into something is creation”. Socrates th

Great Britain, on the 15 of September 1940, managed to successfully deal with the German enemy aircraft thanks to the invention of radar. Specifically, they could detect the adversary aircraft in time, because of the reflection of electromagnetic waves in the ionosphere. The Battle of Britain (Radar System)

the future. Many people have this gift; they can communicate by thinking. So in my work this is very important for me. It goes beyond the realm of the visual. You can see a tableau, a white tableau. But at the same time, you see a tableau by Fontana, who works with space, by adding the holes; he communicates this space to you, mentally. It’s a wonderful tableau. With my white tableau, space comes to you. So you could say it’s not a representation. It’s a presentation. Yes. Something like this. This relates to the work I have been doing in the last fifteen years or so. I have been making magnetic works already for half a century. My first magnetic walls had objects floating in front. But I think it is the same whether they float or stick, since the magnet itself sends out the magnetic wave, no matter. I originally did them in that way so that the spectator can see the invisible power in that phenomenon. Nowadays I don’t do that. I simplify them, but it has the same result. We have the same feeling. You get the feeling; you don’t see it. You get it directly inside you. Would you say that your latest works, the new magnetic walls, are even less visual? Because you don’t see the space in between anymore, that space of suspension. I did it because the phenomenon was quite unknown. I was the first artist to make magnetic sculptures, so at that time, we are talking around ‘59, about 50 years ago, I had to show people that these energies exist that can keep an object suspended in the air… After this came the evolution of technology. Today we are streaming in magnetic fields. We are realizing it. I understand what you are trying to say about the importance of magnetism… The importance of communication. With energies.

(previous) Magnetic Wall, 2004, magnets, canvas, paint and iron, 140 x 280 cm (right) Musicale, 2004, wood, electromagnet, iron needle and wire, 252 x 100 cm

With everybody around you. With a dog. With a table. There are magnetic fields all over. We understand things through our senses. It is through the magnetic fields that we have this kind of sense. Of course we have the sense of vision, with the eyes and photons, but always there is something in there with magnetism. We have photons that reflect the tableau to your eyes. What about sensuality? If we are feeling sensuality because of a beautiful girl, if it is sensual, the sensation is in the transmission. It is always magnetism.

So we are composed of magnetic energy. Yes. But these magnetic fields are not just the magnetic fields of the earth; they are magnetic fields from all the stars, from the universe. Especially from the sun. The sun, with all these magnetic explosions often sends a lot of magnetism to our planet. Sometimes it is very disturbing. We had them three years ago; there were big explosions from the sun before this tsunami in Japan. The Incas predicted there were going to be a lot of disturbing situations on earth. This is a very big conversation. You cannot analyse it. It’s very difficult. Let’s go back to your work. How do you feel that your latest work, the magnetic walls, relates to what you did before? First you go through your time of research. The research I did is not different from what I am doing now; I have always been interested in cosmic phenomena. It developed, and I think the final work is this. After all, I am not a young man, I don’t know how long I will keep on doing this, but I have a great interest in magnetic fields. It’s a fantastic situation, because I have to compose invisible forces. It’s not that I am simply putting a magnet and then we hang a tableau, it’s a composition that holds the whole thing together.

“The only vision I ever had of magnetism was during a conversation with Takis in Paris in his studio, looking at his little metal cones hummingly waveringly pulled by live wires straight at their little magnet fathers; and he, Takis, explained to me that the stars were all pulled together with myriad thin invisible wires of magnetism radiating from every star to every other star ‑ so we imagined, if you pulled out any one star the whole thrumming mechanism would slip a cosmic inch like a quavering mobile and all twang together into place at once on lines of unseen magnetic tracks, thunk”. Allen Ginsberg

But is it not important to you how the wires are placed? This is not so important, but they always go the way you see. Behind it is a work of harmonizing the magnetic fields so that they keep it correct. If you just put magnets, it doesn’t mean anything, they might fall. One magnet can contradict the other. So it’s a composition of magnetic fields. You spoke earlier about your connection to Fontana. Did you know him? Yes, I knew him. Actually, he was more famous. I was much younger than he. We exhibited in some of the same galleries. He was a very charming person. A wonderful person, very open. Unfortunately he died young, relatively speaking. Are there any other artists of that time that you think you can relate to or have influenced you? Of course I met a lot of artists so many years ago. Artists are lonely people. Each one has his own way of communicating. Like everyone at the time in Paris. It is a conversation, so much is going on. The most important person for me personally was Marcel Duchamp. He understood what I was doing most profoundly. He said that I show a new way of communication in magnetic fields. He made a beautiful statement for me and I publish it all the time. I have a straighter, clearer connection

(left) Magnetic Wall, 2004, magnets, canvas, paint and iron, 100 x 150 cm (above) Takis with Iris Clert and Lucio Fontana at Iris Clert Gallery in Paris, 1963

with him. I was meeting him often in New York and he used to invite young artists in the weekend at his house. I met all the young artists of that time, Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol; all of the pop artists, I had a wonderful time in New York. With Marcel Duchamp I had a real communication, without competition. Always when I met big artists they would have no problem. When I met the younger artists there was this competition, there would be quarrels… it happens. Marcel Duchamp and I didn’t actually talk… We didn’t need to. We would have fun in his garden or at some other parties we were invited to. We didn’t speak that much… You understood each other…

“When you leave the third dimen‑ sion which is the tableau anyway, by eliminating it with a fourth dimension, which is outside of the tableau and inside of it, this deter‑ mines its strength and motion”. Nicolas Stathoulis

(left) Magnetic Wall, 2004, magnets, canvas, paint and iron wire, 280 x 140 cm (below) Handwritten note by Marcel Duchamp

At that level, you don’t talk. But with Yves Klein, Tinguely, who would have been my age, we had quarrels, you know, competition as to who is the best. But if you would meet an artist who would have been mature, Man Ray, Gabo, I met him in London… Did you ever meet John Cage? Yes, I had a very good communication with him, because he is a musician. John Cage and Merce Cunningham… We liked each other; we made a performance in London, with Stockhausen. And I have a lot of poet friends who were very inspired by my work. I inspire a lot of poets, big poets who have been dedicating poems to me; I had a very good time. Now of course everyone has left and I miss… Do you miss the fact that you cannot discuss art with these artists anymore? No, the presence is missing. You know, you don’t have to discuss. But when you have a person who is beautiful, you communicate with magnetic fields without speaking.

Did these people give you inspiration… Beautiful women my dear. My life is full of beautiful women. They inspired me a lot. (Laughter) To me you are not a sculptor but rather a director of energies. Can one say that? With your musical work, you are a director… Yes, I am telekinetic. (Laughter) “Then, suddenly, one evening in April ’59, on the sidewalk of the Rue de la Huchette where I was going with a friend to listen to some jazz musician who had just arrived in Paris, I ran into Takis. He said to me: “It’s happened, I’ve found it”, and it sounded like the “Eureka” of Archimedes. Yes, in all seriousness, it was moving and beautiful. And he showed me the first “telemagnetic” sculpture - it was I who suggested this name to him the next day - in which the metallic components are kept suspended in the air by a magnet”. Alain Jouffroy

And about kinesis, how important is this fact, that works can move?

(above) Takis and Alain Jouffroy in the summer of 1976

So you are optimistic.

(right) Musical Sphere, 1990, metal and polystyrene, 173 cm (height)

Well, it’s a lovely phenomenon. I am not talking about visually kinetic… Here, there are a lot of magnetic fields; all the time they are moving, everything is moving. (Taps on the table) The molecules of that table move! It takes ages but they move. I started out visually, like everybody else. In the beginning you start doing what you see. And then MIT invited me as a guest fellow, because I had been writing certain things about telekinesis and they saw I understood something very advanced about magnetic waves. One last question, just a very general one. As an artist and scientist, how do you see the future? I know there are fantastic secrets at work at MIT with the scientists. This whole progress that we see today, in fact, there should not be all those problems we have in the world. They put millions and millions into proving the colliding photons. If they would put this money into transforming water into energy we wouldn’t have any problems because these inventions already exist. I can see beautiful times ahead for the whole of humanity. Imagine you don’t have a problem of energy. This is not a myth, it has been done. They are running out of petrol and coal. Solar energy and wind energy is not the solution, in comparison with hydrogen. You can generate enough electricity for free, using water. So I hope the evolution of humanity goes in that direction. This is our hope for the future. They are destroying the natural sources of energy and they create those tremendous problems. I am optimistic that human beings are going to survive by choosing the right thing. Probably twenty or thirty years from now, who knows what will happen.

Optimistic, yes, because I believe in human beings. Actually, it is fantastic, we have 7 billion people on the planet, of which only a very insignificant proportion is bad. It doesn’t weigh up. Human beings are essentially good beings. They are positive. So if all the scientists look towards this research, and if one day we are obliged to use hydrogen it is going to be a wonderful

“I think that the power of the magnet is one of the countless forces that are unknown to the world. The world is full of innumerable possibilities that have yet to be implemented.” Leonardo Da Vinci «Μή μου τούς κύκλους τάραττε». “Do not disturb my circles.” Archimedes

Magnetic Wall, 2004, magnets, canvas, paint and iron wire, 100 x 80 cm

time. Obviously it is the financial story, which they cannot put in action from one day to the next. I am happy to learn you look positively towards the future. Yes of course, why not? Nobody wants the bad. Of course, I have lived through the Second World War, which was a disaster. Disasters like that happened in the past, but I believe better days are coming for humanity.

Edited by Kate Mayne

Signals

p. 18-19 Signal, 1975, iron and paint, 500 cm (height) p. 20-21 Signal (detail), 1975, iron and paint, 500 cm (height) p. 22-23 Signal, 1972, iron and paint, 450 cm (height) p. 24-25 Signal, 1970, iron and paint, 177 cm (height) p. 26-27 Signal, 1976, iron and paint, 100 cm (height) p. 28-29 Signal (detail), 1978, iron and paint, 252 cm (height) p. 30-31 Signal, 1978, iron and paint, 252 cm (height)

(previous) Signal, 1985, iron and paint, 414 cm (height) (below) Takis with one of his Signals in 1955 (next) Man in Space and Radar Solar System, 1960

TAKIS (°1925, Athens, Greece) Lives and works in Athens, Greece 1925-1935 Takis is born in Athens on 29 October 1925. His family is greatly affected by the war between Greece and Turkey. 1936-1941 His childhood and teen years coincide with the dictatorship of Metaxas and the German occupation of Greece. 1942-1946 Takis’s political involvement as leader of EPON during the civil war results in a six month prison sentence. He discovers Picasso and Giacometti and starts creating plaster busts. 1952 Together with Minos Argyrakis and Raymondos he builds a small studio in Anakassa on the outskirts of Athens. He creates Quatre Soldats, a plaster sculpture depicting four marching soldiers. He participates in the First International Exhibition in Delphi. 1954 Leaves for Paris and travels back and forth between Paris and Athens. Discovers Egyptian sculpture. Starts making sculptures out of forged iron: Oedipus and Antigone, Sphinx and Eidolon. 1955 Influenced by the invention of the radar and the technological landscape of Calais Station, he constructs his first Signaux. He meets Yves Klein, Tinguely and Iris Clert. First one-man show abroad: Figures of plaster and iron at the Hanover Gallery in London. 1956 The Signaux become kinetic, are flexible and resemble electric aerials. Joins Iris Clert Gallery. Participates in the First International Exhibition of the Visual Arts at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. 1957 The Signaux are transformed into Signaux Feux d’Artifice. With those Feux d’Artifice, he performs happenings on the streets and squares of Paris, thereby anticipating future Street Art performances. Creates his first bronze spheres which he calls Espaces Intérieurs and the first bronze Plants. 1958 Discovers the magnetic fields which will constitute the basis of his oeuvre. 1959 A nail tied to a nylon string is suspended in midair by the pull of a magnet: this is the first of telemagnetic sculptures. Alain Jouffroy calls it Télésculpture. 1960 Performance at Iris Clert Gallery in Paris under the title The impossible: man within space. The South African Beat poet Sinclair Beiles reads his magnetic manifesto: “I am a sculpture... I would like to see all nuclear bombs on Earth turned into sculptures” and throws himself into the air, to be momentarily suspended by the magnetic field of a magnet attached to his belt. The French Ministry of Industry awards him a patent for a Télésculpture and a Télésculpture électromagnetique. Consorts with the “beat” writers. Experiments with the Ballets Magnétiques.

1961 Takis’s autobiography Estafilades is published by the Julliard publishing house. His Sculptures Télémagnétiques go on show at the Art Gallery of Alexandros Iolas in New York (who remains his dealer until 1976). Meets Marcel Duchamp in the US. Murs Magnétiques, Télépeintures: Magnets hidden behind the flat canvas attract objects hung from nylon strings. Télélumières: The usual function of cathode tubes is reversed; blue light is emitted. 1962 Takis creates his first musical in collaboration with Earl Brown. It is entitled Sound of Void and is exhibited one year later in Cordier-Ekstrom Gallery in New York in an exhibition titled For Eyes and Ears. Sound of Void is the predecessor of the Sculptures Musicales. 1964 Goes to London were he meets John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney… Construction of the artist’s foundation Research Center for the Arts and Sciences in Gerovouno (Greek for Holy Mountain)in Athens begins. 1965 First Sculptures Musicales. 1966 Realizes his first Cadrans. Takis’s Electro-musical relief is shown at Indica Gallery in London. The New Scientist magazine in an article entitled The sounds of tomorrow comments that Takis, Yiannis Xenakis and John Cage are the most promising musicians of the century (article issued December 22, 1966). 1967 Participates in the Light and Motion exhibition at the Musée d’ Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. 1968-1969 Settles in M.I.T. as visiting researcher and creates the series of Sculptures électromagnétiques. Takis’s invention Sculpture hydromagnétique is the result of his research at M.I.T. Liquid is suspended with the aid of electromagnetic forces. The result of his research is shown in Cambridge and New York in the exhibition “The Evidence of the Unseen”. Sea Oscillation Hydrodynamics, Takis’s second elaboration on this theme is inspired by the movement suggested by Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel. The oscillation of the sea is used to produce electricity. In January 1969 during the exhibition The machine as seen at the end of the mechanical age, at MOMA in New York, Takis storms into the museum and removes one of his Télés-

culptures which he claims is being exhibited without his permission. The artist considers this action a symbolic one which will help the initiation of a more profound dialogue between museum directors, artists and the public. The incident makes the front page of the New York Times. Takis, along with other artists as well as art critics such as Nicolas Calas, establish the Art Workers Coalition to defend artists’ rights. 1972 Retrospective at the Centre National d’ Art Contemporain in Paris. 1973 Holland Festival Ballet: Takis’ Light Signals and Sound Sculptures form the stage setting and inspire the choreography of Jaap Flier’s dance group Elkesis of the Nederlands Dans Theater. Theatre de l’Odeon in Paris: Cacoyiannis directs Vacantes and Takis composes the performance’s music. 1974 The first Espace Musical goes on show at the Kunstverein in Hanover. First Sculptures Erotiques. Takis composes the music for Costas Gavras’ film Section Speciale. 1977 Participates in the Kassel Documenta VI; exhibits an Espace Musical. 1979 Performance with Charlemagne Palestine at the Musée Rath in Geneva. Performance with Nam June Paik at the Köhlnischer Kunstverein, inspired by Takis’s Espace Musical. 1981 3 Totems- Espace Musical at the Forum of the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Man in Space, 1960 (right) Radar Solar System, 1960 Signaux Lumineux Vis d’Archimède, La Défense, Paris, 1987 (next) Takis at K.E.T.E, his foundation in Athens

1983 Creates the music and stage design for Sophocles’ Electra directed by Michael Kakoyannis in Epidaurus. 1984 Participates in the exhibition The Century of Kafka at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 1985 The Centre Georges Pompidou orders a Mur Magnétique for the entrance to the Galeries Contemporaines. First prize at the Paris Biennale. 1986 Parallel Erotic Line: a performance with Joëlle Léandre (music) and Martha Zioga (dance) at Musée Rath, Geneva. The Research Center for the Arts and Sciences is founded in Athens. 1987 Installation of Signaux Lumineux Vis d’Archimède at the western basin la Défense in Paris. 1988 Wins the Grand Prix National de la Sculpture in Paris Creates a Signal for the Seoul Olympic park. Jocasta: performance in Stavros Mihalarias’ Art Center. Takis designs the costumes, composes the music, designs the set and directs the performance. 1990 Installation of Signaux Lumineux Vis d’Archimède at the Grande Arche at la Défense in Paris. Isidos Awakening: performance with Barbara Maurothalasiti. 1992 Transforms the Beauvais waterworks into a 65 meter musical sculpture. 1993 Retrospective at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume. Inauguration of K.E.T.E. in Athens. Five Aeolian Signals ornament UNESCO’s garden and the

Ministry of Greek Culture qualifies them as totems of the 21st century. French Republic honours Takis with the special edition of a stamp depicting Takis’ spiral. 1994 The Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume exhibition is shown at the School of Fine Arts in Athens. 1995 Takis is elected to represent Greece at the 46th Venice Biennale where he declares: “I am a citizen of the world” and “annuls” the Greek pavilion as a symbolic gesture of the annulment of frontiers in art. He chooses to exhibit in the open space before the pavilion. 1999 The Attiko Metro authority commissions the creation of a work for the Fix subway station in Athens. 2000 The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) and the Hayward Gallery in London put Takis’ artworks on show. Takis exhibits his solar energy sculpture in Delphi. 2001 The European Parliament awards the Research Center for the Arts and Sciences an Honorary Plaque for its contribution to the field of renewable energy sources. Donates three Signals to the permanent collection of Centre Pompidou in Paris. The signals are placed on the fifth floor terrace of the building. Four years later, the image of the three artworks is used for Centre Pompidou’s Christmas card. 2003 Takis participates in the exhibition Music Mirrors - History Conscience commissioned by the Company for the Creation of a New Building for the Greek Lyric Stage and the Maria Callas Academyin Athens. He offers a musical as a symbolic gesture towards the New Greek Opera.

Takis’s Ligne paralléle vibrative (1972) and Colonne magnétique (2003) are presented at Xippas gallery in Athens. Exhibition at the European Cultural Center of Delphi: Takis participates with the Dedication to Apollo (study 1). 2004 The Musical Spheres are displayed in the Atomium’s exhibition En Equilibre et en Mouvement in Brussels. Takis’ new work Music of Spheres: Musical Space 1 is shown at Larissa Contemporary Art Center in Greece. Magnetic Walls, Aeolian Signals, Antigravity Spheres and Musical Spheres are exhibited in Sicily (Galleria Credito Siciliano) and in Milan (Galleria Gruppo). The Olympic Games in Athens inspire Takis to exhibit his Olympic Spirals and Aeolian Signals in the National Glyptotheque as well as in the exhibition Athens by Art organized by the Athenian municipality. Takis’s poster is inspired by the Olympic Games in Athens and was commissioned by the Musee d’Art Contemporain Val-de-Marnais. Takis detroys four of his Musicals exhibited in Athens by the Bonhams Auction House. He manages to prevent them from being sold at auction in London. 2005 Installation of 3 Aeolian Signals on the façade of the museum of contemporary art in Athens, Benaki. 2006 Solar Magnetic Fields exhibition at Stavros Mihalarias Art Center in Athens, Greece.

2007 Exhibition at Fondation Maeght in Saint Paul, France. Exhibition Planets Reflections at the Intercontinental Hotel by K.E.T.E. and Rotary Club of West Attica. The money raised is allocated to the Group’s humanitarian projects, such as Polio Plus. 2008 Exhibition Art Athina, Magnetic Walls. 2009 Donates 100 Magnetic Walls to Médecins Sans Frontières.

(cover photograph) Signal, 1968, iron and paint, 145 cm

Published on the occasion of the exhibtion Takis – The Fourth Dimension at Axel Vervoordt Gallery in Antwerp from 25 October to 2 December 2012

Publisher: Vervoordt Foundation Editor: Boris Vervoordt Magaging editor: Jenke Van den Akkerveken Text: Takis and Jenke Van den Akkerveken Text editor: Kate Mayne Translation from the Greek: Maria Tsiakou Graphic design: Jan Vandewiele Photographers: Laziz Hamani and Jan Liégeois Photo courtesy: Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp Takis K.E.T.E, Research Center for the Arts and the Sciences, Athens Laziz Hamani Jan Liégeois Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. If, however, you feel you have inadvertently been overlooked, please contact the publisher. We are very grateful to Mr. Takis for his full support to this project. Special thanks to Pinelopi Sideri, vice president and Giorgos Nakoudis, director of Takis K.E.T.E. for their kind collaboration. © 2012 Vervoordt Foundation www.axelvervoordtgallery.com ISBN: 978-90-8085-322-5 All rights reserved.