Mutations

Visual Art by Aris Katsilakis

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Katsilakis was born in 1974 in Romania; his parents are of Greek descent, and he repatriated to Greece in 1980. He currently lives and works in Serres. In 1998, Katsilakis enrolled at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Tinos with a focus on marble sculpture. He graduated in 2001 with a scholarship to continue his studies at the Athens Faculty of Fine Arts. Katsilakis has presented his work in two solo exhibitions: Gallery Kaplanon 5 (Athens 2010) and House Papavasiliou (Serres 2010) and in numerous group exhibition By selection: Baton 7 2012 (remember?), Gallery Zoumboulakis 2012 (Big city), Gallery Myro 2011 Want / win (Environment - picture - Form), Gallery Kaplanon 2011, House Shina Serres 2008, 8th Festival Amphipolis 2007, Municipal Gallery of Kallithea "Wisdom Lambrakis" 2007, 12th International Month of Photography, Athens 2005, 11th International Month of Photography, Athens 2004, Biennale Internazionale in Vicenza, Venice 2002. His works are in private collections and public spaces. From 2007 to 2011, Katsilakis taught sculpture as Lecturer (407/80) in the Department of Sculpture of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts, University of Western Macedonia and since 2011 teaches Plastic and Pottery as a laboratory assistant in the Department of Interior Architecture, Interior Design and Drawing Objects in TEI Serres.

Reading nature’s forms through a different scope began unconsciously in my early childhood, since among my very first memories are the ones of my artist father relying on the study of nature to inspire his ceramic artworks. Later on and whilst studying in the Fine Arts University of Athens, I discovered nature as an inexhaustible idea tank; that was the beginning of my journey in creating my own organic forms. Through my artworks, I am trying to express my agony and my worry towards the violent changes that the genetic material of earth’s organisms is being put through, in order to adapt to the rapid changing modern environment--genetically modified organisms, genetic pollution, genetically altered products. I focus on natural form elements, like plants, nests, cocoons, vital organs, fruits, living organisms, and through different points of view and angles of perception, I build new “bio-forms.” The basic material of my artworks is the coloured packaging paper, which undergoes a repeating process of layering and molding with glue to create the conceived colour result. Recycled, useless materials, signs of a hyper-consuming society, industrial residues of modern world, plastic, rubber, carton, newspapers, strings, unprocessed wool, materials that are worn by time, charged with ‘memories’ of their previous use, are being put through a process of re-composition and transformation to be given a new life, and with their unique properties and ‘memories’ they become part of the creative process, by which I am trying to present a new reality -- a reality that aims to trigger the viewer’s senses, so they don’t stay uninvolved, but feel as a co-perpetrator and a part of this charmingly ugly, imaginative nature that I believe reflects the mutation that organic life suffers by modern man.

Mutation IV

white clay

Journal of Writing & Environment

Mutation IV

Mutation I

Mutation II

Mutation III