The New Permanent Site-Specific Sculpture Installation at Athens International Airport ANADYSIS II (“EMERGENCE II”) by Venia Dimitrakopoulou

Athens International Airport is more than just a transportation hub. It serves as a meeting point for diverse cultures and peoples and represents the first and last impression of Greece for millions of passengers annually.

The daedal wings for the flight toward freedom

The site-specific sculptural installation ANADYSSIS II by Venia Dimitrakopoulou has found a home at the suburban railway station of Athens International Airport, adding another significant piece to the continuously evolving artistic landscape of the airport, which is constantly developing its cultural identity through numerous cultural and artistic collaborations.

The work, suspended from the dome of the suburban station, invites passersby to momentarily lift their gaze upwards and experience, even if briefly, a sense of emergence and spiritual upliftment.

A metal mesh holds and supports, while an octagonal glass dome, as a “public receiver,” welcomes words and phrases. "Ξένος. A stranger. Ξένος παντού. N’ ανήκω κάπου. To belong. Με ακούει κάνεις; My voice is not heard." Amid the words visualized to express and reflect the insecurity of the 21st-century human, large, metallic, curved forms hover.

Artist Venia Dimitrakopoulou, creator of "ANADYSIS II", states:
"I am deeply interested in creating site-specific, place-based works, which are born from and for each space in a way that is entirely organic.
An airport is a quintessential transitional space, a place of passage, where people come and go in haste because they have a clear destination. What happens when most of us seem to have lost our own destination today? Can art and the artist reverse the disorientation in which we all find ourselves, to some extent? Can the artist's voice be heard? Is the connection with others a prerequisite for even this momentary emergence? Is art one of the ways to connect and communicate with others? Can art and culture become a canopy, a refuge, a shelter? Can they become a network that connects us, while simultaneously protecting us from the insecurity of the times we are living in?"

Dr. Evangelia Diamantopoulou, Associate Professor at the Department of Communication and Media Studies, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), writes:
"With her work Anadyssis II, at the dome of the suburban railway station at Athens International Airport, Vénia Dimitrakopoulou brings back the issue of the 'other,' xenos, which has preoccupied her in previous artistic creations, but with a different meaning. This time, she does not define the 'other' in relation to another person, in a specific place and time. She refers to the modern human being who has lived and continues to live in the uncertainty of the pandemic, war, ecological disaster, constant mutation, and alienation from their own self. The person who feels trapped in an unprecedented, foreign, and grim reality. A person who realizes that the other person is equally alienated and trapped in a situation from which they cannot escape […]
The light, curving forms invite one to find the strength to escape from this earthly dystopia and emerge.
These forms are the dedal wings for the flight towards freedom."

Dr. Charis Kannelopoulou, art historian, comments: "The work ‘Anadyssis II’ by Venia Dimitrakopoulou at the dome of the railway station at the Athens International Airport appears in a transitional space, a place of movement and fleeting pause, a space of ‘in transit’ condition. Installed in an in-between place, which for some signifies arrival and for others departure to the next destination, the work seeks to emphasize the constant variability of this socio-spatial dialectic.
[…] The artist isolated emphatic words and phrases […] to form an unexpected ‘narrative mark’ within the public space.
Within the public space of many voices, Dimitrakopoulou points to the articulation of each individual’s unique voice, which, however, universally and deeply human, expresses its own truth.
[…] These words invite observers to temporarily find themselves in the position of the other, but perhaps also to recognize their own position within this discourse.
The work Anadyssis is hosted in a public space with non-place characteristics, in the sense of using an in-between space for transition and a shift towards a different condition."

ANADYSIS II, 2022
Site-specific sculpture installation at the suburban railway station of Athens International Airport
Material: Aluminum panels  Etalbond
Concept & Design: Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Lighting: Eleftheria Deko
Architectural Design: Maria Maneta
Structural Design: Anastasios Dervenagas
Construction: ELVAL COLOUR SA
The artwork was made possible through the generous support of Athens International Airport and ELVAL COLOUR SA.

Venia Dimitrakopoulou 
61 Deinokratous Str.
106 76 Athens
Greece

Venia Dimitrakopoulou is a sculptor who divides her time between Athens and Aegina, where she has a studio. She has exhibited her work in both solo and group exhibitions across Greece and internationally, including in France, New York, and Italy, as part of her "Primordial Future" trilogy, which was presented in three major cities. Her large-scale sculpture Promahones was showcased at the Benaki Museum on Pireos Street for several months before being permanently installed in the garden of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens in 2016. In 2019, the Antonino Salinas Archaeological Museum in Palermo added her work Golden Spear to its permanent collection.
Dimitrakopoulou’s public art can be found in prominent locations, such as her site-specific works Anadysis II at Athens International Airport "Eleftherios Venizelos" and Gentility in the gardens of the Noval Property building, Butterfly, in Athens. She also created a bust of Iakovos Diamantopoulos, which is displayed in front of the Archaeological Museum of Lavrio. More recently, she completed the site-specific works Lalaria on Skiathos and Anthem, placed at the entrance of the eponymous "Anthem" building in central Athens, which was named in honour of the artwork. Many of her pieces are held in private collections worldwide, including those of Maison Bernard in the South of France, the American College of Greece, and prestigious hotels such as Athens Hilton, Athens Was Hotel, Mykonos Riviera, Anemi Folegandros, and Diles & Rinies Luxury Hotel in Tinos.
In addition to her sculptural practice, Dimitrakopoulou has lectured and led workshops on various topics, including “Writing and Speech/Logos as an Image” at the Department of Architecture and Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2019), “The Sculpture of Giannoulis Halepas” (2018), and “Eros – Death – Self” (2016) at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She has also contributed to lectures at the Benaki Museum (2010), the Wolfson University in Oxford (2015), and the Bodossaki Foundation (2021), as well as to the educational programmes at the Venice Biennale (2015).
In recognition of her contribution to the arts, she was awarded the Order of the Star of Italy in 2017 by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella. Her work has been published in books by prestigious publishers such as Hatje Kantz (Germany), Allemandi (Italy), Futura, and Foinikas (Greece).
For many years, Dimitrakopoulou has been involved in community-oriented activities on Aegina, including organising sculpture workshops for children, contributing to the Aegina International Music Festival, and hosting theatre shows.

About her work

Dimitrakopoulou’s artistic practice is rooted in an intuitive material and spatial understanding of her surroundings, evident in her monolithic sculptures as well as in her more delicate installations. Her works are deeply informed by both the physical world and her inner reflections on time, history, and personal mythology.

As art critic and curator Eleni Varopoulou notes, "Venia Dimitrakopoulou weaves ancient, primal elements of human existence and artistic creation with modern, personal mythologies. Her explorations span, on one hand, historical and cultural time, and on the other, personal, internal time."
 

ANADYSIS II (“EMERGENCE II”) by Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Photo Credits Giorgos Sfakianakis
ANADYSIS II (“EMERGENCE II”) by Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Photo Credits Giorgos Sfakianakis
ANADYSIS II (“EMERGENCE II”) by Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Photo Credits Giorgos Sfakianakis
ANADYSIS II (“EMERGENCE II”) by Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Photo Credits Giorgos Sfakianakis
ANADYSIS II (“EMERGENCE II”) by Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Photo Credits Giorgos Sfakianakis
ANADYSIS II (“EMERGENCE II”) by Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Photo Credits Giorgos Sfakianakis
ANADYSIS II (“EMERGENCE II”) by Venia Dimitrakopoulou
Photo Credits Giorgos Sfakianakis