On the occasion of Condo CDMX 2024, Proyecto H is pleased to invite KIRKI from Greece, to present an exhibition of textile work by artists Nia Hefe Filiogianni and George Petsikopoulos. 

For the artists’ first presentation in Mexico, ‘Interwoven/Entretejidos’ is guided by Hefe Filiogianni and Petsikopoulos’ profound commitment to semiotic inquiry and sustainability in artmaking. Though distinct in their approaches, Hefe Filiogianni and Petsikopoulos find common ground in their exploration of Greek culture. Both artists employ textiles to make subtle, targeted gestures that utilise language, semantics and symbolism to nod to the complex social tensions underlying Greek reality and recent history, allowing viewers to unravel the layers of meaning concealed within their minimalist compositions.

Though Hefe Filiogianni’s pastel colour palette evokes calmness and serenity, her works explore the darkness of both loving and questioning one’s culture and background. Inspired by her experiences of living and working between the UK and Greece, where she is originally from, her works investigate an emotional turmoil expressed in a very symbolic language. Some tensions explored include beauty vs ugliness, certainty vs doubt, crisis vs opportunity.

Through simple shapes, signs, colours, textures, and the use of the Greek alphabet, Hefe Filiogianni underlines social realities that challenge viewer preconceptions and question their motivations. In ‘All For the Hairdressers,’ the artist playfully proclaims long live hair salons, to showcase how in Greece, despite the financial difficulties that the country has been facing for the better part of this century, hair salons will always be in demand. 

Petsikopoulos has been working exclusively with traditional textiles and natural dyes and fibres since 2017. As is exemplified by the artist’s own involvement in the cultivation of relevant crops, his work embraces natural fibres and brings to the forefront the argument for using sustainable materials in artmaking. Equally, he borrows from archaic and traditional Greek iconography in order to highlight and reposition the role of these archetypal motifs in our collective consciousness. Colour is used purposefully, to draw direct lines of communication with Greek mythology, proverbs, folk tales and contemporary socio-political ideas. In ‘Don't fret,’ he uses the characteristic key-shaped meander (a pattern that is also known as ‘Greek Fret’), which he then mirrors upon itself by seamlessly reversing the thread colour.