Vasilis Papageorgiou | SCARPS - Sun, Light, and Shadows: Explorations of Energy, Leisure, and Control

The project “SCARPS - Sun, Light, and Shadows: Explorations of Energy, Leisure, and Control” is inspired by long-term research into the depletion of planetary resources and the cyclical need for rest and regeneration. Exploring humanity’s relationship with sunlight—from its healing potential to its manipulation and control—the project examines the historical, cultural, and environmental dimensions of solar exposure in art, architecture, and daily life. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the residency fosters artistic research into light as a material, political tool, and metaphor for both empowerment and restriction.

“Fossils” (working title) is an ongoing investigation into the geology of the Cyclades through the molding of lithified sedimentary rocks. This gesture marks the beginning of a broader research-based project that examines how the built environment, particularly within the context of tourism, shapes, mediates, and transforms natural landscapes.

For the Fall Open Days, I presented a video work documenting the molding process alongside one of the initial molds. By foregrounding the labor involved in making, the work emphasized the art object in a state of becoming, positioning artistic process as both subject and method.

As part of this research, during my residency I organized a field trip to Koufonisi in October 2025. Working with a team of technicians, I produced a series of molds conceived as acts of preservation. Functioning as negative spaces, these molds are forms to be filled, materially reconsidered, and understood as tools for reimagining history. Through this process, materials begin to converge, gradually losing their sense of foreignness. The resulting fossils shed their original materiality while retaining form, opening up alternative ways of perceiving landscape, temporality, and transformation.

Drawing on the sculptural language of coastal architecture and human intervention, my practice engages with the politics of tourism and its impact on both the environment and the human body. My work reflects on the exhaustion of planetary resources as well as the physical and mental toll of contemporary life, proposing speculative spaces of imagination that question the values and systems underpinning modern existence.

A central theme in my practice is the exploration of overlooked or forgotten objects – those things we typically underestimate but that quietly shape our environments. By focusing on these neglected materials, I aim to reformulate the significance of everyday items, emphasizing their unnoticed presence in daily life. My works create sculptural situations that reframe the seemingly insignificant.

The residency provided the conditions to clarify the future direction of the project while working toward its presentation in May 2026. Taking advantage of the time, resources, and focused conditions offered by Onassis AiR, I was able to conduct an in-depth phase of research without the usual distractions of production-driven timelines. I was able to advance aspects of the project that had previously existed only as proof-of-concept, expanding both its conceptual and material scope.

During the residency, I also benefited significantly from exchanges with the other fellows and from the interdisciplinary nature of the cohort. Ongoing conversations, studio visits, and informal critiques enabled me to reflect on the work from multiple perspectives and to test its assumptions and directions. The feedback and shared methodologies of the group played an important role in refining both the conceptual framework and the future development of the project, reinforcing the value of collective thinking within a research-driven artistic context.