"It's not necessarily about the needle itself or the magnet. It's about that space in between that empty space," says Assistant Curator Helen O'Malley. "
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Panayiotis Vassilakis's sculptures are filling the Tate Modern with movement in London this week. The artist, who is commonly known as Takis, specialises in creating vibrant, kinetic pieces that defy the conventions of sculpture.
Co-curator Michel Wellen points to Vassilakis's childhood in Athens as the inspiration for his art. "I think he grew up in Athens with exposure to ancient art and he wanted to make something that would seem timeless, but that would also break conventions."
For the artist, the point of focus is not the object itself, but rather, the space between objects. This redirection of focus is what has granted Takis his status as a pioneer in contemporary art.
"It's not necessarily about the needle itself or the magnet. It's about that space in between that empty space," says Assistant Curator Helen O'Malley. "As technical as it might seem, Takis' work is very much about connections between people and communication... Communication more generally speaking was a really important topic for him and he spoke a lot about communication between people, the invisible connections between people, as well as the invisible connections between objects," she continued.
Among those who collected Takis's work are John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Allen Ginsberg.