Dimitrios Antonitsis – FASCIA

DIMITRIOS ANTONITSIS - FASCIA
An art exhibition in Collaboration with the Agricultural University of Athens

A new artistic project by Dimitrios Antonitsis, entitled Fascia, presents a series of eight aluminum sculptures developed through study, research, and practical work carried out at the Laboratory of Sericulture and Apiculture of the Department of Crop Science, Agricultural University of Athens, under the support and guidance of Assistant Professor George Goras. The exhibition Fascia is presented at the Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center from 28 May to 18 July 2026.
The research conducted at the Laboratory of Sericulture and Apiculture—one of the first laboratories established following the foundation of the Agricultural University of Athens—served as a primary field of observation and documentation, significantly influencing both the formal qualities and conceptual development of the artworks. The production process combines scientific investigation, hands-on experimentation, and contemporary sculptural techniques.
The Laboratory supports both research and educational activities through the University’s mulberry plantation, covering an area of approximately 3,000 square meters and comprising 650 trees representing 25 different varieties, as well as through its two apiaries, which maintain approximately 120 bee colonies. Its infrastructure includes honey extraction and packaging equipment, sericulture facilities, and a silk-reeling unit for silk production.

The project highlights the potential for meaningful dialogue between art and science, proposing a space in which research practice is transformed into artistic experience and creative expression.

As Dimitrios Antonitsis notes:

“My recent body of work titled “Fascia” revives memories rooted in my immediate family history. I was always fascinated by the stories of my grandfather, a silk merchant from Soufli, Thrace, who first introduced me to sericulture. Beyond any possible genetic determinism, I too engage in silkworm breeding—not for the final product of silk itself, but as a means of sculpturally interpreting these particular memories. Just as fascia envelops and holds together individual parts of the body, this series becomes a psychoanalytic attempt to connect my sculptural identity with the lyricism of my ancestors’ era.

Guided by apiculture and sericulture assistant professor Giorgos Goras from the Agricultural University of Athens, I employ silkworms in a call for intuitive interspecies communication with my sculptural practice—a communication grounded in the innate and the instinctual. My works, simulations of wood and branches cast in aluminum, are incorporated into the insects’ life cycle (branching/pruning)—or in what other way could they be? The works take shape as a form of social/collective sculpture, depending on the life stage of my tiny collaborators. "How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare?" asked Joseph Beuys in the 60's. "Fascia" is my answer.
Dimitrios Antonitsis, May 2026”