In the exhibition available in the Minerva room of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid from February 14 to April 27, 2025, you can see how, in addition to his architectural facet, Dimitris Pikionis reveals himself as a painter, thinker and key figure for the avant-garde in Greece from the creation of the magazine To Trito Mati and his artistic or poetic production, among which we find a facet of a quiet man who claims a slow time and values nature by treating it as a work of art, being above all a central figure for the Greek culture of the 20th century.
The exhibition reminds us of his recovery of the idea of "attic space" which is not limited to an academic or archaeological definition but rather brings it up to date through an intelligent reinterpretation of the landscape, history, architecture and materiality of the place.
The exhibition represents a union between East, West and Byzantium, of past, present and future, tempering the relationship between the old and the new, something that can be seen in Pikionis' landscape treatment of the entrances to the Acropolis of Athens, full of pictorial references.
“Dimitris Pikionis. An aesthetic topography” at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. Photograph courtesy of Círculo de Bellas Artes.
«This exhibition strengthens the cultural ties between Spain and Greece through the universality of art».
Aglaía Balta, ambassador of the Hellenic Republic.
Furthermore, by bringing together images, drawings and plans by the architect, the exhibition delves into his life and work, looking at the different stages that marked his thinking until reaching the current perception we have, contemplating from his pantheistic dimension of architecture to a phase that we can call «Byzantine Bauhaus», where he introduces the avant-garde to the Greek world of the East.
The exhibition is part of one of the Círculo's programming lines this season, dedicated to the celebration of the Centenary of the Surrealist Manifesto, and which includes, among other activities, the exhibitions dedicated to Dalí and Max Ernst (which can still be visited in the institution's Picasso Room).
“Dimitris Pikionis. An aesthetic topography” at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. Photograph courtesy of Círculo de Bellas Artes.
«With this exhibition, we want to show that Pikionis was not only a great architect, but that he was also a painter, a thinker and an intellectual agitator during the European avant-garde movements».
Valerio Rocco, director of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.
The exhibition, organized together with the Benaki Museum in Athens and in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes in Athens, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Madrid and the Embassy of Greece in Spain, is a production of the Círculo de Bellas Artes based on an investigation into the works and texts of Dimitris Pikionis.
“Dimitris Pikionis. An aesthetic topography” at the Círculo de Bellas Artes. Photograph courtesy of Círculo de Bellas Artes.
Painting, architecture and thought
In addition, the Círculo de Bellas Artes is organizing ‘Dimitris Pikionis: painter-architect-thinker’, a public programme of lectures on the figure of this unique architect.
With the help of architects, philosophers and artists, we will approach a contemporary reading of Pikionis’ work and think from different perspectives through these talks and debates. The cycle starts on February 25 with the lecture “Tradition and Meaning”, by Juan Miguel Hernández León and continues on March 11 with the talk “A continuous horizon”, by Juan Ramón Martín. On March 25, the turn will be for the presentation “1:2000. Cartography of a landscape”, by Covadonga Blasco Veganzones; and the closing of the programme will be Haris Papoulias, who will speak about “The Byzantine Bauhaus. Pikionis and the contradiction of being Greek (and) modern”.
