The MACA presents its fifteenth work within the program of The Invited Piece. It is "Electromagnetic Sculpture," from 1960 in chromated steel, magnet, needles and nylon thread by Greek sculptor Panayoitis Vassilakis, known as TAKIS and coming from the private collection of artist Josep Pedrós i Ginestar who was Takis' personal assistant in Paris.
Takis is one of the most interesting and unknown artists of the kinetic avant-garde established in mid-twentieth century Paris. His work, innovative and dynamic, relates art and science, exploring the relationship between ordinary objects and the energies that move and control them, such as magnetic fields, gravity, light and sound. Magnets that keep needles in suspension while working with the invisible forces of nature to make visible an invisible world that, in Takis' words, is simply pure thought.
The artist:
His works are found in the permanent collections of some of the most important museums in the world, such as the Centre Pompidou for Contemporary Art in Paris, the MOMA and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the De Menil Collection in Houston, the Tate Modern in London and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.
In 1986, the artist returned to Greece where he established the Research Center for the Arts and Sciences—known as the Takis Foundation on the hill of Gerovouno in Athens. The Foundation was officially inaugurated in 1993, with the objective of promoting knowledge and appreciation of the visual arts to the general public, as well as providing services and supporting art education programs.
The Invited Piece program:
With this exhibition program The Invited Piece, the MACA aims to bring to the public works temporarily loaned by other institutions and which in the Museum acquire a new meaning, by being presented as an exhibition of a single work in relation to the context of the permanent collection. The Twentieth Century Art Collection allows, through the extensive list of artists, the variety of historical works and the numerous aesthetic moments that are represented, an enriching program of invitations. Specific works that, in dialogue, discussion, contiguity or contradiction, are shown immersed within the museum's exhibition context.
Since its inception in 2011 to date, the MACA has exhibited 15 invited pieces.
