What are the highlights of your journey, and the key steps that brought you to where you are today?
One of the most recent and indicative moments of our artistic trajectory is our participation with the work The Keeper of the Garden (a re-creation of the homonymous carpet: 3D animation, video projection, transparent LED installation) at Pedion tou Areos, commissioned by the Onassis Stegi Foundation for Plásmata 3 (2025).
At the same time, we are participating in Genius Loci, Lessons of History at Museum Schlosspark, Römerhalle, Bad Kreuznach, Germany (2025), with three handwoven carpets from the series The World Awaits You as a Garden, works that are also presented this month in our solo exhibition at Gallery Kalfayan.
Additionally, works from the series “Kalimera” were included in the exhibition Shaking Things Up – 50 Years Kemnade International at KunstMuseum Bochum, Germany (2024), as well as our participation in major international art fairs such as Art Basel Miami, Hong Kong, and Frieze with Kalfayan Galleries.
Each step is an act of creation. The digital era has opened doors worldwide, transforming the periphery into a global workshop. We did not “arrive” here; we continue to move forward, because art is realized through the journey itself.
The story of discovering a creative perspective in visual art and how the first idea was born
We met in 2003 and immediately recognized a shared way of seeing the world, as well as common aesthetic pursuits: an outward-looking gaze, references to pop culture, and a political perspective—understood as a critical stance toward visual art—present in both of our practices. This was followed by a period of several years that functioned as a phase of “fermentation,” alignment, and definition of our artistic practices and means of expression.
This process led to the creation of our first work as Kalos & Klio, an installation titled Eudaimonia (2007). It was an in situ installation first presented at the Imperial Athens Hotel, within the framework of the exhibition Kappatos Rooms by Gallery ZM. The work consisted of a series of pieces: kaleidoscopic motifs created and printed on velvet fabric applied to period furniture, photographic prints, as well as a dress (printed on satin marocain) titled Animalia.
The raw material of the work was the appropriation and obsessive processing of pornographic material sourced from the internet. Part of this installation now belongs to the collection of the Onassis Foundation Stegi.
Having several years of practice behind you, how do you feel your aesthetic has evolved?
The core of our work is structured around the study of patterns and visual languages of human civilization, composed of symbols, archetypes, and forms that signify and narrate rather than merely decorate—contrary to superficial readings of traditional artifacts. The lens of our research is essentially anthropological and folkloric.
In the early phases of our work, we focused extensively on geometry, both its static and dynamic forms, fractal structures, and complexity as an expressive medium. Over time, we shifted our focus more toward symbols and the meanings they carry, as well as the common ground that can be identified across cultures—both in folk creation and scholarly expression—and the intersections between Eastern and Western cultures. This approach promotes a fertile synthesis and a hybrid relationship between analog and digital visual culture.
What do you consider your most significant achievements so far?
Over the past decade, we have been deeply engaged with the medium of handwoven tapestry, which has proven to be a fascinating journey through the traditions of various cultures—from Epirus to the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, from Yerevan in Armenia to the carpet-making traditions of Uzbekistan.
In this artistic adventure, we have utilized the unprecedented visibility of human culture offered by the internet. For the first time in the history of human civilization, we are able to study the entire trajectory and achievements of cultures—from the earliest human traces, such as the cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira, to the collections of major museums of both folk and scholarly art, and all the way to the visual outcomes of artificial intelligence today.
What and which people help you move forward?
Certainly those who believe in us and our work, those who have supported us tangibly over the years, and those who open up to us and offer their own perspectives on our artistic practice.
What stories does your new exhibition at Kalfayan Galleries tell?
The series of works titled The World Awaits You As a Garden draws inspiration from a phrase by Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. We present a new series of handwoven carpets made of wool and silk, created in collaboration with local producers in Nepal, as well as a sculpture titled Rise Up, a 3D-printed work made from natural quartz sand.
The series uses the garden as a central allegory—a symbol of society, biodiversity of ideas, coexistence, and vigilance. It refers to the foundational concept of Democracy: active, everyday participation in shaping our world, in defiance of oligarchic, authoritarian, and destructive forces threatening our shared Garden.
In terms of medium, we continue to explore handwoven tapestry as a symbol of the interweaving of culture and as a practice that stretches from antiquity to the present—one that never ceases to narrate, unite people, and remind us, in an era of reckless speed, that what truly matters is made of slow time.
Alongside the woven works, we juxtapose contemporary digital 3D printing, using quartz as raw material, creating a counterpoint—a bridge between the two worlds represented by these techniques.
Tradition has always been present in your work. How has this evolved, and what else inspires you?
It is worth reexamining what we call “tradition,” emphasizing that tradition is a collective creation that incorporates innovation and stabilizes it over time. It is often an amalgam of heterogeneous elements, shaped by trade, migration, conquest, and exchange, resulting in something rich and diverse—far removed from the notion of “purity” often attributed to tradition.
The relationship between scholarly and folk creation is also crucial, as they intersect and co-shape what we understand as tradition. Languages and culinary cultures, full of borrowings, adaptations, misunderstandings, and local adjustments, are clear examples. Another powerful example is the profound influence of African culture on modern art, as well as the significant impact of Asian traditions, such as Japonisme.
Our gaze and antennas are directed toward everything around us. We are concerned with contemporary technology, as well as hybrids and cultural mutations of the modern world—particularly from Asia and the broader East, as well as the African continent.
How do new technologies influence your work and expand your horizons?
As mentioned, the world today is more visible than ever. Technology and new media are easily accessible to large segments of society, creating fertile ground—provided one is a capable navigator who can compose and assign meaning within a fragmented world. Cornelius Castoriadis referred to this phenomenon in The Fragmented World, highlighting fragmentation and surface-level engagement caused by overwhelming speed and information overload.
What have international exhibitions and outward-looking practices offered you?
Opening up to an international artistic context is crucial, especially for creators from small economies like Greece, which lacks a strategic plan for contemporary cultural production and identity. It increases visibility and places you in “deep waters,” allowing you to understand how your work is received beyond borders—both artistically and within the market.
There is often a more educated audience abroad, with greater willingness to engage and contextualize the work, as well as a functioning art criticism ecosystem—elements largely absent in Greece.
Do you invite the audience to think out of the box, and how do you achieve that?
Unconventional thinking is always a prerequisite for self-realization and the discovery of one’s own uniqueness, away from imitation, fashions, and trends. Our work is born from personal vision, from our idiosyncrasies, obsessions, and even our traumas. It is a matter of slow time and deep internal process.
Decoding creativity: what is the process, and how is the creator’s inner world embodied in a work of art?
Art always proposes—or at least ought to propose—a way of seeing the world. Through the use of form and artistic means, the creator attempts to give shape to the chaotic phenomenon we call life, not by soothing it, but by revealing something invisible through their own eyes.
Is art, and creativity in general, a path toward becoming better human beings?
Art is perhaps the most powerful way to respond to the absence of meaning or to the tragedy of death. It requires keeping alive the curious, inquisitive child we once were. It is a form of inner wandering, but also a field that allows imagination to become a vehicle for exploration and self-realization within the limited time we have.
Today, however, when everything is evaluated in terms of money, balancing between the world and one’s inner world is a major challenge. It demands strength, endurance over time, faith in one’s artistic vision, and a strategic grounding of our dreams on solid ground—on the earth, as Henry David Thoreau so eloquently put it, in the real world: that is where I want you to be.
Based in Thessaloniki: what do you gain, and what do you lose?
Thessaloniki is a city with a rich artistic potential and cultural practitioners who emerge regardless of circumstances. This is where our studio is located, as well as a second workshop that we are currently completing.
The city offers us uninterrupted space for creation, away from the pressure of Athens. The digital era has shortened distances, and our collaboration with Kalfayan Galleries facilitates the global circulation and promotion of our work, transforming Thessaloniki into a creative refuge.
What is missing, however, is immediate access to large-scale cultural events—a common issue for all peripheral cities outside global art centers, including Athens. In this sense, the problem lies in the ailing cultural “ecosystem” of the country. Supportive tools for cultural development and a clear state strategy are urgently needed, as culture both leads and underpins the evolution of society.
The designers closest to your heart, and why?
Certainly those associated with the Bauhaus school, who proposed—at a critical moment of modernity—the reconnection of art with everyday life, much as traditional societies had done for thousands of years.
Are we what we choose?
The pseudo-object disappoints you every day, while objects of aesthetic value and quality reward you daily; they are fertile and beneficial. This is what philosopher and sociologist Jean Baudrillard argued in The Consumer Society. Therefore, fewer but higher-quality objects and stimuli around us are preferable.
One object you would never want to part with
Our camera and our notebooks.
When entering a space, what do you notice first?
Aesthetics, light, and the balance between fullness and emptiness.
An artist you love and would like to own a work by
A work by the unconventional artistic duo Gilbert & George.
Three places you love to return to, and why
We are drawn to places where inspiration is ignited—where time is non-linear and leads us down unexpected paths.
The labyrinthine open-air markets of the East, because they are living books of memory, where objects narrate stories of cultures beyond borders, weaving authenticity into a collective fabric of diverse identities.
Major contemporary art museums of the West, where works are not merely exhibits but function as living laboratories of thought.
Our studio—our castle of solitude—where ideas crystallize away from noise, where the work serves only itself.
A story you will never forget
The song of a Tibetan weaver in a small village in Nepal.
The museum and artwork that stole your heart
The Night Watch by Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and Van Gogh’s pulsating self-portraits. Also, the entire Sergei Parajanov Museum in Yerevan, Armenia, with its iconic work The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova).
Your definition of beauty
Something created with love, knowledge, and slow time—with the soul—without consideration of society or self-interest.
Have you ever designed something for a home collection, and if not, what would you create?
In the past, we designed limited-edition objects, such as a series of porcelain pieces for the publishing house Ianos (2010), and limited-edition bags for Fena Fresh in Thessaloniki (2008).
However, since design logic is dictated by market demands, it is fundamentally different from our artistic practice, which serves the work itself regardless of commercial success. Therefore, engaging with design is not something we actively pursue.
If you were to design something for TheAuthentics.gr, what would it be?
If we were to design something, it would have an organic relationship with our work.
What is considered authentic today?
In an era of superficial consumption, authenticity is no longer a prevailing demand. For us, the authentic is that which does not sell “easy” images for mass consumption. Instead, it is a creation born of imagination and love—something that emerges quietly, in its own time, connected to emotion and deep thought. It questions and stands in opposition to the notion of culture as a merely consumable, ephemeral event or product.
The World Awaits You As A Garden
Kalfayan Galleries (11 Haritos St., Kolonaki, Athens)
Duration: January 15 – February 28, 2026
