Costas
Tsoclis (1930-)
Should art create a deception or an illusion of reality? Tsoclis' art constantly questions and
re-examines the boundaries and meanings of creation, art and imitation.
His art often combines a remarkable array of mediums - video-images are projected onto a painted canvas, around
which objets trouves are strategically positioned. Some of his works - such as the environment Artemis (1997) -
are also accompanied by sound.
Tsoclis' art presents antiquity in a post-modern, pluralist fashion. "Medea" , one of his trademark works, recounts
the story of the mythical princess who killed her two children to avenge her departing lover. Using video, sound,
a painting and carefully placed objects, Medea emerges and disappears on the canvas/screen; at one point, blood
trickles down the canvas.
After studying at the Athens School of Fine Arts , Tsoclis spent
three years in Rome on a State Foundation Scholarship (1957-60). He later lived and worked in Paris (1960-70). For
a decade, he divided his time between Paris and Athens, before finally returning to Greece in 1984. Tsoclis
represented Greece at the 1986 Venice Biennale.
Solo shows of his work have been hosted at the Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels, 1971), the Kunsthalle
(Dusseldorf, 1972), the Sala Comunale d'Arte Contemporanea (Alexandria, Italy, 1980) and the Palazzo dei
Esposizioni, (Rome). Recently, (February-March 2000) the Luigi Pecci Museum of Modern Art in Prato, Italy hosted
a Tsoclis retrospective.
