Turning marble into cotton. Interview with sculptor Argiris Rallias

Tell us what you do and your beginnings.

I am a visual artist/sculptor. I was born in 1993 and grew up on the island of Kythnos, Greece. I come from a family with a tradition in marble craftsmanship, which has given me the opportunity to come into contact with the material of marble from an early age.

In 2011, I started my studies at the Preparatory and Vocational School of Fine Arts of Panormos Tinos. In Tinos, the material that was already familiar to me acquired new possibilities that went beyond the boundaries of technique and moved into the field of art. Having graduated from Tinos with honors, I entered the Athens School of Fine Arts with a scholarship.

Athens was a personal revelation for me, as the wealth of stimuli and experiences I experienced broadened my perspective and shaped my subsequent artistic career. I was fortunate enough to study among many great teachers and especially George Lappas.

His perspective towards study as a co-existing nature in life provided me with an in-depth understanding of my artistic quest. It’s been two years now since I moved to Carrara, Italy for my Master’s studies in Sculpture.

What does your work aim to say?

Through my work, I aim to express my great concerns and interests. Intensely experiencing the things that keep me awake at night, I try to communicate them through various media and materials such as marble, wood, metal, etc. My work explores areas of the enigmatic, the mysterious, and the mythological.

I am particularly interested in the cultural burden conveyed through myths and especially their inherent contradiction, the core of truth hidden within their universally accepted lies. The role of the storyteller-mythologist, strongly present in the Cycladic society where I grew up, was a catalyst for my engagement with art.

Continue on MuseumWeek Magazine.