Dimitris Pikionis (1887-1968) is an important figure of 20th century Greek culture. Friend of the painter Giorgio De Chirico, he studied painting and sculpture in Munich and later in Paris, where he was introduced to modern painting, in particular to the work of Cézanne and Paul Klee, as well as to the sculpture of Rodin. Returning to his native Greece, he rediscovered his architectural vocation without giving up painting. At the same period, and together with a group of artists, he edited the magazine To Trito Mati (“The Third Eye”), a key publication in the 1930s that introduced the knowledge of the European avant-garde in Greece.

Although he was a contemporary to Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, his architecture sought to integrate the tradition with modern abstraction. The work of Dimitris Pikionis synthesizes in its form the desire to address the condition of Hellenic identity culture, which was understood as a synthesis between the West, the East and Bizantium.

The exhibition shows through six of his architectural works the creative process of the Greek architect. Interspersed among the images, drawings and plans by Pikionis are the author’s own words. His thoughts and autobiographical notes will guide the visitor through the space. In the center of the room is exhibited his most important project: the landscape treatment of the accesses to the Acropolis of Athens, a work full of pictorial references in its pavements. This could be an example of what we could consider an “aesthetic topography”