Skinscapes: Nefeli Papadimouli

THE PILL® is thrilled to present Athens-born, Paris-based artist Nefeli Papadimouli’s first solo show in Istanbul and at the gallery between the dates 30 November 2024 — 25 January 2025. The exhibition presents a selection of the artist’s signature wearable sculptures alongside a series of photographs and graphic notations centered around the title “Skinscapes” as a conceptual framework to introduce the multifaceted practice of Papadimouli moving between architecture, sculpture, and performance. 

Challenging notions of individuation and separation between bodies and the environment, the term “skinscape” is the title Papadimouli has given to a series of wearable, connective sculptures that function at once as prompts for collective movement, abstract monochromatic paintings that conceal hidden bursts of color, and architectural interfaces for assembling bodies and negotiating boundaries. Designed in compatibility for multiple human bodies to inhabit and activate them, when hung on the wall, these works are conceived to be “on strike”. In this muted, inactive form, they engage as much with painterly representations of the body, as with archetypal costumes and history of fashion; while in their activated, embodied state, they transform into wearable and portable surfaces, much like a collective skin. They are softened, through movement, into breathing architectural elements that shape space through a synchronized and directed kinetic flow based on spatial partition, constantly transforming how a given architecture and rhythm is experienced, used and conceived by the public.

A series of polaroid prints and graphic notations accompany these central pieces through a rhythmic deployment in the gallery’s space, revealing traces and studies from Papadimouli's activations of these same sculptures in collaboration with performers and audiences. Using the scale of the human body to measure reality, the drawings in the "Relational Cartography" series deploy choreographies of collective movement made possible by these sculptures. The geometric backdrop made of assemblages of pink and blue millimeter paper references the grid as the foundation of modernist abstraction, while the circular, interconnected, multidirectional patterns of movement drawn by the artist introduce elements of contingency and unpredictability, embracing the improvisational and spontaneous aspects of collective experimentation to question the margin of free movement in everyday spaces. Grounding the ensemble in the artist's study of the body in relation to space, the Polaroid photographs document activations of Papadimouli’s sculptures, where movement expands the visual and spatial boundaries of the body in bursts of spectacular deployment like wings or feathers.

With a background in architecture and visual arts, Nefeli Papadimouli works across media, from participatory actions in public space to sculpture, photography, drawing, costume design, moving image, installation and performance. Inspired by phenomenology, feminism and contemporary political theory, her proto-architectural approach explores spatial configurations of distance as essential elements in processes of social conflict, negotiation and equilibrium. Informed by utopian architectural and artistic avant-gardes as much as contemporary dance, her series of modular, connective, elastic sculptures function at once as prompts for collective movement and architectures of assembly, investigating the interdependence of cultural and natural forms and exploring the notion of space through its relationship to the body. 

Nefeli Papadimouli (b. Athens, 1988) lives between Paris and Athens. She holds a BA from the School of Architecture of the National Polytechnical University of Athens, followed by an MFA at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Beaux-Arts de Paris, and an MFA from Le Fresnoy-Studio National. Papadimouli was the recipient of the Artworks Fellowship from Stavros Niarchos Foundation (Greece, 2018); the Prix Dauphine pour l’Art contemporain (France, 2019);  the Prix Matsutani (2022), and the Prix Pierre Cardin of the Académie des Beaux Arts for sculpture (2023). 

Her recent solo exhibitions include Étoiles partielles, cur. Claire LeRestif, Le Crédac, Ivry sur Seine (France, 2023); Relational Cartographies, cur. Keren Detton & Janny Devrient, Ter Posterie, Rosealare (Belgium, 2022) and Build the World of the You - ACTE, Le Concept, École d’Art du Calasisis, Calais (France, 2021). She has participated in institutional group exhibitions such as How To Hold Your Breath - 9th Asian Art Biennial (Taiwan, 2024);  Crossing The Water - 17th Lyon Biennale (France, 2024);  La Nuit venue, on y verra plus claire, cur. Anna Milone, Centre Culturel Jean Cocteau, Les Lilas (France, 2024); Etre Forêts, Fondation MABA, Nogent-sur-Marne (France, 2024); Entre là, Casa Conti - Fondation Ange Leccia, Corsica, (France, 2023); Douze preuves d’amour, Révélations Emerige 2022, cur. Gaël Charbau, Paris (France, 2022); Transmeare, cur. Ida Soulard & Ulla von Brandenburg, FRAC Picardie, Amiens (France, 2022); Playground Festival, M Museum Leuven, (Belgium, 2021);  Archipel - quatres residences, mille experiences, cur. Keren Detton, FRAC Grand Large, Dunkerque (France, 2021); Still Here Tomorrow, cur. Dimitra Nikolou & Panos Giannikopoulos, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens (Greece, 2019);  Imaginary homes, 6th Biennale of Contemporary Art, cur. Syrago Tsiara, MOMUS Museum, Thessaloniki, (Greece, 2015); CAUTION! SLIPPERY GROUND,  cur. Yelta Köm,  Istanbul Modern, Istanbul (Turkey, 2015).