ATOPOS cvc, in collaboration with the Benaki Museum, present the exhibition Landscapes in Clay · The Art of the Quotidian by Eleni Vernadaki, curated by Vasilis Zidianakis.

During her sixty-year artistic career, Eleni Vernadaki (b. 1933) devoted herself to ceramic objects and sculptural forms, approaching clay not only as a medium but also as expressive vehicle of artistic ingenuity, meaning, and cultural practice. She also created large-scale ceramic compositions mounted on the walls of emblematic public and private buildings, which effectively challenged conventional hierarchies between applied and “fine” arts.

The exhibition “Landscapes in Clay · The Art of the Quotidian” presents a small yet representative selection of ceramic vessels, through which Vernadaki expanded the boundaries of ceramic art both in morphology and technique, highlighting the importance of the dialogue between art and the general audience. Sometimes austere and Doric, at other times exuberantly decorated with color, dynamic forms, and textured surfaces, the ceramic artifacts on display constitute bold expressions of ceramic modernism and “places” where art and everyday life intersect.

The exhibition also features Vasilis Zidianakis’ work 1095°C, a two-part motion graphics video whose title reflects the exact temperature at which Eleni Vernadaki fires her ceramic pieces.

The first part, titled 1095°C Out in Space (2016), was created in the context of the publication of her monograph. In this piece, the ceramic forms are detached from their materiality and functionality, and are reinscribed into an imaginative cosmological environment: plates transform into planets, floating teapots drift off into space and sculptural satellites travel among interstellar dust made of clay fragments.

The second part, 1095°C Down to Earth (2025), created specifically for the current exhibition, reintroduces the ceramic works into a temporally and geologically indeterminate earthly setting—either primordial or futuristic—from which human life is absent. Ceramics are transformed into fantastical plant species, creating landscapes of uncanny vegetation, within which a giant, crawling dragon dominates, activating mythological and ecological symbolisms.

The motion graphics video highlights the fairytale-like substratum of Eleni Vernadaki’s art, focusing on the relationship between materiality and imaginative cosmogony, crystallized in ceramic form, fired at 1095°C.

#BenakiXVernadaki

EXHIBITION CONTRIBUTORS
Organisation: Benaki Museum
Curation: Vassilis Zidianakis
Coordination: Inge Nikolaou
Installation of Exhibits: Benaki Museum
Conservation Department: Sofia Tossiou, Vasiliki Apostolopoulou
Graphic Design: Theano Petridou, We Design
Lighting Design: Eleftheria Deko
Communication: Nicoletta Menti
Press Office: Athina Isaia, Vasileia Karaiskou
Technical Support: Technical Support Department
Security Supervision: Christos Kalogeropoulos
Plexiglass: Nikos Petropoulos
Colouring: Efthimios Makarounas

VIDEO CONTRIBUTORS
Concept & Creative Direction: Vassilis Zidianakis
Art Direction: Em Kei
3D-2D Design & Animation: Haris Laloussis
Music & Audio Design: Manolis Manoussakis
Photography: Leonidas Kourgiantakis & Dimitris Giavasis
Audio Editing: Kostas Stylianou
Photo Editing: Giorgos Lyssikatos