Dakis Joannou’s impulse for design (and objects)

November is the last month to visit the exhibition “The system of objects – The Dakis Joannou collection reloaded by Andreas Angelidakis”, now on show at the Deste Foundation in Nea Ionia, Athens.

Maria Cristina Didero, one of the curators, introduces Conceptual Fine Arts to the show, choosing some highlights and emphasising the fervent passion for the “objects” of the famous contemporary art collector.

“It happened that I have been following with keenest interest the radical design collection of Mr. Dakis Joannou for years. It is an amazing group of pieces that he has been silently collecting for himself, meaning that they were allowed – sometimes and part of them – to inhabit his homes, his boat, his office and over all, his mind.

The collection covers a well determined period in time, let’s say when the Radical Movements were at best in the second half of the ‘60s to the beginning of the ‘70s – without scouting and peering into some contemporary pieces. It is all about a precise period of time and its different declinations: in 1968 Dakis Joannou, a student of architecture in Rome, returned to his home country having absorbed the first quivering of freedom and the power of the new spirit that defined creativity. “The Utopia was born and died in that same year”, he recalled.

What we have shown for the first time this year at the Deste Foundation is a part of his “private” design collection, more known now as the Joannou’s Radical Design Furniture Collection: from 1970 Ettore Sottsass Mobili Grigi in fiberglass painted grey (one table with six chairs upholstered in black vinyl) to the Elledue Bed (1969) and the plastic set of chairs titled Zocker (1972) by Luigi Colani (given by the author as a gift to the collector), a De Paz, D’Urbino Lomazzi’s prototype of Joe Chair (1969), the group of design pieces which are placed side by side to the contemporary art ones (and the fashion ones) tell a personal story born from a deep passion and personal experience.

The dialogue between them all makes the show “System of objects” a portrait of Joannou’s methodically fabulous hunger towards knowledge and creativity at large, being it an evening dress by Viktor&Rolf, a giant statue by David Altmejd or a Safari couch by Archizoom.”

November 8, 2019