Ostracism

Fragments of exile, identity, and digital silence

This series reimagines the ancient Greek ritual of ostracism as a contemporary language of exclusion, identity fracture, and symbolic absence. Through concrete shards, broken screens, hashtags, and archaic inscriptions, Giogos reflects on political alienation, the Greek brain drain, and post-digital loneliness. Each object becomes an ostrakon — a vessel for names, losses, erased citizens. Blending classical references with technological waste and performative gestures, Ostrakism questions whether exile today is imposed by votes or algorithms, and whether we still recognize the fragments of our shared identity.

#gnothisauton

2017
Concrete, acrylic paint
Variable dimensions

A single broken ostrakon bears the ancient Delphic maxim “Γνώθι σαυτόν” rendered in Greeklish as #gnothisafton. The work references social media language and the superficial nature of digital identity construction. Fragmented and hashtagged, the shard questions whether true self-knowledge is still possible in a world of curated personas and algorithmic distraction.

300 Ostraka Ostracism of the Greek

2017
Concrete, acrylic paint
Variable dimensions

Referencing the ancient democratic practice of ostracism, this installation consists of 300 fragments — one for each seat in the Greek Parliament. Each ostrakon bears a variant of the name “Greek” (Έλλην, Πέλασγος, Γρεκός), inscribed in archaic-inspired letterforms (e.g., inverted Λ, double-bar Η), as a nod to both historical calligraphy and symbolic deformation. Made from salvaged concrete slabs and wall paint from the artist’s home, the work comments on political alienation and the contemporary “brain drain” — re-enacting the ritual of exile upon a generation of citizens.

#NOT DADA JUST DATA

2020
Computer screen, acrylic paint
Variable Dimensions

Painted on a discarded computer screen, this wordplay piece draws a sharp contrast between the historical avant-garde of Dada and today’s data-driven creative culture. By replacing craft with code and spontaneity with algorithms, the work critiques the migration of artistic intention from embodied gesture to quantified presence. At once ironic and elegiac, it questions whether we still make art — or merely process information.

Acropolis is Dead

2017
Concrete block, stencil
20 × 40 × 15 cm

A brutalist object with a stenciled proclamation — ACROPOLIS IS DEAD. This work operates as a conceptual gesture critiquing both the erosion of democratic ideals in modern Greece and the degradation of Athenian architectural identity. Using the most mundane urban material — the cement block — the piece speaks to the collapse of neoclassical continuity and the dominance of incoherent, profit-driven construction in the capital.

e-Ostrakism

2021
Rock, i phone
Virable dimensions

A contemporary ostrakon for the archaeology of the future. As a continuation of the Ostracism of the Greek series, this work addresses digital-era social isolation with a focus on the modern Greek subject. The word “ΈLLIΝΑ” is scratched onto the screen of the artist’s old iPhone using a stone shard collected from the slopes of the Acropolis — echoing both the graffiti scrawled on trains and the ancient ritual of inscribing names on ostraka. The work bridges time, medium, and identity, marking exile as both physical and symbolic in the post-digital condition.

Alphabetic Stream

2021
Eco-biodegradable pigment on stone (proposed)
Unrealized conceptual land art proposal

Developed during a one-month residency in Sofia (ECHO II – Traditions in Transition), this conceptual project proposed a large-scale land art intervention at the Boyana River of Stones on Vitosha Mountain — a unique glacial stone flow known for its natural symbolism of geological memory and slow transformation.

The project envisioned the site as an open-air palimpsest, with each boulder marked by a single letter from the Greek, Bulgarian, or early Cyrillic alphabets. Each rock would become an ostrakon — a vessel of meaning, exile, and cultural identity. The work sought to reflect on language as a shared yet fractured heritage, suggesting coexistence through typographic coexistence.

Although the research was completed and the proposal formally submitted, the project was not realized due to bureaucratic constraints imposed by the Municipality of Sofia.