Biography
Electros (aka Babis Vekris) was born in Tripoli, Arcadia, on August 10, 1950. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Athens, where he was involved with collages and constructions, and was influenced by the surrealism of Giorgio de Chirico.
In 1979 he moved to New York, in 1981 he received a sponsorship from Ford Foundation and a year later began his studies at New York Studio School with a scholarship. Until 1985 he attended design courses, painting, sculpture, architecture, stained glass, fresco, design for scenes and costumes and history of art of 19th and 20th century.
He was fascinated by the progress in technology and electronic media, which was crucial for his evolution. He presents series of artworks such as The Nuclear Age (1982), Cosmogonia (1983) and Utopia (1984), and focuses his interest especially on the connection between arts, technology and science, e.g. Without Gravity (1988), Silicon Season (1990) and The Digital Series (1991). Especially in the artworks of the last series he studies the consequences of technology in humans, with main subject a classic male torso in a complex background from digital systems (eg The Digital Man II, The Toxicated Man). It is also the period when he adopts the name Electros and the microcircuits, adaptors, neon lamps, metal spheres and all kinds of technological devices and materials are used as raw materials in his artworks.
Electros lists his inventions, often utopian or fictional, in a set of designs, some of them are carried out as sculptures, wall compositions, installations and environments. His works are scheduled, in order their complex internal mechanisms to operate with rhythm, repetition and periodicity in counterpoint, so that the viewer can be surprised, as each time he will discover a new composition. This is a kind of kinetic art based on photokinetic and sound effects, as well as on electronic and digital technology. His inventions include also some utopian bioclimatic architectural constructions.
The work of Electros is oriented on issues that concern the future of humanity, given the dominance of technology over nature, it also is oriented on society and art, and includes references to philosophy and mythology (Laokoon Group, 2004), space exploration (Space in fraction, 1996, On suspense, 1999), advanced extraterrestrial civilasations (Celestial Visitor, 1996, Digital Avatar, 2004, Sidereal spectacle, 2004), robotics (Talos, 1998; Intuitive Navigator, 2006) and science in general (The binary era, 1995, The Tesla Project, 2008, Scientific Remedy, 2007, Frozen in Time, 2008), as well as natural phenomena and the environment (Electronic Rain, 1995, Eco-sphere, 1999, Arti-Physical, 2007).
With his almost fetishistic use of technological means, Electors aims to shape a new aesthetic, which will be aligned with modern technological culture, without being deprived of a playful mood. He does not aim to develop a completely new perception of technological dominance, but one which will not devalue social values and humanity, on the contrary it will express the social values and humanity, as suggested for example in “The proportions of the human body” (1996).
Electros artworks have been presented in USA, Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, Mexico and Greece, they can also be found in many public and private collections, as well as in public spaces.
Xenia Giannouli
Art Historian