Vasilis Papageorgiou
TO RIVER
a cura di Sofia Baldi Pighi
Vasilis Papageorgiou, 18:23, 2023. Ceramic, steel, 43 x 27 x 2 cm. Courtesy Callirrhoë and the artist
“In English there is no verb ‘to river’. But what could be more of a verb than a river?” Starting from Robert Macfarlane’s words, To River seeks to regenerate the bond between Tredozio’s community and its river, activating the shores while reflecting on nature’s fragility and human intervention.
Once upon a time, there was a Romagnolo tablecloth that one day set out on a journey. It left the hands of a woman from Faenza and arrived in Athens, in the studio of Vasilis Papageorgiou. The project TO RIVER brings it back to Tredozio, beside the Tramazzo stream, an emotionally significant place for the local community. Bathed in copper, a new metallic skin clings to the fabric, while flowers and herbs seem to re-emerge, as if the tablecloth were not covering the meadow but revealing its hidden force.
Papageorgiou tears the tablecloth away from the iconography of Italian tourism and restores it to an intimate dimension: a used object, marked by wine stains and by the traces of the many dinners and lunches it has accompanied. Beside the sculpture, two rust-printed flags carry the table’s patterns into the sky above Tredozio.
TO RIVER is a work in motion, like the stream it approaches. Everything flows: the tablecloth crossing Europe, the hands that have carried it, the chain of affections that made it possible, the copper oxidizing and changing color. And you — are you beginning to flow too?
Thanks to: the Mayor and residents of Tredozio, Mariana Antzoulatou, Apostolis Sorolopidis, Dimitris Philippakis, Danai Giannoglou, Alan Signani, Marco Peroni, UNA Gallery, Peromatto, Habitat and its community.
Vasilis Papageorgiou (1991) is an artist living and working in Athens. He has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad. In 2024 he presented a large-scale solo exhibition at the Salzburger Kunstverein, in Austria. In 2023, he was a resident at LUMA Arles, in France and in 2022 he was awarded the Matteo Viglietta Award in Turin, Italy. His works is included in several collections, including the Onassis Foundation and the Collezione La Gaia. Ηe is the co-founder of Enterprise Projects, a project space functioning independently and periodically since September 2015 in Athens.
Sofia Baldi Pighi (1995) is a curator based between Milan and Malta. Since 2017, her research has explored the intersection of contemporary art, historical heritage, and militant politics through exhibitions, public programs, and educational workshops for public and private institutions. She was Artistic Director of the Malta Biennale 2024, Insulaphilia, and part of the curatorial team of the Italian Pavilion at the 14th Gwangju Biennale (South Korea). She is a member of IKT – International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art and Art Workers Italia. For Una Boccata d’Arte in Emilia-Romagna, she curated the projects by Raghad Saqfalhait in Travo (2023), Sóley Ragnarsdóttir in Berceto (2024), and Vica Pacheco in Bagnara di Romagna (2025).
Tredozio lies among the hills of the Tramazzo Valley and encompasses centuries of history and medieval charm. Through its narrow streets echo the names of poets and painters such as Maria Virginia Fabroni, Faustino Perisauli, and Silvestro Lega. The forests of the Casentinesi Forests National Park, of which Tredozio is part, offer an extensive network of trails winding among monumental trees, ancient cart tracks, and the Monte Busca Volcano—the smallest in Italy—also known as the “Devil’s Hole,” a peculiar phenomenon where a flame fueled by natural gas emerges from underground. The geological character of the area is shaped by the Tramazzo River, with which the territory has always maintained a deep and meaningful relationship.