Greece at the Venice Biennale: An interview to Andreas Angelidakis
What happens when architecture becomes soft, monuments become places to rest, and history is something to be questioned rather than simply preserved? These are some of the questions at the heart of the work of Andreas Angelidakis (Athens, 1968), one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary art and architecture. Trained as an architect, Angelidakis has spent his career blurring the boundaries between built space, digital culture, memory and performance, creating immersive environments that invite audiences to participate rather than simply observe. Rich in references to classical antiquity, pop culture and the internet, his work combines intellectual depth with an unexpected sense of play. For the 2026 Venice Biennale, he represents Greece with Escape Room, a site-specific installation that transforms the Greek Pavilion into a fluid landscape of "soft ruins", where visitors are encouraged to sit, wander and rethink the spaces—both physical and mental—we inhabit. We met him in Venice to talk about architecture, history, uncertainty and the quiet power of softness.
Andreas Angelidakis
Mara Sartore – Your exhibition is titled Escape Room. Traditionally, an escape room is a place you try to get out of as quickly as possible, but your pavilion seems to invite the opposite: visitors slow down, sit, browse, even dance. What kind of "escape" were you imagining? And from what, exactly, are we trying to escape?
Andreas Angelidakis – Escape rooms are time-based performances with chapters and levels, like a video game. I was mostly interested in the catchy title, which allows for sensitive historical data to be treated as a puzzle but not a weapon. The escape suggesting is a way towards a higher level of consciousness, whether that comes from reading history books or working on yourself.
MM – One of the most striking aspects of your work is that monuments become soft. Visitors can sit on them, move them, almost embrace them. What does softness allow us to do that a traditional monument never could?
AA – Chill-out, which is what travelers of the Grand Tour in the 1800s did when they encountered antiquities in the wild.
Softness allows for pause, yet its ephemeral because it can change shape. But I’m not proposing better monuments, what I’m proposing is a softness towards experience or history. The space suggests nightclub, but softly also prison, television stage, horror amusement.
MM – Your work constantly moves between ancient history and contemporary digital culture. At first sight, they seem worlds apart, yet in Escape Room they feel surprisingly close. What connects Plato's cave to the way we experience reality today?
AA – Today’s hard to describe, by the time this text appears today will have changed again. A couple of weeks ago Google replaced “search” with “Ask”.
Your Google search became an AI query, which is a radically different Internet. Today your search is more controlled than ever.
Plato’s text has a long history of being illustrated, first in the period of engraving and later on and virtual reality and electronic arts, like the CAVE at SISSGRAPH in 1992.
MM – Although you trained as an architect, your work seems less interested in buildings themselves than in the way people live, meet and interact within them. Looking back, do you feel you've stopped designing architecture—or have you simply expanded your idea of what architecture can be?
AA – One could say I escaped Architecture, but I still design buildings in my sleep. When I say buildings I usually mean also environments, the beach can be a building.
But my efforts haven’t been in the direction of defining my practice, but rather expanding it to whichever way feels more natural in the moment. Architecture training gives you the advantage of applying the thinking to everything.
MS – Both Greece and Venice live with an extraordinary historical legacy. Their beauty is admired around the world, but they are also places where history is constantly interpreted, restored and reinvented. Did working on the Greek Pavilion in Venice change the way you think about your own relationship with history?
AA – The history of the building did the guiding of the research, the pavilion was designed like a political souvenir, and exchanged for a Casa d’Italia in Athens. I considered those buildings to be sisters, both their experiences came into play in the historical narrative game.
But exhibiting in the greek pavilion for me, was like coming home. I have seen the pavilion so many times with artists I admire and it’s truly an honor to be part of this legacy.
MM – Your work reminds us that nothing is fixed—not architecture, not history, not even identity. At a time when so much around us feels polarised and rigid, what gives you hope today?
AA – Rigid worlds breaking.
MS – Your installations invite people to sit together, rest, browse books, talk and spend time. In a world where we're increasingly encouraged to move quickly and consume experiences, was it important for you to create a space that simply allows people to be together?
AA – Those decisions where based on my own Venice experience, the Greek pavilion is at the far end of the Giardini and visitors are very often tired, so offering a place to have a pause before continuing felt very organic to the experience. The pause doesn’t come in the form of a Zen room, but a bombastic nightclub, an aggressive and hopefully sexy way to grab your attention, offer what appears to be a break in the exhibition.
Credits:
1. Andreas Angelidakis. Credits Vassilis Karidis. Courtesy of the artist.
2. Andreas Angelidakis, Greek Pavilion 2026 – "Escape Room", Venice, 2026. Photo Ivan Erofeev.
3. Andreas Angelidakis, Greek Pavilion 2026 – "Escape Room", Venice, 2026. Photo Ivan Erofeev.
4. Andreas Angelidakis, Greek Pavilion 2026 – "Escape Room", Venice, 2026. Photo Ivan Erofeev.
5. Andreas Angelidakis, Greek Pavilion 2026 – "Escape Room", Venice, 2026. Photo Ivan Erofeev.
6. Andreas Angelidakis, Greek Pavilion 2026 – "Escape Room", Venice, 2026. Photo Ivan Erofeev.
7. 01 Study for an Escape Citizen (GRECIA), Andreas Angelidakis 2026.
8. Andreas Angelidakis, Greek Pavilion 2026 – "Escape Room", Venice, 2026. Photo Ivan Erofeev.
9. Andreas Angelidakis, Greek Pavilion 2026 – "Escape Room", Venice, 2026. Photo Ivan Erofeev.
