Yiannis Melanitis

Yiannis Melanitis (Γιάννης Μελανίτης) is a Greek conceptual artist, sculptor, painter, installation artist and digital artist born in Athens in 1967. In 2016, he was elected assistant professor at the Sculpture Department of the Athens School of Fine Arts. Melanitis' work uses hybrid art forms initially with concepts from philosophy and the sciences. His research focuses on the role of information on the arts considering "Information as the New Conceptualisation".

In 2016–2017 he presented at the TTT Conference a butterfly with his DNA inserted in it, Corfu, the Leda Melanitis Transgenic Butterfly, a new species containing his own gene. This Leda Melanitis transgenic butterfly was exhibited at MACRO Museum of Contemporary Arts, Rome. He has published essays on art and philosophy in English and Greek. His texts are translated into English, Italian, Korean, and Greek, and his work has become a subject of criticism in international editions such as "Art Tomorrow " (Ed.L.Smith), Leonardo, MIT, Lomonosov Moscow University by Seung-Chol Shin, Mario Savini, A.Kaniari, Magdalena Lange and others. Interviews and reviews of his work in online art magazines include Interalia Magazine, Postinerface, Artshake, and CLOT magazine. He was the organiser and one of the main exhibitors of an exhibition at the Andreas Syngros hospital in Athens with the subject: Dermatographies, Art meets Medicine.Ekathimerini.gr: Art meets Medicine Article by Mathew Tsimitakis (Η τέχνη συναντιέται με την ιατρική) (Ματθαιου Τσιμιτακη). Quotation: "Με θέμα το δέρμα, «αυτό το ανθρώπινο σύνορο, το γεωγραφικό τέλος του σώματός μας και την αρχή της επαφής μας με το περιβάλλον», όπως έλεγε αργότερα ο επιμελητής γλύπτης Γιάννης Μελανίτης, η ομάδα των εικαστικών, δούλεψε επί έξι μήνες προκειμένου να παράγει έργα «που θα αγκάλιαζαν και θα σύστηναν στο κοινό τα κέρινα αυτά ομοιώματα», χρονικό μιας ολόκληρης εποχής." Translation of quotation 1: "With the skin as its subject, this human boundary, "the geographic end of our body and the beginning of our contact with the environment" as it was told later by the coordinator and artist Yannis Melanitis, the team of the artists worked for six months so that they could produce works which "would embrace and introduce to the public these wax figures", a chronicle of an era." Quotation 2 "Το θέαμα είναι εντυπωσιακό. Εκατοντάδες γιατροί και επισκέπτες συνωθούνται στις τρεις αίθουσες του μουσείου, τον διάδρομο και τον προαύλιο χώρο του δίπλα σε γκροτέσκ κέρινα γλυπτά μέσα σε παλιές σκονισμένες ξύλινες προθήκες, εικόνες, σαν βγαλμένες από ταινία του Ντ. Κρόνεμπεργκ. Ομως το κοινό δεν πτοείται. Απολαμβάνει το κρασί των εγκαινίων, δείχνοντας απόλυτα εξοικειωμένο με αυτόν τον τρόμο, που γνωρίζουμε ότι σε μεγάλο βαθμό ανήκει πια σε άλλη εποχή." Translation of quotation 2: "The show is impressive. Hundreds of medical doctors and visitors cram the three halls of the museum, the corridor and its court near grotesque wax figures inside old dusty wooden frames, images as if taken from a film by David Cronenberg. But the public does not lose confidence. They savour the wine of the inauguration, showing complete familiarity with this horror, which we all know belongs in another era" Quotation 3 "Λίγο πιο κάτω, ο Μελανίτης παρουσιάζει μια επιφάνεια από σιλικόνη, υαλοβάμβακα και ροζ χρώμα, μια κατασκευή που θυμίζει αεροφωτογραφία νησιού, ή τμήμα δέρματος ενος αλλόκοτου πλάσματος." Translation of quotation 3: "A little further down, Melanitis presents a surface from silicone, fibreglass and pink colour, a construction which reminds one of an aerial view of an island, or a piece of skin of a bizarre creature" Quotation 4 "Δεν θέλαμε να παραβιαστεί ο ρόλος του μουσείου ή να κάνουμε επίδειξη ισχύος της τέχνης πάνω στην ιατρική απεικόνιση. Οι τεχνίτες του μουσείου ήταν στην πραγματικότητα εξαιρετικοί καλλιτέχνες χωρίς καλλιτεχνική φιλοδοξία», λέει ο Γιάννης Μελανίτης. Τόσο ο ίδιος όσο και ο Απόστολος Καραστεργίου, επιμελητές της έκθεσης, είναι δυο νέοι εικαστικοί οι οποίοι έχουν ασχοληθεί με θέματα όπως η σύγχρονη εικόνα του σώματος, η βίο-τέχνη (bioart) και η ιατρική εικονογραφία και γι’ αυτό επιλέχθηκαν από το νοσοκομείο." Translation of Quotation 4: "We did not want the role of the Museum to be violated or to make a show of force of Art versus the medical illustrations. The museum technicians were, in reality, excellent artists without artistic ambitions" says Yannis Melanitis. Both he as well as Apostolos Karageorgiou, coordinators of the exhibit, are two young artists who have been involved with subjects such as the modern image of the body, bioart and medical illustrations and this is the reason they were selected by the hospital." He was selected by the hospital to coordinate the exhibition and showcase his art because of his involvement and experience in exhibiting images of the modern human body, bioart and medical illustrations.

Works and exhibitions
His latest works include the Leda Melanitis Transgenic butterfly (a genetically modified insect), Museu D. Diogo de Sousa, Braga, Portugal, Hunter of Light/ Hermes Tychomachos, Kryographia / Anatomy of Writing installation at Museu Nacional of Brasil, Hy-Brasil exhibition at Bibliothèque National Brasil, DE GEOMETRIE VAN RHETORIEK, at the Gallo Romeins Museum −2012, Belgium, the interactive performance installation and exhibition called Kryographia (The Conductivity of Writing), which presents writing as a metaphor for absolute coldness, in Athens, 14 October 2010. An extended form of the work Kryographia was presented at Kryographia/ On the Way Towards Iceland, Megaron, Thessaloniki Concert Hall (2011). Another conceptual exhibition was AN IMAGINARY MUSEUM OF AN IMAGINARY ARTIST /NAO ME TOQUE, Bibliothèque Nationale de Brasilia, (6 to 27 October 2011). Dans Le Jardin d’ Epicure / Les elements comme des metaphors, a personal exhibition at the University Hospital of Geneva, Switzerland, in March 2006. Also, Pleasure Machine which was performed at The Eighth New York Digital Salon in Madrid, and at the Blue Stage in the House of World Cultures in Berlin. Also Touch Terrain at the Monaco Dance Forum in Monaco, a multi-user interactive environment in 2006 and performance videos at Generative Arts, Milano, 2005. In March 2008, he installed a sculpture exhibition at E31 Gallery, Athens called Odysseus as Faust. At Depo Darm gallery, Athens, he exhibited works referring to the "conceptualisation at a minimum point" of an artwork, introducing probability through "artistic-math equations".

Texts about his work have been written several writers, including Mario Savini in several editions, by Assimina Kaniari, by M. Digoni, Rea Thönges-Striggari, Prof Dr Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes, Edward Lucie-Smith (Art Tomorrow), editions Terrail; First edition (October 2002)), N. Adamou, Sozita Goudouna text on Leda Melanitis at Posthuman New York, December 2019) and I. Maglinis. Melanitis exhibited at the first Biennale of Modern Art in Thessaloniki, organised by the State Museum of Modern Art of Greece. He was one of the artistic directors of an exhibition dedicated to Joseph Beuys in Greece. As an artist, Melanitis also exhibited his own art at the same exhibition. He exhibited his work at the Eugenides Foundation. He also exhibited at the second Performance Festival of Athens. Melanitis' works are also hosted in digital libraries in databases of visual art such as Gratin, and The Database of Virtual Art.

Arts writer
Melanitis has written articles for the periodicals Artzine and Futura in both English and Greek. His text on Bioart was published in Τέχνη, πολιτισμός, παγκοσμιοποίηση. , and also at the International Conference on Virtual Storytelling, ICVS, held in Avignon, France, in September 2001, (edited by Olivier Balet, Gérard Subsol, Patrice Torguet), ISBN 978-3-540-42611-0, editions Springer.