Yalenios

Makis Yalenios, originally from Northern Greece, has lived in France since 1991 and has been based in Strasbourg since 2012. His initial education in the humanities, combined with his theater practice and his artistic approach as a visual artist, enrich one another, enabling him to explore the intersection of humanity and its inner abysses. Through the use of ready-made, mass-produced objects, he delves into the processes of repetition, revisitation, and sketches forms of repair. By engaging with subjective memory, particularly through immersive installation setups, he offers a confrontation with what remains incomplete, flawed, and missing—a face-to-face with our "desolate landscapes." His own writings sometimes become an integral part of the work. He pays close attention to "the little things" of everyday life, like scraps of old wallpaper or frayed fabrics. In his collages and mixed media techniques, these elements evoke the traces of a fading life, emphasizing the necessity to preserve and care for their disappearance. He reflects on the abysses and clearings to which our wounds lead us—what they break and simultaneously transform within us, often unbeknownst to us, and sometimes even reinvent.

Makis Yalenios began his exhibitions in the Rhône-Alpes region, in Ardèche and Drôme des Collines. In recent years, he has created site-specific works in temples, churches, and cloisters in Alsace, at the Contemporary Sacred Art Center in Lille, and in February 2025 in Venice. His stay in Japan allowed him to learn the art of making washi paper and the practice of Kintsugi. He is currently preparing a solo exhibition in Wissembourg in June 2025 and is considering a collaboration with a Japanese artist. He is eager to share his work more broadly.