Antony Gormley SIGHT

Island Of Delos,
Greece

SIGHT, organised and commissioned by NEON, is a site-specific exhibition in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades on the Greek archaeological island of Delos and its Museum. It marks the first time that an artist will take over the archaeological site of Delos, since the mythological island was inhabited over 5,000 years ago. SIGHT is specially conceived to resonate with the statuary, temples, squares, vistas and the topography of the island. In this installation, including four specially commissioned new works, Antony Gormley repopulates the island with 29 life-size iron ‘bodyforms’ made during the last 20 years. Restoring a human presence and creating a physical path connecting to the mythology and human activity of Delos’s past, he invites us to use its remains as a site for imagining a human future. Gormley’s approach evokes a radical reassessment of the traditional statue or totem of the pre-modern world that once adorned public squares, temples and private dwellings but which are now absent, sequestered instead inside museums. The exhibition is curated by Iwona Blazwick OBE, Director, Whitechapel Gallery and Elina Kountouri, Director NEON.

Image: Antony Gormley, SIGHT, at the archaeological site of Delos Island, 2019. Photograph © Oak Taylor Smith | Courtesy NEON; Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades and the artist.